Penguins re-sign Kris Letang and Pascal Dupuis

[Cam Cam]

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Penguins locked up another elite young player long term and kept a key player off the market Tuesday, agreeing to terms with defenseman Kris Letang and re-signing forward Pascal Dupuis.

A finalist for the Norris Trophy as the NHL's top defenseman, Letang received an eight-year, $58 million contract extension. He would have entered the final season of an existing contract that carried an annual salary-cap hit of $3.5 million. That will now jump to $7.25 beginning in 2014-15.

Dupuis potentially could've been a free agent this week and cashed on his 11-point postseason, but chose to stay to sign a $15 million, four-year deal.

Letang, 26, tied for the scoring lead among NHL defensemen last season with 38 points in 35 games. He has 44 goals and 165 assists in 385 career games over six-plus seasons.

Letang joins star centers Sidney Crosby (12 years, $104.4 million) and Evgeni Malkin (eight years, $76 million) as players the Penguins have given long-term contracts to in the past 13 months.

Under the collective bargaining agreement, Letang cannot sign until Friday. The pact -- the longest allowable by terms of the new CBA -- will run through the 2021-22 season, when the 6-foot, 201-pound native of Montreal will be 35.

Beginning in 2014-15, the Penguins will be committing $25.45 million of salary cap space to just three players for every season until 2021-22. For the 2014-15 season alone -- counting contracts given wingers James Neal and Chris Kunitz, defenseman Paul Martin and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury -- the organization already has $44.3 million of cap space accounted for just seven players.

Source: http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/9445907/kris-letangpascal-dupuis-re-sign-pittsburgh-penguins

I am glad that they re-signed Kris Letang, but they are locking up a lot of money. :arf:

 

[HNOiL]

Not a good contract at all. Letang is too much of a one-dimensional defenceman to deserve that kind of money. Unless he really works on his defensive game, this contract will never be a good one IMO.

But this is just consistent with the rest of the league which seems to love overpaying it's players right after a lockout because of money...

 

[Dave]

Great job by the Pens resigning Letang, even though I hate the Pens Letang is one hell of a player.

 

[HNOiL]

Great job by the Pens resigning Letang, even though I hate the Pens Letang is one hell of a player.

To even come close to earning that contract he needs to really improve on is defensive game.