Injury Report: Geno Has Knee Surgery

[cygnus47]

I appreciate what your saying but in no way shape or form did Malkin hurt this team actively in the Johnson era. He was our best player, end of story IMO. If you want to say Sid played the system more to Johnson’s liking and it hurt his production , I’d agree that may very well have been the case. Did Malkin cheat the system for offense? Hell yeah he did. Did it hurt us? f*** no , not in any meaningful way. You’re not really breaking any ground in saying a player cheating on his defensive responsibilities can have a negative consequence. Trying to paint this in a broad “well , it must have hurt us because cheating a system for offense is bad” kind of light is disingenuous to how he performed in reality.

I don't recall Geno cheating the system, I recall it just suiting him better. He was about the only guy it seemed to suit IIRC. It let him do his one-man gallop through the neutral zone thing, he didn't have to cheat to do it.

 

[Sidgeni Malkby]

Why does this always turn into Malkin vs Crosby?

Malkin has knee surgery, okay, so if he's ready for the tail end of the season (a la Kucherov), and we make the playoffs, no problem!

As for resigning...
I think we need to see how this year plays out, and then decide if we are in win-now mode. If aren't making the playoffs (by a wide margin), then yeah, maybe a rebuild is in order, however unless the wheels fall off, I think we'll be in the mix again.

Next summer....
Unless resigning Letang/Malkin becomes cost prohibitive to other real moves, I'm welcoming them back.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

I think it's pretty clear the organization has left it up to the big three how they're gonna approach the end of the road. They'll be re-signed for whatever they ask as long as they want to stick around.

Letang's playing the best hockey of the three. Deserved a Norris nomination for his work this season, and might be playing his best hockey at 34. If/when he re-signs, I don't expect any kind of big discount. A "fair market value" for Letang probably sees him getting a raise, tbh, because he's already signed to a super friendly cap hit.

Geno's knee situation kinda makes it a bit more murky. Gonna be 36 by the time he signs his new deal, and he's facing a rough road regarding what's considered a pretty significant knee injury/recovery/rehab. If he struggles on the road back and/or doesn't feel like he can be what he needs to, I can see him just taking his like $120 million in career earnings, three Cups, Conn Smythe, and all the accolades and riding off into the sunset.