The Penguins have all four of Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby signed for the next four years.
Despite the fact that all of them are either 31 or 32, all four of them are performing well into their thirties, as star players tend to.
If the Penguins were smart - and their recent acquisitions of Eric Gudbranson and Jack Johnson indicate that they are not - then they would load up and try to win once more with this group, since it's basically a once in a lifetime roster.
However, give their four game sweep at the hands of Robin Lehner, they will most likely overreact, as is the tendency of NHL teams.
If they do, and if they decide to move one of their big stars - Malkin, Kessel or Letang, as there is no chance they'll move Crosby - then the Coyotes should be interested.
Letang has an injury history and does not look like a good bet to return value on his $7.25 for his age 33-36 seasons.
Kessel is $6.8 for 31-35 and Malkin is $9.5 for 33-36.
Odds are good the Penguins would like out of at least one of those deals, and since their is almost no chance of any of those players returning value on the final four years of their contracts, it might at least be in the realm of possibility that they'd be available at a surprisingly low cost.
Of course, this imagines that the Coyotes would a) spend the money and b) that the players in question would waive their NTCs to go to the Coyotes.
Both may be unlikely, but stranger things have happened.
The Coyotes desperately need a franchise centre (Malkin) and they desperately need a scoring winger (Kessel) and better defenseman (Letang).
Any of the three would be a welcome addition, and while I don't claim it's likely, taking a flyer on a late career, big contract is the kind of high-risk/high-reward move the Coyotes would have to pull off in order to win anything.
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