i'm assuming they send kapanen to arbitration in this.

Lol why would the ducks take that awful contract for such small return? Seems like they could just sign an actual good player w that cap

Zucker is a very effective player when healthy, I know the cap hit is bad but he is still a great middle 6 energy guy

It will take more than going from the 21st pick in the sixth round to 17th in the 5th round to get rid of Zucker's $5.5 million cap hit. Offer someone like Arizona or Buffalo or Seattle your 2023 second; the Ducks aren't interested.

Malkin gets wayyyy less than that. Number probably starts with a 6, maybe a 7.

I also don’t know how you managed to trade zucker and still not get Malkin wingers

so, that's what you may think he's worth on a team friendly deal, but he's owed money from when the cap changed and they couldn't do a deal for him like they did for crosby. he was going to sign the exact same deal, but couldnt. he can get 9.5-10 to go to a mid team. this is a discount from what he is percieved to be owed from before. aav isn't real money. up front cash means that crosby has made way more by now.

that's fair, the ducks have tons of cap, but not much else happening. you can't just get who you want just because you have cap space.

Malkin simply is not worth 9.5-10 on the open market, hate the break it to you but he’s just not.

As for this whole thing with the pens owing him money because he didn’t get the same deal as Sid, idk what you are talking about . In 2008-09 Crosby sign a 8.7X5, the very next year Malkin signed the exact same deal 8.7X5. After that geno signed a 9.5X8 and Crosby signed a 8.7X12. Yeah Sid got more term and thus total money but geno got more aav. I hardly think geno is “owed money” he has been making more than Sid for the past 8 years while being a worse player

Dumping Zucker and this team honestly seems worse.. no changes at all.

his contract is front loaded, crosbys, he got the lions share early, which means after investments, he's richer. aav isn't what matters to players. crosby was the highest paid player in the nhl at the time of signing his deal in terms of real money, he got beat out later, but he's already made his money and doesn't care. this coming season he makes only 3 mil in real cash, but it was a way to get around the cba, the extreme version was kovalchuk who signed a 17 year deal and had put years at the end worth next to nothing, so he'd just retire and let those go because he got paid already.

But malkin and crosby both played (or will play) to the full extent of their contract, so what does it matter at this point if they are front loaded or not? Regardless, Geno is just not worth 9.5-10