Trouble Brewing For Penguins Future?

For years in Pittsburgh the refrain has been that there's too many stars, not enough money. Last year they had to jettison talented two way forward Jordan Staal when his salary demands became too high, and there's a good chance this team will have to suffer through even more drastic changes. Soon.

The Penguins sit only $9 million under next year's cap, with key free agents Pascal Dupuis, Tyler Kennedy, Matt Cooke, Mark Eaton and Craig Adams still unsigned. That doesn't even include rental players Jarome Iginla, Brendan Morrow or Douglas Murray, none of whom they seem likely able to afford. Tomas Vokoun is going to need a new deal as well, or another backup goalie in his stead. With all those contracts expiring, plus resigning RFA's, it's simply impossible that the team that won the East this year will look the same next season.

Speaking of next season, the summer of 2014 looks even worse.
Only Sidney Crosby, James Neal, Paul Martin and Marc-Andre Fleury are signed through that season. All-star defenseman Kris Letang will need a hefty raise on his current 3.5 million dollar salary. Likely, players such as young Brandon Sutter, Matt Niskanen and Chris Kunitz will demand more money as well.

All of this though is a round-about way of getting to the elephant in the room: Evgeni Malkin. The former Hart and Art Ross trophy winner currently makes 8.7 million dollars and is considered by many to be among the top 5 scorers in the world. It's expected that he'll command at least that much money again and maybe more. Thought it doesn't seem realistic, the threat of him leaving for Russia combined with his unreal size and skill assure that he'll get paid. But can the Penguins really afford it? Do they even want to?

A ridiculous question to be sure, but there are some facts to consider. Pittsburgh finished first in the East this year, but that was largely thanks to feeding off of teams such as the Islanders, Devils, Rangers and Flyers. Look at what the Canucks have done in the Northwest division as a comparison. When they came up against a real test in the playoffs, the Boston Bruins, they suddenly find themselves looking very ordinary. It's clear from their performance against Boston that the Penguins do not quite belong in the upper echelon as they thought. The team needs to become deeper and stronger. They can't just rely on their scoring to get them through.

Which is where Malkin comes in. As great a talent as he is, they could command a king's ransom in any trade for him that could set the franchise for the next ten years. Additonially, they would rid themselves of the albatross which is a combined 18 million dollars for Malkin and captain Sidney Crosby. As it stands today, the Penguins are likely to have enough capspace for the 2014-15 season to physically get it done. Now, all this isn't me saying what I think will happen, in fact I think they'll probably end up resigning Malkin and as much of the core as they can. Surely general manager Ray Shero is a smarter hockey man than I. It's just that I think he's about to make a big mistake.