While Brian Burke hasn't made it to Pittsburgh yet due to COVID border restrictions, he knows one thing is for sure, Sidney Crosby is untouchable.
"I think there's one player there that everyone would regard as untouchable unless he wants to leave and I think that's pretty obvious with Sid," Burke told the Fan Morning Show Friday.
TSN's Darren Dreger suggested that if the Penguins don't make the playoffs this season and it looks like the team is trending downward, Crosby may want a trade to give Pittsburgh top prospects/draft picks (a very unlikely scenario).
The new president of hockey operations for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Brian Burke says that they have only one game under their belt since he and general manager Ron Hextall were hired and that it's too soon to know what moves, if any, will be made.
"And with the other players, we haven't even begun evaluating, last night was the first game that we've played on my watch . . .
so it would be very premature to talk about who would move and who wouldn't move and what moves we'd make," said Burke.
While Burke and Hextall have yet to evaluate the other players there are two names that instantly jump out, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.
While Crosby is the Penguins #1 guy, Malkin has always been a pretty close second with Letang not far behind him.
With Sid being the only "untouchable" player in the locker room, it sounds like, as of now, Hextall and Burke will be at least willing to hear offers from other teams on Malkin and Letang.
Burke's comments in no way mean that Malkin and Letang should start packing their bags, but for the first time, it sounds like the Penguins might willing to deal one or two of their three big names.
