1. I was premature in rejoicing over Evgeni Malkin. He has not yet officially signed with the team.
2. Rumor has it that Mount Lebanon native Mark Cuban (yes, that Mark Cuban) and Pittsburgh native Dan Marino have thrown their support, financial and otherwise, behind Andrew Murstein in a bid to buy the team.
Oh please, let it be so. And let the current owners decide to sell the team to a group who wants them to remain in Pittsburgh instead of "I'm from Hartford, I feel your pain, but I will move them to Kansas City anyway" pair by the names of David and Sam Fingold.
3. The contracts of Sebastian Caron and Shane Endicott were bought our last week. To "buy out" a contract means that the organization pays out a portion of the salary a player would have earned over the remaining life of a contract. Those players then become unrestricted free agents and can sign with any organization they choose.
I'm not happy with the Penguins decision to buy out Caron's contract. Joceyln Thibault has been erratic at best and spent most of last season on the injured list. Unfortunately, buying out the last two years of his contract would cost the Penguins 1 million, money the organization cannot afford to spend. Caron was inexpensive at $240,000. (Can you imagine getting paid that much money to go play for another team? Unreal.)
4. Qualifying offers were given to the following players: Colby Armstrong, Ryan Malone, Brooks Orpik Marc-Andre Fleury, Jani Rita and Niklas Nordgren.
Andy Hilbert, Konstantin Koltsov, Tomas Surovy and Andy Chiodo will become unrestricted free agents on Saturday, along with a couple of other players.
Why do they keep trading my favorite players away? I would like to see Surovy remain with the team. And the decision to qualify Jani Rita is puzzling, since he signed to play in Finland next year. It seems counter-productive to make him stay when he wants to leave.
All will be forgiven if they resign Martin Straka.
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