Kyle Dubas, all season, had never outright said whether he wanted Evgeni Malkin back next season. There's been a lot of talk about waiting until the offseason to talk, and praise for Malkin's season overall, but he had never actually said what he wants to have happen.
He made that clear in his season-ending press conference on Tuesday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.
"We would love to have him back," Dubas said. "That's as clear as I can be."
Dubas said he had a "great exit interview" with Malkin directly at the Penguins' locker room clean out day, and has subsequently had discussions with Malkin and his agent J.P. Barry.
Dubas also directly pushed back on the notion that re-signing Malkin would be "blocking" the Penguins from getting younger, the most common argument against bringing Malkin back.
"The season what he's had, where we're at, where we're going, I don't look at our younger players and think they did enough to have it viewed like he's 'blocking' anybody out," Dubas said.
The team is happy with Malkin's shift to wing over the course of the season, with Dubas adding here that he thinks it "helped reduce some of the load" on Malkin. Dubas' comments don't mean someone like Ben Kindel couldn't move up to second-line center, for instance. Malkin isn't blocking that if he's on the wing. What they did seem to mean, though, is that players like Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty didn't show enough to prove that they deserve a spot on a top-six wing, at least coming out of camp.
Malkin's been clear, time and time again, that he feels the same way. He wants to be back, and he'll play any position they need to make that happen, often citing the "memories" he has in Pittsburgh and his relationship with Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang as big reasons for wanting to keep things going in Pittsburgh. And while the Penguins' reasons for wanting him back go wholly beyond nostalgia, it doesn't hurt to keep one of the franchise legends around for another year.
"In the end, he's one of the great players of all-time," Dubas said.
THE ASYLUM
Dubas: 'We'd love' to re-sign Malkin
Kyle Dubas, all season, had never outright said whether he wanted Evgeni Malkin back next season. There's been a lot of talk about waiting until the offseason to talk, and praise for Malkin's season overall, but he had never actually said what he wants to have happen.
He made that clear in his season-ending press conference on Tuesday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.
"We would love to have him back," Dubas said. "That's as clear as I can be."
Dubas said he had a "great exit interview" with Malkin directly at the Penguins' locker room clean out day, and has subsequently had discussions with Malkin and his agent J.P. Barry.
Dubas also directly pushed back on the notion that re-signing Malkin would be "blocking" the Penguins from getting younger, the most common argument against bringing Malkin back.
"The season what he's had, where we're at, where we're going, I don't look at our younger players and think they did enough to have it viewed like he's 'blocking' anybody out," Dubas said.
The team is happy with Malkin's shift to wing over the course of the season, with Dubas adding here that he thinks it "helped reduce some of the load" on Malkin. Dubas' comments don't mean someone like Ben Kindel couldn't move up to second-line center, for instance. Malkin isn't blocking that if he's on the wing. What they did seem to mean, though, is that players like Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty didn't show enough to prove that they deserve a spot on a top-six wing, at least coming out of camp.
Malkin's been clear, time and time again, that he feels the same way. He wants to be back, and he'll play any position they need to make that happen, often citing the "memories" he has in Pittsburgh and his relationship with Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang as big reasons for wanting to keep things going in Pittsburgh. And while the Penguins' reasons for wanting him back go wholly beyond nostalgia, it doesn't hurt to keep one of the franchise legends around for another year.
"In the end, he's one of the great players of all-time," Dubas said.
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