Pens GM Hextall pushing 3 star players out the door!?

Fans all expect significant changes to come to the Pittsburgh Penguins this summer, however, we bet they expected GM Ron Hextall to fight a little harder to keep his core players…

Chatter has hinted that Hextall is desperate to get more stability on his cap space and keeping players like Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Bryan Rust, who are set to become free agents this July, might not be in his plans.

Team insider Rob Rossi for the Athletic recently reported that Penguins management made low-ball offers to both Malkin and Letang (three-year deals at $5M annually), which didn’t sit well with captain Sidney Crosby.

Rossi again doubts that Malkin, Letang and Rust won’t be back in 2022-23 with the Penguins, and TSN’s Ray Ferraro can only agree with him. He would be stunned if Malkin is to come back if a decent offer isn’t made to the Russian forward.

If players of Geno, Tanger and Rusty’s caliber are out the door in Pittsburgh this summer, this will be the an end of era…

Malkin and Letang have reiterated their desire to keep playing as Penguins and Crosby mentioned how he would love to keep his teammates on board, at least until his own contract comes to an end in 2025.

It just feels like big moves are coming and that the Penguins will look very different at the start of 2022-23… This even got fans joking that Hextall might be working undercover for the Philadelphia Flyers ! 

Let’s see what that means for Malkin, Letang and Rust…