MONTREAL — Now comes the hard part. Penguins general manager Ron Hextall put Malkin’s representatives on the backburner for weeks after the season concluded. After the Penguins beat the Rangers in triple overtime of Game 1 in New York — Malkin, incidentally, won that game — Hextall mumbled that Letang was a “machine” as Penguins’ brass took the elevator to …
The sudden agreement between the Penguins and Bryan Rust led many to believe the organization has decided to prioritize the forward ahead of fellow unrestricted free agents Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. The Penguins aren’t against the idea of bringing back Malkin and Letang, nor, obviously, were they against the idea of giving Rust a new contract. Rust’s signing teaches …
