MORNING PENS BUZZ
Star center Evgeni Malkin won’t be wasting anytime to join Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL. Once the expected lockout becomes official at 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, Malkin will be joining Magnitogorsk as early as this weekend. Malkin who is due to make $9 million this season, will make around $5.85 million with Magnitogorsk if he were to play the whole season, a league source says.

The source says that Malkin’s $5.85 million salary is the max allowed to be paid based on his $9 million NHL salary for 2012-2013, per the guidelines put in place for locked out NHL players.
Malkin will be joined by best friend Sergei Gonchar as the agent for both players orchestrated a combo deal. The KHL released a statement this week saying that “only top-level foreign players can come to play in the Kontinental Hockey League,”. The league must still consider Sergei Gonchar a top level player.
According to the KHL, KHL rosters would be allowed to have six foreign-born players per club, with a limit of five foreign players named in the roster for each game.
Sidney Crosby is being pursued by clubs in Europe with multi-million dollar numbers being thrown around but getting insurance could lead to him staying on the sidelines for a while. It’s going to be extremely expensive for Crosby to get insured.