When Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby was sidelined in mid-January by a high ankle sprain more than a few observers suggested the Penguins would struggle without him.
After all, Crosby was the Penguins leading scorer, among the top ten in the league and last season’s Art Ross trophy winner as the NHL’s leading scorer.
The offensive burden fell upon Evgeni Malkin, the 2007 NHL rookie of the year, but some wondered if Malkin, in only his second NHL season, was up to the challenge.
In the six weeks since Crosby was sidelined, Malkin has not only responded to the challenge, he’s answered his critics and emerged for the shadow of “Sid the Kid”, blossoming into a young superstar in his own right.
In the 19 games since Crosby was sidelined Malkin has 13 goals, 19 assists for 32 points, making him not only the Penguins leading scorer but also vaulting him to the top of the NHL’s scoring race, battling with Washington Capitals forward and fellow Russian Alexander Ovechkin.
Should Malkin win the Art Ross as the NHL’s leading scorer it’ll mark the first time in ten years that two teammates won the award in consecutive years; coincidentally, it was two Penguins teammates - Jaromir Jagr (1995) and Mario Lemieux (1996) - who last accomplished that feat.
Malkin’s performance will likely merit him consideration for the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player. I still believe Alexander Ovechkin will win it, but Malkin’s performance means it’s no longer a sure thing.
It also puts pressure upon the Penguins management to lock up Malkin a year before he becomes a restricted free agent as they did with Crosby last summer, but like Crosby it’s gonna cost them, probably in the neighborhood of $8.5 million per season.
The Pens would be wise to re-sign him to that rate now, because if not his asking price is likely to rise next season, and there’ll be teams eager to send him an offer sheet worth over $10 million per season. Better for the Penguins to set the price themselves now rather than have another team call the tune next summer.
Go Malkin! But what is going to prevent the Pens from becoming just like the Lightning? Are Crosby and Malkin just that much better than Lecavalier, Richards and St. Louis? Will they be able to flesh out the rest of their roster?
If not, what is the point of having a league that constantly plays musical stars? Parity is tremendously and exceedingly boring and will be the reason I continue to watch less and less! Just another reason to hate this moronic salary cap which doesn’t fix any problems, it just gives every team the same problems!
Hopefully Sid’s $8.7M contract will be the standard Malkin’s next deal will be based on, and not Ovechkin’s.
With the elimination of the “second contract” the individual cap should be reduced from 20% to 15% (preferably further).
Sakic19, you make good point. And only time will tell if Ray Shero can manage his cap better than Feaster did, so he doesn't tie up so much in so few players. And I will admit, I am a hockey novice, but doesn't Pittsburgh have more young talent than Tampa did, and consequently, maybe postioned for a longer run at the top than the Bolts had? I am still unsure giving up who they did for Hossa was smart.
And I agree, Malkin is the quiet young stud. Maybe we'll see more of them on the NBC Game of the week than the stinking NY Rangers. Even my local Fox affiliate (FSN Bay Area) is showing the Pens-Caps game on Thursday...I guess the Cal-SC Basketball game isn't that interesting...LOL
Yeah good stuff Sakic 19, Hopefully with Hossa now there is enuff pucks and money to go around. And hopefully Malkin follows after Sids lead and and doesnt try to break the bank, and gives some kind of discount even tho he is worth every cent. I guess we will see.....
Can Kevin Lowe offer another huge offer sheet even though he already gave 4 1st round picks to the Ducks? It doesn't seem right that if he makes another huge offer sheet for a player, that the team he takes said player from wouldn't get the 4 1st rounders until 2012. Is there a rule about doing that?
drakes44-Campbell won't disapear in the playoffs, that's why the Sharks wanted him, I think Hossa might though because if his playoff history with the Thrashers and Ottowa. Richards I think will also pick it up because of what he did with Tampa in 03-04.
Well AlamoSharkie, Pittsburgh does have more young talent, but that young talent will quickly become increasingly expensive.
After Tampa Bay signed Lecavalier, Richards and St. Louis everyone knows they lost Khabibulin, but they also lost Modin (trade for Denis) and Stillman (FA) Fedotenko, and even Kubina (he played better and was cheaper back then Toronto fans). They also lost their back-up goalie Grahame, and even Anderchyuck, Taylor and a couple defencemen. Pretty much all of their depth players form the Cup year left and the only real talent I remember them adding was Vinny Prospal (traded away last week).
I'm sure bit by bit over the next few years their depth will erode away unless Malkin, Staal, Gonchar (if re-signed), Flurey and Hossa. No way they will all take a discount.
To keep them they'd probably lose their current depth guys like Malone and Sykora (or replacement) and Orpik etc.
Maybe with the retirement/loss of Roberts, Sydor and Gonchar's deal running out they will be able to get lucky and get a lot of them under long-term cap friendly deals.
The Oilers only gave up a 1st, a 2nd and a 3rd round pick (all from the 2008 Entry Draft) to the Ducks for Dustin Penner.
Page 38 of the NHL CBA (www.nhl.com/cba/2005-CBA.pdf) contains the formula for Group 2 Free Agent (aka RFA) offer sheet compensation. Penner was signed for an average of $4.25 million per season, which (using the 10 percent inflation factor) puts him in the $3.3 million to $4.4 million offer sheet range, and thus the compensation of first, second and third round draft picks.
If the Oilers had signed Penner for $4.5 million, they would have owed TWO first round picks, plus a second and a third.
An RFA player signed for over $5.5 million would require FOUR first round picks as compensation. The rules from the CBA state that "clubs owing three (3) draft selections in the same round must have them available in the next four (4) drafts."
So, in theory, if the Oilers had successfully signed Thomas Vanek last summer, Edmonton would have owed Buffalo the Oilers first round picks in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012. It should be noted that Edmonton would still have retained the Anaheim first round pick in 2008 that was obtained in the Pronger deal, because you cannot use other team's draft picks as compensation for RFAs.
Matt, is it me or are we the only people who realize that Edmonton is only giving away 1 first rounder? Seems that everyone critisizes edmonton for paying so much for penner because they think we gave away 3-4.
Yup, it's just you and me, my friend. And any who have ears to hear us...
I think the disconnect was thus: Vanek would have been four first rounders. (Which if you're Detroit and finishing with the 25-30 overall draft pick every year isn't that much of a price. When you're a rebuilding team, even with a lot of young talent in the minors, and finishing in the Top 10 picks, that's pretty expensive.) When Vanek fell through (thankfully) and then Penner was signed almost immediately thereafter, I don't think the difference in compensation caught up with people.
When the Oilers signed Penner, and I anticipated that we'd be giving up a 10-15 overall pick (plus a 40-45 overall pick and a 70-75 overall pick), it was a deal that made sense considering the young talent in the Edmonton pipeline. If that first rounder turns into a lottery pick, we'll have to re-assess that cost/benefit analysis.
Last edited by Matt_McCallum on March 3rd at 12:39 PM.
Thadd: Edmonton got a pretty sweet deal in Penner when you consider his performance on a rather motley crew. In hindsight, I was wrong where a lot of other folks were right. I'm worried he might be in a tough situation again next season though. Edmonton's got to surround him with good young cheap talent (read as "more than three players") with a touch of veteran leadership if they're going to bet the bank on him the way they have. In hindsight, it's a good first step, but baby steps aren't going to cut it in the long run.
Malkin didn't look so mighty when the Pens played the Bruins on Tuesday. Actually the Pens looked a solid mess. At least that big trade's really working out for them. Pascal Dupuis netted one in his first outing!
It's funny, but I'm actually rooting that Malkin doesn't win the Art Ross this season, knowing that it will only drive up his contract negotiations. Go Alex, go! :o)
Also, I can't be sure about other players, but Malone will resign with the Pens. You can go to the bank on that one. The organization has spent too much ice time grooming their one and only power forward to let him fly the coop.
I'm Lyle Richardson, also known as Spector, Foxsports.com 's "Prince of Pucks".,which is based on the fact I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and I couldn't think of a better byline. I've been an NHL hockey commentator since 1998 on my website, Spector's Hockey, and I'm a contributing writer for Foxsports.com , The Hockey News and Eishockey News. I'm also a regular on The Faceoff Hockey Show and a frequent guest on "The Late Crew" on The Team 1200 Ottawa.
