Malone Alone
March 20th, 2008 by Jason ChenESPN’s Rumor Central and Dave Molinari at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Ryan Malone may the odd one out this summer. Malone is an absolute bargain at his current salary of $1.45m. The hulking, 6′4″ winger isn’t afraid to use his body and score the dirty goals (he has 24 this year already). He can create much needed space for more talented teammates in Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and now Marian Hossa, and isn’t afraid to create all kinds of traffic in the crease. He is the unheralded key offensive component in the Penguins lineup, although he has fought bouts of inconsistency in his career.
However, Malone is seeking a raise (and deservedly so) and both he and the Pens have expressed a desire to remain with the organization. Malone is after all, a born and bred Pennsylvanian. However, like I said in the previous post, the hard part is finding the funds to keep him in Pittsburgh. If Malone his the free agent market, do not be surprised if he lands a Todd Bertuzzi contract, somewhere in the neighbourhood of $3-4m a year.
While contract talks are on hold for the remainder of the season and playoffs, Ray Shero has to decide if he wants to commit more money to Hossa as Crosby’s go-to guy, or less money to Malone, the bruising winger that has the ability to create open space and pick up the garbage. My money’s on Malone, due to the fact that he brings many more intangibles to an already talent-laden team, Hossa is likely to leave for “greener” pastures if the Pens don’t go deep into the playoffs, and most importantly in the cap era, significantly cheaper.
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