via Sportsnet (listen to the audio),

Sportsnet NHL Insider Elliotte Freidman joined Boomer & Rhett on the SN960 morning show Monday, and said the Penguins should at least consider trading superstar forward Evgeni Malkin this off-season.

“If you can get two or three pieces including a guy that can play with Crosby, don’t you have to think about it? At what point do you say yeah, we won the Stanley Cup, but that was six years ago? These two guys together make $18.2 million, and we keep losing in the playoffs because we don’t have enough support pieces.

“There are teams that could pull it off. I’m looking at a Florida, a Nashville, a team with young assets that could do this. I’m not saying if you’re the Penguins you should do it 100 per cent, but I’m saying you really have to sit down and think about it.”

Friedman adds that even the Calgary Flames could be in a position to trade for Malkin if in fact both sides were so inclined.