Pens ink Malkin for five years

This just in from Cbcsports.ca:

The Pittsburgh Penguins signed Russian forward Evgeni Malkin to a five-year contract extension worth $43.5 million US on Wednesday.

Malkin, who turns 22 later this month, is entering the final year of his rookie contract with the Penguins. The new deal kicks in following the upcoming NHL season.

Here is a link to the article.

Signing Malkin has been a top priority for GM Ray Shero, owner Mario Lemieux, et al. for a while now and they have now committed a lot of team cash to the team’s top two players, Crosby obviously being the other. Now that Marian Hossa and Ryan Malone have moved on to other clubs, it will be interesting to see if Pittsburgh goes after free agents Markus Naslund or Mats Sundin.

For Illegal Curve, I’m Ezra Ginsburg.