So let’s say for the sake of argument the rumors about the Penguins being willing to part with some of their superstars are true. What type of potential deal are we looking at?
Since he seems to be the subject of the hottest rumors, let’s start with Evgeni Malkin. Where would he go and what type of return would we get?
The prevailing winds swirling around No. 71 say he might be bound for a destination with warmer climes. Sunrise, Florida in particular. The Panthers reportedly intend to open the vault for Artemi Panarin, presently a Blue Jacket but soon to be a free agent.
Although they’re already blessed with an outstanding young center in Aleksander Barkov (96 points this season), word on the street is Florida GM Dale Tallon may be interested in importing Malkin to pair with Panarin.
The “Bread Man” and “Geno” would, indeed, be a potentially dazzling combination. However, is a Malkin-to-Florida deal feasible?
Commissioner Gary Bettman is expected to increase the salary cap to $83 million…$3.5 million above the current level. The Panthers presently have $3.2 million in existing cap space. If they allow their four existing UFAs to walk, it frees up $7.6 million in cap space, for a total of $14.3 million.
Assuming Panarin could command as much as $10 million per season, it would leave roughly $4.3 million to devote to adding Malkin and others.
The name most bandied about as a possible return for Geno is Vincent Trocheck, who happens to be a Pittsburgh native. Both players are under contract through 2021-22…Malkin at an AAV of $9.5 million and Trocheck at $4.75 million. The difference…$4.75 million…would eat up Florida’s remaining cap space and then some. So the Pens would likely need to take another player off the Panthers’ hands.
Glancing at Florida’s roster, no one really jumps out as a throw-in. The Pens are fairly well set on defense, so my guess is the second player would in all likelihood be a forward. Henrik Borgstrom, a lanky 21-year-old center who’s built somewhat along the lines of Geno (6’3” 185), earns $925,000. A skilled former first-round pick, he’s regarded as a diamond in the rough.
If such a deal were made, Trocheck would make an intriguing addition to the Pens. He’s no Malkin, that’s for sure. But he’s a skilled, versatile player who can also play wing. Although small in stature (5’10” 186) he isn’t afraid to get his nose dirty (over 100 hits in each of the past four seasons). He’s good on draws (51.1 percent for his career) and has decent possession numbers (51.9 percent Corsi). Soon to be 26, he’s just entering his prime.
Nor is he a slouch when it comes to scoring. Following consecutive seasons of 20-plus goals, Trocheck lit the lamp 31 times in 2017-18 and tallied 75 points…second only to Barkov on the Panthers. I need to point out that 13 of those goals (and 27 points) came on the power play.
Last season was a bit of a disappointment as the kid slipped to 10 goals and 34 points in 55 games. But he does possess some pedigree. And he does fit the mold of a classic number-two center.
I’d guess Pens GM Jim Rutherford would try to wrangle a draft pick or two from Tallon to sweeten the pot.
Bottom line. Malkin-for-Trocheck is hardly an apples-to-apples swap. But in all likelihood, JR will have difficulty securing equal value in return for his two-time scoring champ. At this stage of Geno’s career, nobody is going to give you a Barkov for him. And the aforementioned trade looks doable.
But does it make sense for the Pens?
Boy, that’s a tough one. Without Malkin, we don’t win three Cups. As recently as 2017-18, he still was among the game’s elite players (fourth in the NHL scoring race with 98 points). He began last season with guns a blazin’ before falling into a prolonged funk. It isn’t hard to imagine a motivated Geno enjoying a bounce-back season or two, especially if he feels he’s got something to prove.
Then again, his subpar campaign (a career-worst minus-25) could spell the beginning of the end.
You just don’t know.
Glad I’m not the one making these decisions.
Hi Rick,
A great what if article my friend.I too have heard about the speculation of maybe a possible Florida trade destination. What about a big d man like Ekblad, a first round pick and a great first round prospect like 20 year old right winger Owen Tippet ?
How about we add Kessel and they add left winger/center Jonathan Huberdeau to the mix above? Does it work? It becomes clearly a speculative exercise but it is fun to do. Never the less we do need significant changes to keep pace with the 12 to 15 teams in the league that are a head of us now.
JR has his work cut out for him this summer.
Thanks again for everything,
Jim
Hey Rick,
Good stuff!
Florida, at the moment only has $3.15 Million in cap space but going into the 2019-2020 season they have $17.55 Mil. So if they are content with just Panarin and Malkin, it may be doable on their part, but par of the rumors are that they also looking at signing Bobrovsky. I doubt they could swing all 3.
However, I also doubt they go after Bobrovsky until they decide what to do with Luongo and Reimers. Both are signed for 3 and 2 more years respectively.
As I have said before, if Malkin wants to go and Fla makes it worth our wild than okay make the trade but unless/until JR and Sullivan are sacrificed it will all go for not. Malkin and Kessel were the only 2 vet forwards that showed up for the playoffs. The rest of the skaters gave up on their coach. There may be a honeymoon period where everything will look okay, but before the season ends the team will be in the same spot it is now, only Crosby will be a year older.
Furthermore, not only did Malkin lead the team in scoring during the playoffs, a paltry 3 points but the team lead, he also came out of the gate all guns blazing. Unfortunately for the Penguins, Mr Sandpaper Personality Sullivan quickly found 2 new residents for his doghouse (Malkin and Kessel) once he got rid of Sprong.
Sullivan is the problem here.
Malkin (and Crosby) took a long term, fairly low contract, given the length of the contract, to give the team an opportunity to keep players around him. He is a team player. Sullivan, the whining Johnny Come Lately needs to go!
Hey coach,
I agree that Sullivan has to go, but I also agree that now is the time to make an honest assessment of just where we stand in the league. If you want a very sobering exercise, and you have lots of time on your hands, which I do these days, take a look at Cap Friendly NHL. I mean really look at it. It will list every player by position on the current rosters that make up the Cap. It will show you 8 defenseman deep and please take the time to click on each individual player and you’ll see their accomplishments in the league. It also has their physical dimensions as a player, and where and what position they were drafted.
Please take note.High First Round picks usually perform at a higher level than third,fourth, fifth rounders.Yes there exceptions but you can really tell By this information . It is startling Coach to see just how weak we are as an organization! Our team does not have enough talent to win it all again without major changes. Looking at the final 8 teams plus the 4 or 5 teams that were knocked out in the first round that all had more points than us during the regular season.
All those teams are much better built than we are! They have real talent in their minor system. We have very little.
We don’t need just two or three players to get back to the cup. We need a right winger for Crosby , We need a left winger and a right winger for Malkin. We need at least four new players in the bottom six for us to be competitive with the high level teams. We need to be faster and bigger.Our defense core needs at least three possibly or four Defenseman that are mobile, big, can play a physical defensive game as well as a mobile offensive game. Our goaltending needs at least one and possibly two upgrades.We have no depth at this position. Plus we need to re supply WBS pens as well.
The coaching staff speaks for itself. It has to change.
If you want to pretend that you’re going to be a real Cup contender , you need to address all these issues. When you read Cap Friendly it becomes very obvious that we are a team in decline and therefore we need to take action now.
Call me selfish, but as a proud Maritimer I want to see Sidney Crosby win one more cup in a penguins uniform before he retires there by solidifying his greatness in the game. I know I’m in the minority but I just think now is the time to make the changes necessary for a cup run in about 2 years.We get swept 4 games to nil Next year In the first round and our team will be worthless.
That’s the real risk.
Cheers
Jim
Hey Jim,
Actually, I have been looking thru Capfriendly a lot recently and will be posting something tonight or tomorrow early am.
Like you, I would love to see the Pens with not just Crosby but several other players on this roster, win at least another Cup. It is not that I don’t think that it would be impossible, I just think it will be hard to accomplish without Malkin, that is to say, unless they get a great deal in return for Malkin and Malkin is the one who wants to go.
Before looking at players, to return to the Cup, the team needs to get a new coach.
After that, there are several players who are actually bad for the team., not just expensive.
The worst player and the first that needs to go is Letang. I do like Letang and acknowledge that he can be a strong offensive force in a rover role, however, he is the player most responsible for the Penguins early exit in consecutive playoff years with his turnovers. Furthermore the team won the Cup without him, last time the won.
Maatta is next, I actually don’t think he is all that bad but here in Pgh I do think he has reached his end.
J Johnson would be next on my list. He may not be movable, but he keep the team from going very far.
4th, and it pains me to say this, Patric Hornqvist. This was another bad off season signing last year by JR. I don’t begrudge Hornqvist the money but for his age, size, style of play, and return potential, he too will be a millstone.
If you get rid of Sullie and those 4 players and Malkin still wants to leave and you get a return, then yes take it. But only if all of those conditions are met, Sullie is gone, Letang, Maatta, Johnson, and Hornqvist are gone, and most importantly, Malkin wants to leave.
But if you get rid of all thos players, you can go out and beat Fla to the punch and get Panarin for Malkin, here and that would be the strongest team the Pens put on the ice this century, 5 legitimate top 6 forwards (Crosby, Guentzel, Malkin, Kessel, and Panarin) with perhaps a young probable (McCann).
Defensively it would be addition by subtraction.
Well said Coach.
I agree with the other 5 players being moved as well. I assumed that Kessel, LeTang and Maatta were at the top of the list to be moved and Patrik and Jack were not far behind,although a bit more difficult to do.
With Malkin it would be to see what could you get as a fair return and of course if he would be willing to move. Otherwise do not do it.
I know from our many posts together you often admired the way the Montreal dynasty’s of the 60s and 70 s operated. Even though they were not my team, I too admired the way they were managed.They were indeed a class act. It was often said in the local media that NO ONE PLAYER WAS BIGGER THAN THE TEAM. Meaning everyone had a price if you were willing to pay for it. That is my belief as well.
I love Malkin and when he is on his game, only Mario was better.I believe that !! But still the GM should be open to all possibilities just as the late Sam Pollock did. If we had a significant cast of younger star players around Malkin and Crosby and we were winning today I would never have brought up this subject. But if we want to win again in the next 3 to 4 years before Sid retires we need to consider all options.
Great article coming up? Can not wait to read it…
Cheers.
Jim
Amen
BTW Jim,
I am stealing your idea at least to some extent. I have at least 1 post that I am working on comparing and contrasting this year incarnation of Penguins with some other teams that were more successful. Not sure when I will work through the 1st installment though.
Can not wait to read it Coach. I am sure it will be very revealing to many of your readers. 🙂
Hey Jim,
I won’t disagree. If we’re going to compete for another Cup, we need to move and move boldly. But breaking up a champion and getting the right mix of players in return takes courage, astute judgment…and let’s face it…a heck of a lot of luck.
Actually, Rutherford proved up to the task in 2015-16. He did a marvelous job of bringing just the right supporting cast…guys like Bonino, Cullen, Daley, Hagelin and Schultz. But if you’re looking to trade guys like Malkin, Letang and Kessel, it’s an entirely different animal. You’d better make sure you get quality in return. Again, easier said than done at this stage of their respective careers.
I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments about Crosby. I would dearly love to see him win another Cup. I think he’s a lot like Tom Brady of the Patriots (NFL)…he wants to win every year.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone play better two-way hockey than Sid did this season. He was terrific in every facet of the game. His passing in traffic…down low…incredible. Maybe the best I’ve ever seen.
You have every right to be proud of your fellow Maritimer, my friend! Us stateside Pens fans are proud of him, too!
Rick
Well said Rick.
It is hard to break up a winning formula. Especially one that is 10- 11 years in the making. But what people have to realize is PITTSBURGH does not have a monopoly on the intelligence it takes to build a winning Cup team.Look around people.There are a lot of other teams better than us now. MANY !
( We just got swept ).
Times change and we need to as well.You see the beatings Sid and Geno take every night. The amount of injuries they have sustained thru out their careers. Nonsense!
This league is not getting any slower and definitely not any smaller and we need to adjust accordingly.
Great article Rick and I hope you do more “what if ” posts.
Jim
Rick
Quick point – I say that then I write a three page letter. Lol
1) Crosby – I’m not sure if everyone will agree with me but I
feel like Crosby unlike Malkin continues to adjust his game
as he ages. “Your thoughts”
2) Everyone’s complaining about the longevity of JJ’s contract
but every year the Cap goes up it becomes less of an issue –
3.25mil is a reasonable salary for a 5th or 6th Defenseman.
3) My concern with not trading one of our Core players and with
reservation I will add Letang to the list is if JR waits another
year or two their value will drop substantially. Zero value.
That’s all I have – great article – looking forward to the draft.