Penguins' GM Rutherford: 'No interest from either side' in moving Malkin
Breathe easy, Penguins fans.
Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford has quashed any notion that superstar center Evgeni Malkin will be on the move in the near future, as told to Gene Collier of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
No, he’s not available. Based on my communications with him or with his agent, he does not have an interest (in a trade). He loves Pittsburgh and he wants to win here. Like everybody else, he’s disappointed with us not reaching our goal. He played hurt. He actually played when most guys wouldn’t play. There’s no interest from either side (the club’s or the player’s) in moving him.
This refutation comes in light of a recent report suggesting Malkin was unhappy in Pittsburgh and would welcome a trade.
Malkin played through an ankle sprain down the stretch and into the playoffs, where he was held pointless in five games. Surely nobody on the team - much less a player of his ilk - is pleased with a first-round playoff exit.
Still, Malkin, who remains under contract through the 2019-20 season with a cap hit of $9.5 million, averaged over a point per game last season, and is central to any success the team hopes to achieve.
A bigger issue is team depth, leading Rutherford - by his own admission after watching the Chicago Blackhawks' recent Stanley Cup win - to prioritize adding more skill on the wing to help Malkin and Sidney Crosby.
"We have the core guys to win a championship and it’s my job and the job of everyone in hockey (operations) to try to get the right supporting cast so that we can build enough balance, speed and youth to have a complementary group that allows us to make the same run."
The Penguins, for the record, have made it to the Eastern Conference Finals once since winning the 2009 Stanley Cup.