Not sure if everyone has heard this, but Kingerski was passing along PIerre Lebrun reports....which I didn't see..... indicating his belief the Pens core might indeed be finished.
Says the team may be amenable to a short-term (whatever that means) deal for Letang, who has supposedly said he thought he could play "forever". I myself have gotten the impression that Letang isn't going to/won't short-change himself, especially to satisfy new ownership.....or Hexy and Burky, for that matter.....to which he has no personal/emotional allegiance;.....or, of course, they to him.
Of course, it's no secret the team has yet to approach Geno or Rusty formally about any kind of new deals thus far. Lebrun says the team has a Plan A.....sign Geno and Letang (not sure about Rusty) at team friendly deals, and a Plan B.....let everyone walk and begin the rebuild/re-tool next season. He thinks they may currently be in the Plan A camp, since the team seems perhaps more competitve this season than many expected.
The X-factor, of course, is the new ownership......which neither Lebrun (nor yours truly) is making any kind of guess as to where they currently stand. And early in their new process, they very well may not know themselves.
We all know that Burkle and Mario had the "for sale" sign out for some time, but were presumablly holding out for better offers....which they apparently got from FSG. However, I'm wondering if the sale at this point in time was not a coincidence. Maybe Burkle and Mario didn't want to have to make a decision specifically on Letang and Geno, and wanted/needed somebody else to make the decision (either way) for them
