I’ve made my feelings clear as they relate to what the Pittsburgh Penguins should do with Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.

My belief is, with Sidney Crosby sitting at three years remaining on his contract, this is a perfectly logical time to let Letang and Malkin walk in free agency. That would be $16.7 million spent in salary cap expenditures last year that wouldn’t be on the books this year.

The franchise could then take that money and reallocate it toward rebuilding around Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust for another three-year run at one more Stanley Cup for Crosby, while also paving a way toward fluidly stocking the pipeline for “life after Sid.”

After all, with Letang and Malkin as the two most expensive Penguins aside from Crosby in 2022, the team finished without advancing beyond the first round of the playoffs for a fourth straight season.

Is there any reason to believe that it will get better in 2023? I think not.

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However, during this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Mark Madden of 105.9 The X and TribLIVE said that he believes the Penguins are in the process of making an aggressive push toward keeping Letang in Pittsburgh.

“I heard just today they are going to make a real, legitimate run at keeping Letang,” Madden said. “They are going to make an offer big enough so that the ball is going to be in his court. Signing Letang is a bigger priority than signing Malkin. Not many teams have a defenseman you have to worry about every minute they are out there.”

According to Madden, if the Penguins retain Letang, that’ll assure them of making the playoffs again. But he won’t predict any surge into the postseason beyond that.

“If the goal is to make the playoffs and keep the streak alive, then, yeah, bringing back Letang virtually guarantees that. I think the Penguins with Letang make the playoffs next year,” Madden said. “But remember when the Red Wings made the playoffs 25 years in a row? They were so intent on keeping that streak alive, that they crippled that team further for the long run by propping it up near the end. Keeping veterans. Signing veterans. Now they haven’t made the playoffs for six straight years.”

Recently, Frank Seravalli of TheDailyFaceoff.com suggested that if the Penguins can’t keep Letang, then maybe Montreal’s Jeff Petry could be a suitable replacement.

Letang posted 65 points last year. Petry had 27. So Madden disagrees.

“Petry compared to Letang isn’t ‘Letang-lite,’” Madden insisted. “He is a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox. Ad infinitum. Not a comparison. Not remotely so.”

Also in this week’s “Madden Monday,” Mark and I preview the Stanley Cup Final. We discuss all the emerging stories from last week’s Steelers minicamp. And we get into the instant regression of the Pirates.

Listen: Tim Benz and Mark Madden talk about the Penguins’ possible efforts to retain Kris Letang

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