Latest Penguins Buzz on Martin, Malkin, & Scuderi

– What’s wrong with Paul Martin? Here’s a possible answer…..He’s getting old. Martin, 33, turns 34 this season and for a player not blessed with great speed, he’s not going to get any quicker, similar to Rob Scuderi. It remains to be seen whether Martin is an ideal fit in Johnston’s system and it will be interesting to see in coming months if the Penguins might have missed the best chance to move Martin this summer when his value was the highest around the draft.

– Mike Johnston will learn very early into his coaching tenure with the Penguins that if you want to protect a one goal lead with under a minute left, you don’t put Evgeni Malkin on the ice. Malkin got caught behind the Red Wings net on the Wings game tying goal as the Red Wings came up the ice 6 on 4. Extremely poor awareness from Malkin.

– Will the Flyers come calling about Rob Scuderi? The Flyers are ravished by injuries on the backend and in July 2013 offered Scuderi a 4 year deal in the neighborhood of $15 million.

Philadelphia and Pittsburgh were Scuderi’s two finalists and the Flyers are one of 14 teams on Scuderi’s approved trade list. Flyers GM Ron Hextall was assistant GM with the Kings when Scuderi was with LA.