Rumor: Evgeni Malkin “requested” a trade from the Penguins.

It is no secret to anyone that paid any attention to the Pittsburgh Penguins last season that the team was dysfunctional at times. From players and coaches arguing on the bench, including much publicized incidents between star players Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel and even arguments with head coach Mike Sullivan taking place before our eyes. What might be a secret to you however is just how bad things truly were behind the scenes. 

As we all know now those problems would eventually force the hand of general manager Jim Rutherford and Phil Kessel would be traded away during the summer to the Arizona Coyotes. Although the Penguins did get a pretty good player back in the form of Alex Galchenyuk, you would be hard pressed to argue that the team improved by removing a consistent producer like Kessel from their line up. This of course would indicate to even the most casual of observers that there was more than just hockey motivating this trade, and now we may have a clearer picture of what those motivations were. 

A terrific article published by Rob Rossi in The Athletic this morning has just revealed that Rutherford may have had much more than just Kessel to deal with behind the scenes, in fact another one of his start players may have been trying to work his way out of the team as well. According to Rossi he has been able to confirm with multiple sources that, due to his frustrations with Kessel and Sullivan, superstar forward Evgeni Malkin made it clear that he would not be back if changes were not made. 

From Rossi:

But it’s clear he grew tired of feeling caught between the ongoing Sullivan-Kessel rift, according to multiple team and league sources. Those sources also say Malkin had come to believe Kessel was content with two titles and mostly interested in his statistics. Malkin was worried he’d be seen the same way if Kessel remained his winger.

Multiple team sources say Malkin requested a trade if Kessel was to return.

That is nothing short of a bombshell and it might even be enough to convince those who feel trading Kessel was a bad move, that it was in fact the right one to make. Although the Penguins have a guy named Sidney Crosby on their roster, I don't think it would be an exaggeration to call Malkin a franchise type player, and if you have to choose between him or Phil Kessel I think I make the same choice Jim Rutherford did every time. That is without the context of Malkin's legacy in Pittsburgh, when you add that to the equation I truly feel like the Kessel trade begins to look like a no-brainer for the Penguins.

This also paints comments made by Jim Rutherford in an entirely new light. When asked about potential trades at the start of the offseason Rutherford had made it clear that Crosby was the only untouchable on the roster, if Malkin had requested a trade if Kessel remained, those comments could now be viewed as a shot directly at Malkin himself. 

Interestingly enough, it sounds like the aforementioned Sidney Crosby got involved and went to management to kill any talk of a Malkin trade. Rossi reports that "multiple team sources" confirmed Crosby went to management and made it clear the two were a package deal.

“It’s me and Geno,” Crosby said as per The Athletic.

All this just means a whole lot more reasons to tune in and see how it all plays out this season on the ice.