Malkin leaving Pittsburgh: Sidney Crosby opens up like never before
Sidney Crosby went public Friday with a clear message to the Penguins front office: keep Evgeni Malkin in Pittsburgh.
The captain spoke to Sportsnet about his longtime running mate, and the timing is anything but accidental.
Pittsburgh's season ended Wednesday in Philadelphia, an overtime loss in Game 6 that closed out a 4-2 series defeat to the Flyers.
Malkin's contract is up. He turns 40 next season. And Crosby is not interested in pretending the decision is simple for Kyle Dubas.
You can hear the lobbying in that line. It's a captain putting weight on the table before management starts the offseason math.
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What the numbers say about Malkin's case to stay
The 39-year-old still produced. He finished the regular season with 19 goals and 42 assists in 56 games, a +13 rating, and 4 power play goals.
In the first round against Philadelphia, he chipped in 2 goals and 1 assist across 6 games, including a power play marker.
His cap hit was $3.8 million on the expiring deal. That's not a fourth-line number, and it isn't a top-six number either. It's somewhere in between, which is exactly why this gets complicated.
Pittsburgh finished 41-25-16 for 98 points and 10th overall, and got bounced in Round 1. The roster needs to get younger, faster, and harder to play against.
Bringing Malkin back at the right price makes sense. Bringing him back at the wrong price is how rebuilds get delayed by another year. Dan Muse, hired last June, inherits whatever Dubas decides.
Here's the rhetorical question hanging over Mario Lemieux's old room: do you bet on chemistry, or do you bet on the calendar? Crosby just told you which side he's on.
Malkin owns three Stanley Cups in this jersey. He has never played a regular-season NHL game in any other sweater. That history is real, and it doesn't show up in a cap chart.
But sentiment is a dangerous line item. Dubas has a 38-year-old captain still producing at a point per game and an Erik Karlsson contract eating $11.5 million through the back half of this decade.
Every dollar matters now. Every roster spot matters more.
The Penguins haven't said a word publicly about Malkin's future. Crosby just made sure they'll have to.
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MAY 1, 2026
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| Rasmus Dahlin | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Tage Thompson | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Zach Benson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gage Goncalves | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Josh Norris | 1 | - | 1 | |
| David Pastrnak | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Doan | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brandon Hagel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Noah Hanifin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Dominic James | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Peyton Krebs | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Hampus Lindholm | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mark Stone | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Pavel Zacha | - | 1 | 1 | |
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