Malkin turning his back on Pittsburgh and possibly joining their biggest rival?

After winning the stanley cup in 2009, then back to back in 2016 and 2017, you would have thought the core of the Pittsburgh Penguins of Crosby, Malkin and Letang would be together until retirement, but apparently that might not be so.

Malkin is currently a Unrestricted Free Agent and is looking to get one last big contract in before he retires, and unfortunately the Penguins don't have the money to give him that. He just finished a contract with an AAV of $9.5 million, which with his current decline and health issues, he will most likely not be commanding that high of a salary, but somewhere between 7-8.5 is probably where Malkin will land.

With the Penguins lack of cap space, and prioritizing Kris Letang, it looks like Malkin will be hitting free agency, and the Penguins long-time rival could possibly be looking to swoop him right up.

The Washington Capitals recently received the devastating news that Nicklas Backstrom had surgery which is a long recovery process, and players have been known to never make it back from this surgery, so at this time, the Capitals are looking for a new second line center.

Gonna be hilarious when he signs with the Washington Capitals. https://t.co/9euYM94iqS� Eric Engels (@EricEngels) May 17, 2022

The Capitals have some young centers up-and-coming, but with the team still wanting to be contenders right now, they will most likely be looking for a more established presence to play second line center. Currently they have Lars Eller and Nic Dowd for the 3rd and 4th line center, with youngster Connor McMichael who just completed his first full NHL season, hoping to take a further step next season, but to throw him into the second line center role already might be too much for him. They also have Hendrix Lapierre who just finished another season in junior and racked up the points. Lapierre made the team out of camp last season but only played in a few games before being sent back to junior.

But if the team really doesn't feel either of these 2 youngsters are ready, Malkin is the perfect fit to slide right into Backstroms spot.

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