Free agency day 2

So today we find out that everyone is still going to get free candy. Yay! If you don't know about free candy, please head over to The Pensblog. So Brooks Orpik is retained, but the Pens lose Jarkko Ruutu to Ottawa. Why Ottawa? Eh. The fact that the deal breaker here was probably over one year and not money is kind of hard to swallow, as Ruutu reportedly wanted three years and not two, but the Pens would not go three. We'll miss him.

Oh yeah, there's someone else the Pens lost today too huh? No, we're not bitter. Not at all. Double eh. Marian Hossa went to the Detroit Red Wings for a ONE YEAR deal at $7.45 million. One year Marian? Are you serious? This baffled us. We thought he really did want to come back. Plus who wouldn't want to play with the best play-maker in the NHL in Sidney Crosby? Hopefully the Wings don't make the Cup Final this year or else the Pens beat them there. Then it won't be worth that one year deal, will it Marian?

And on to the best news of the day, the Pens have signed Evgeni Malkin to a five-year extension worth $43.5 million. Sound familiar? It should, as it's the same as Sidney Crosby's. Malkin will make $9 million for the first four seasons and then $7.5 million in the final year. It's good to have Geno signed for the long run and be over all those stupid rumors. Also good news is that Marc-Andre Fleury's deal is just about done and should be resolved within a couple of days. Over at the insider on Pittsburgh sports we linked to yesterday, he says the deal is done at 6 years $33 million. We shall see.

Links to all of this news and more:

A recap of the day at PG.

Commentary on Hossa from Gene Collier.

NHL notebook from PG.

Work is going to start soon on the new arena.

Seth has been doing great work over at the newly revamped Empty Netters. Check him out for all the updates.

Now on to the Trib, first it's an article about Brooks Orpik stepping in line to take a discount. His quotes are classy and we like his attitude. 

Therrien isn't getting a contract extension just yet.

Over at Rob Rossi's blog Chipped Ice, he makes some interesting statements. Sidney Crosby called Marian Hossa several times trying to get him to sign with the Pens. Several players also thought Hossa was coming back with one saying: "Everybody on our team knows what screwed this up -- it wasn't Marian and it wasn't (general manager Ray Shero)." Dun dun dun! Gee, wonder what that means...? More on Hossa at the Trib here.

And for your entertainment, the rumors are at the insider.

And last but not least, your random YouTube of the day. For your viewing enjoyment we have Brooks Orpik's "The Shift."