CRANBERRY TWP, PA (93.7 The Fan) – Pens General Manager Ron Hextall said the conversations with Evgeni Malkin started in the middle of this past season and obviously picked up recently. He believes simply each side gave a little, leading to the four-year contract.
“We talked a lot in the last couple of weeks,” Hextall said Wednesday. “We talked way back in February. It’s not like these things just started. We had two priorities at the end of the season, they were obviously Geno and Tanger, and we are thrilled to have them back where they belong.”
Hextall said we will really need to hear from Malkin as to his feelings about the talks, but the Pens GM described them as amicable. He said the sides continued the conversations and eventually found middle ground.
“He helped us out in terms of the cap number which we needed to keep low,” Hextall said. “We talked about that right from the start. We stretched out to help him out. It’s one of those deals that worked both ways.”
Hextall is well aware of the concerns about signing four players to long contracts. Especially when a pair of them will last until Malkin turns 39 and Letang turns 41.
“I think all deals are risky,” Hextall said. “We have a marketplace. We have to make deals within the marketplace. Our number one objective was to keep our cap numbers down so we could surround them with other pieces opposed to getting rid of pieces to get under the cap.”
This is also a special situation for Hextall. He says he wouldn’t have this kind of deal for most players or in the Pens case, he would only do it to keep Malkin, Letang and Sidney Crosby together.
“When you look at three guys, top players in the league of all-time, that have played together for 16 years and hopefully can stretch it now to 20 years or whatever,” Hextall said. “That’s pretty special. To have three guys play together that long and for that magnitude. That’s pretty special.”
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