from Mark Madden at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,
Last week, GM Jim Rutherford would not commit to keeping Evgeni Malkin in a Penguins uniform for the rest of his NHL career.
It’s not a bluff. It’s not fake news. The Penguins are willing to trade Malkin. That’s for two reasons:
• The Penguins are very unhappy with Malkin’s performance this past season and with his attitude.
Malkin averaged more than a point per game but was a team-worst minus-25 , made a team-high 84 turnovers and had a team-most 89 penalty minutes. He too often dangled pointlessly and frequently made mistakes at both blue lines. Malkin scored just 21 goals, his fewest in a nonlockout year besides 2010-11, when a knee injury ended his season after 43 games (and 15 goals).
Malkin was insubordinate to Coach Mike Sullivan on one documented occasion. He shows zero inclination to fix his errors. Malkin wants to play as he likes.
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