If the past two days are an inclination, General Manager Ray Shero doesn’t like people going into the last year of their contact. Yesterday he extended Head Coach Dan Bylsma and his coaching staff to remain behind the bench of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Today, he inked arguably the second best player in all of the world to an eight-year, $76 million deal. While Evgeni Malkin may be the second best player in the world behind teammate Sidney Crosby, he’s now the richer of the two.
You didn’t really think the Penguins were going to let Malkin go, did you? Malkin was vocal on the point that he wanted to return to Pittsburgh. In fact, he took to Twitter this morning to announce the news.
“Today i agreed on new deal with Pens. I am so happy to stay here, in my favourite hockeytown! Thanks to you fans!”
In the scoring column, it was a down year for Malkin who had just nine goals in 31 games, but his creativity on the ice is second to none. Sometimes, it gets too creative as Malkin consistently takes penalties and commits turnovers that just makes you scratch your head.
Questionably, Shero asked Sidney Crosby if he was okay with Malkin making more money than him. It’s a rare thing to see the boss ask the player that, it can be seen as admirable. Shero also said that he approached Malkin the same way he does with every free agent. He asked Malkin, “Do you want to be here?”
I think we all know the answer to that one.
