Penguins Rumors: The Shocking Truth of Kris Letang's Trade Value Revealed

As the Pittsburgh Penguins look to continue their plan to get younger and ship out a number of veterans this summer, it's still been generally regarded that Sidney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin and Kris Letang will all be retiring as lifelong Pittsburgh Penguins. But truly, only two of those three have made it eminently clear that they have no desire to go anywhere else. 

Letang has not taken a potential move completely off the table. But there's only one problem with that: the 38-year-old Penguins legend, with three more years to run on his contract at a $6.1 million cap hit, is not in high demand. In fact, insider Josh Yohe put it this way in The Athletic recently:

Penguins president and general manager Kyle Dubas probably couldn’t trade him even if he wanted to.

Team sources said Letang is “unmovable.”

Fellow Penguins insider Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now echoed the same sentiments on Monday: 

Had Letang not undergone surgery to repair a small hole in his heart in April as a solution to preventing future strokes, his trade potential might be a 3 in 10 instead of a zero.

No, Letang will not be going anywhere as the Penguins look to retool and ship out bodies. 

He had a dreadful season this past year, with his worst numbers since his rookie season, 17 years ago. He finished with a career-worst minus-15 rating, and just 30 points in 74 games. 

Yohe went on to add, "Several team sources, who were granted anonymity to protect personal relationships, said Letang and his play were the source of incredible frustration for head coach Mike Sullivan and assistant coach David Quinn this past season. The mental errors have always been a part of the Letang package. Still, the former Penguins coaching staff became somewhat confounded when the mental errors began to multiply as his physical ability dipped."

Safe to say, the Penguins are stuck with Letang, no matter how either side feels about it. 

Photo: © Talia Sprague-Imagn Images