Penguins/NHL
Malkin Talks go from being on Life Support to Progress?
Still have to see where this goes in the next 48 hours, but on the Evgeni Malkin front, deadlines always lead to movement one way or another and the Penguins regard things as being in a much better place today than where things stood 4-5 days ago after Tuesday’s To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
Penguins GM Ron Hextall didn’t just have a good poker face with the media on all this stingy term talk for months. It wasn’t until Tuesday night To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
With Letang, the Penguins moved into uncomfortable territory to stretch out the cap because they knew New Jersey and Seattle were coming with offers at the minimum of 4 years, $36 million, which was not a coincidence Letang’s deal settled at that in total money.
It’s been more telling the Penguins hand hasn’t been forced on the Malkin front as the team continues to operate there is no big time money offer coming for Malkin, especially among the three teams Malkin prefers, Florida, Los Angeles and the New York Rangers if he tests the market.
Of the three, To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
Word is the Penguins brass left Montreal with the same belief they had when they arrived in Montreal:
That the CaTo read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
Qualifying Offer Day
The Penguins were always going to qualify Kasperi Kapanen because the Qualifying Offer is $800,000 purely for asset management purposes than the Penguins seeing him as a big part of the short-term picture. If they don’t officially tender Kapanen by 5:00 p.m. it will be because they traded him earlier in the day.
Then there’s Danton Heinen who the Penguins like but not anywhere near what they feel he could get in arbitration.
Averaging 12:42 of ice time last season, Heinen tallied 18 goals and 33 points in 76 games for the Penguins. He also added 3 goals in post-season. Heinen’s an obvious replacement level player but proved value at $1.1 Million. The Penguins have been leaning towards not tendering Heinen due to team projections an arbitrator would award Heinen around $2.8 million, per a team source.
Heinen’s agent Allain Roy is leaving the To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
“It’s more a function of their cap space if they don’t tender [Than the team not being interested in retaining Heinen],” said To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
