Evgeni Malkin officially signs for five years and the Crosby-esque number.
All the experts had whispered gleefully such stories as:
- Pittsburgh can't afford him
- Malkin will demand close to cap max ($10-11 million) to consider the Pens
- Malkin wants a trade to get out of Crosby's "shadow"
- Malkin wants to "be the man" in a different team
- Malkin preferred a flashy market like LA to Pittsburgh
- Pittsburgh didn't like the way Malkin didn't "show up" for the SCF finals.
Well, once again they were proven wrong. Evgeni Malkin is certainly in any argument for the best offensive player in the game right now. And he's just about to turn 22, only going to get better as the big guy fills out and learns more about how to win faceoffs.
Great deal for the Penguins to get him in at the Crosby contract level too. They've got two "max" talents signed for the next five and six years respectively for just 76% of this year's max. Got to be happy about that.
2 comments:
Good for the Pens, but wouldn't you rather have had a deal that's one-year shorter (so that he'd still be an RFA at the end of it) or somewhat longer (to buy some of his UFA years)?
Regardless, great for you guys to know he's not going anywhere for a long time.
I suppose ideally you would hope they lock in for a 13 year contract that takes all the guesswork out of it. But that's not the most wise decision for a player trying to maximize earnings.
Plus a lot can change in 5-6 years, so I don't blame them for at least wanting to see what the Pens are like then and what the landscape of the league is as well.
I could be wrong, but I believe by signing 5 year deals to add on to the existing 3 year entry level contract both Crosby and Malkin signed on for one more year than the could have gotten to UFA. I believe it's based on your years of experience and age. So they may have done a little bit of a favor.
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