At this point, we’ve heard every reason why the Penguins should let Evgeni Malkin retire this summer or walk away as an unrestricted free agent to play elsewhere in 2026-27.
Malkin will turn 40 on July 31. He’s a wing now, not a center. He only played 56 games this year and 68 the year before. He’s not the threat on the power play he used to be (just four power-play goals in each of the last two seasons). His presence on the power play blocks either Egor Chinakhov or Ben Kindel. He cost $6.1 million last year, and whatever he costs next year will be better allocated elsewhere.
And, bigger picture, it’s simply time to move on and admit there isn’t another Stanley Cup in this core of Penguins that is now down to Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Bryan Rust.
I agree with just about all those sentiments.
That said, we are also just as familiar with the arguments to keep Malkin.
He was still fifth on the team in goals. He developed some good chemistry with Chinakhov. He can still play center if needed when Crosby is out. Crosby, Letang and the rest of the locker room want him to stay. Crosby is up for a contract extension and may be bitter if Malkin winds up elsewhere. Many of the fans want Malkin to stay, and the incoming ownership group (the Hoffmann Family) likely won’t want one of its first moves to be ushering an all-time legend out the door.
Not to mention the visceral discontent the fan base would feel if Malkin returned to PPG Paints Arena in a different jersey.
All of those points also make a lot of sense.
Just not as much sense as the previous counterarguments.
That’s my opinion. Maybe it’s yours too. But it’s president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas’ opinion that matters much more.
Maybe not more than Crosby’s (or his agent Pat Brisson’s), but more than yours or mine.
My feeling is that Dubas is in the first camp. My gut tells me he sees more good in turning the page and getting this team younger while Crosby is under contract.
Dubas’ true conviction is the key variable here — his willingness to be honest with himself, and with coach Dan Muse.
If Dubas is going to let Malkin walk — along with other UFA players such as Noel Acciari, Anthony Mantha, Ryan Shea, Kevin Hayes, Stuart Skinner, Connor Dewar and Connor Clifton — what’s he going to do with all that additional cap space?
Is he going to spend it in a thin unrestricted free agent market? Is he going to submit offer sheets on attractive restricted free agents and be willing to part with compensatory draft picks he covets and has spent so much time acquiring, to say nothing of the cost?
Is he really going to be willing to trade some of the young prospects he’s built up in the system and future picks to get established players in their mid to late 20s to come to Pittsburgh and help the team next year while still getting younger in the process?
In other words, if Dubas is opening up Malkin’s cap space and nightly lineup spot, how is he backfilling? Because if the hope is to get younger and plug those UFA roster slots with the likes of Rutger McGroarty, Avery Hayes, Tristan Broz, Sergei Murashov, Harrison Brunicke, Jake Livanavage, Ville Koivunen and Owen Pickering, then…great.
Sure. Yes. Let’s see it. We all thought that was part of the plan. That’s the alleged goal, right? Flood the Penguins big club with a wave of younger, cheaper homegrown talent as we move away from the aging Stanley Cup teams of the previous decade, and the surrounding veterans who jumped on board at the end of that era.
But then Dubas and Muse have to give all those young players an extended runway and live with their youthful mistakes on a nightly basis next year. More to the point, so do Crosby, Letang and Erik Karlsson.
And their agents. And the fans.
Or Dubas will need to swallow hard and actually use some of those prospects and draft picks he has loaded up in the summer of 2027 and beyond (they are down to five picks this summer) to woo opposing general managers into parting with players who can upgrade the roster now?
That certainly doesn’t seem to be Dubas’ style. He had three first-round picks and used all of them last year. In fact, he used 13 picks in total over seven rounds last year.
For a GM who has tried to live in two worlds at once for the last few years, the present day is going to have to benefit from some future investments, or the team is just going to have to call this what it should have been a long time ago:
A rebuilding project.
That’s regardless of what the vets and their representatives (or some of the fans) want to hear.
Dubas and Muse either need to lean hard in that direction, regardless of the flak they may take from the remaining vets, or they need to churn and burn some of these future assets for upgrades on a 2025-26 team that did manage to improve by 18 points and make the playoffs.
Yet it also finished with more losses (45) than wins (43) if you count the playoffs and disregard overtime/shootout loser designations.
If Dubas doesn’t fully believe in himself to go in either of those two directions, then just keep Malkin and play it out. Because replacing him with another version of Mantha, Tommy Novak or Blake Lizotte isn’t the answer.
By mid-season, that would just lead to more questions about why they let Malkin skate away in the first place.
That’s not a conclusion I want to draw. But it’s one I fear Dubas may get to on his own.