We knew this offseason that the Pittsburgh Penguins were possibly losing one or both of two of their franchise players, them being Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. A few months ago it was reported that the Penguins offered both Malkin and Letang 3 year deals with $15 million, and both obviously declined, and these deals did not sit well with captain Sidney Crosby.
A few seasons ago there were rumours of the Penguins considering trading Malkin, but Crosby went to management and said ''its me and geno'' and stopped management in their tracks. This time around when the Penguins signed Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin was getting closer and closer to free agency, Crosby stepped in to help with negotiations.
Malkin obviously didn't want to leave Pittsburgh, but he wanted to be paid for what he believed he was worth. It was reported that Malkin felt the Penguins did not think he was very good anymore and he was only hours away from testing the free agency market, but before that was possible, captain and long time friend Sidney Crosby stepped in and helped get a last minute deal done.
