{"id":513482,"date":"2026-03-02T08:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T08:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/513482\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T08:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T08:10:08","slug":"contract-talks-for-evgeni-malkin-to-now-occur-after-the-season-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/513482\/","title":{"rendered":"Contract Talks For Evgeni Malkin To Now Occur After The Season \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heading into the season, it was expected that the Penguins would work on figuring out what\u2019s next for Evgeni Malkin<\/a> by talking to his camp during the Olympic break.\u00a0 That break has come and gone and those discussions have happened but evidently, no decisions have been made yet.\u00a0 Instead, he told reporters following yesterday\u2019s game, including NHL.com\u2019s Wes Crosby<\/a>, that contract talks between the two sides will now occur after the season:<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a secret or not, but we talked a little bit with J.P. a couple days ago. Just said, \u2018Wait until the end of the season and see what\u2019s going on.\u2019 Nothing I can say right now.<\/p>\n

Malkin is in the final season of a four-year, $24MM contract and heading into the season, it felt like this might be the time when he moves on.\u00a0 Pittsburgh appeared to be heading into a rebuild and while he\u2019s certainly a fan favorite, carrying a soon-to-be 40-year-old during a rebuild doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense.<\/p>\n

But things have changed since then.\u00a0 Instead of being near the bottom of the standings, the Penguins find themselves squarely in a playoff spot, sitting second in the Metropolitan Division.\u00a0 Even without Sidney Crosby<\/a> for the next few weeks at least, GM Kyle Dubas isn\u2019t likely to be the heavy seller he was expected to be just a few months ago.\u00a0 If anything, they might be looking to add a piece or two to their roster.<\/p>\n

That will justify the decision to effectively kick the decision on Malkin\u2019s future down the road for a little while longer.\u00a0 The number two selection back in 2004, Malkin has spent his entire 20-year career in Pittsburgh and is heading for a first-ballot entry into the Hall of Fame down the road.<\/p>\n

While he isn\u2019t the 100-plus-point player that he was in his prime, Malkin has had somewhat of a resurgent showing under new head coach Dan Muse this season.\u00a0 He has 13 goals and 34 assists in 44 games this season, putting him over the point per game mark.\u00a0 If he can maintain that, it\u2019ll be the 16th time he reaches that plateau and the first since 2022-23.<\/p>\n

Malkin has made it clear on multiple occasions that he doesn\u2019t want to leave Pittsburgh.\u00a0 At this stage of his career, should he receive another contract, it\u2019s likely to be a one-year pact.\u00a0 Given his output this season, there\u2019s a case to be made that it should check in around his current $6MM AAV while he\u2019d also be eligible for potential performance bonuses on a one-year pact if the Penguins needed some extra cap flexibility.\u00a0 But instead of having more clarity on that front heading into this week\u2019s trade deadline, he\u2019ll have to wait at least a couple of months longer to get it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heading into the season, it was expected that the Penguins would work on figuring out what\u2019s next for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,59625,575,4785,85],"class_list":["post-513482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-evgeni-malkin","tag-nhl","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}