Dubas on Malkin-‘we would love to have him back’

CRANBERRY TWP., PA (93.7 The Fan) – If you bottom lined what Pens general manager Kyle Dubas said about Evgeni Malkin and his future in Pittsburgh, it seems promising to good to likely there is a 21^st season in black and gold.

“We would love to have him back,” Dubas said Tuesday at the end-of-the-season news conference at the UPMC Lemieux facility in Cranberry Township.

To that end, Dubas said he had a ‘great’ exit interview directly with Malkin and then subsequent conversations with his agent JP Berry. He said they discussed the season he had and where he sees the team going forward.

If you are looking for a potential clue to the desire Dubas has for keeping the 39-year-old future Hall-of-Famer?

“I don't look at our younger players and think they did enough to have it viewed like he's blocking anybody out in that regard,” Dubas said.

That’s a good for Malkin, bad that a few of the young forwards (Ville Koivunen, Rutger McGroarty, Tristan Broz) either didn’t perform or dealt with injury and didn’t do anything to earn a spot ahead Malkin.

Dubas has seemed to have the run of emotions about Malkin, what impressed him this year is what the 20-year veteran brought a desire and enthusiasm to the rink every day. Even at times battling through injury, Malkin finished at over a point-per-game with 19 goals and 42 assists in 56 games.

“He's a special player,” Dubas said Tuesday. “To me I thought the key thing this year for him was he started off the year excellent, he had a newfound energy, got hurt in December, and he came back from that in a great spot.”

“Every time he came back from being out, he played his best hockey.”

Dubas also credited Malkin’s willingness to move from his only position in the NHL, center, to wing. He said he created great chemistry with Tommy Novak and Egor Chinahkov on the second line and because of that it helped reduce some of the load on him.

“In the end, he's one of the great players of all time, and I just think he's a very, as everyone knows, very proud. And I think that all of that play into him having the season that he did.”

Is that enough to get Malkin another year of playing with the Penguins? Whether one of the team’s all-time greats stays with the organization is the biggest question going into the offseason. There isn’t a clear answer yet, but early signs appear promising.