This would only make us worse, bottom 6 is atrociously bad. Also why trade petts at that point when all we are doing is saving 400k for a player that’s arguably almost the same caliber. Also, major overpays to Geno and Rakell.

Those trades definitely don't work for us. Tatar had a down year and I don't really see him as a top 6 player unless he bounces back. Most of the point in trading a LD is to make room for POJ as far as I care, and bringing in Graves leaves us with that LD logjam. I'm not very high on Ritchie and would rather have McGinn and/or Heinen (funnily this would be the 2nd time Ritchie was traded for Heinen, though). Only good thing about getting Eakin is his flow.
But I don't think the contracts for Malkin and Rakell are outrageous. Malkin would hopefully take something closer to the 6.5-7 range, but he's one of the top centers on the market, and Kadri is likely getting more. Trocheck is a good 2nd line player, but that's his ceiling. Malkin is still a 1st line caliber player. He was a PPG player coming off of knee surgery at the age of 35. Rakell's value is probably close to 4.5, and this contract is only a little higher. So these are probably overpays, but not major ones.

Agreed, Tatar wouldn’t fit at all in our lineup especially with our current situation

The Eakin comment 💀💀

And yea they’re pretty big overpays, giving 7.75m to Malkin is way too much, at that point I’d much rather let him walk

I don't think he's going to end up making that much, but if the option is overpay Malkin by ~1 mil or go after a different UFA, I think our best chances are Geno. I think the only 2C replacements that don't make the Penguins worse would be Giroux, Bergeron, and Kadri. The first two are impossible, Kadri will likely be offered more elsewhere. The likes of Strome, Copp, and Trocheck would probably also see higher bids from teams with more cap space, and I still think at 35 that Malkin is better than those 3.

I think if the Pens make a major offseason signing that isn't bringing a Penguin back, it would be going after a 2nd line winger to play with Malkin, and hopefully Rakell. I'm leaning towards one of Burakovsky, Nichushkin, Marchment, or Palat. All of those guys would see a lot of interest elsewhere, but I think we'd have a shot at at least one. Besides, no other team can use "You'll be playing with Sidney Crosby" as leverage.