I've got some stuff. I want to get out of my system today regarding

Yvgeny Malkin on a lot of levels. And I have a feeling some of it's going to rub a few people the wrong way and honestly really, really don't care compared to what the subject matter is.

Good morning to you. Good Wednesday morning. I'm Dan Kovachvich of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Penguins. It comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you're into football and or baseball, I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Pirates in the same place that you found

this. The Penguins are hitting the road later today. They'll end up in St. Louis where they're

going to begin a three-game road trip, the last significant trip of their season. That'll be the blues there tomorrow night,

the stars in Dallas on Saturday, the Blackhawks the next night in Chicago. Gino might or might

not be available for any of those. Obviously doesn't matter much in any any direction but it wouldn't hurt to have him

back out there for a bunch of reasons not least of which is that you'd like to see him get a

chance to get acclimated with the new kids that just arrived and everything else also

it's just it it's Gino.

You want to see him playing.

You want to see him finish his career strong.

That's not going to be this season.

It might be next season.

It might be the season after that, although that would require having an extension, not to mention

having him play beyond the age of 40. Gino is currently 38. He's going to turn 39 on the 31st

of July. And again, Gino's contract is up after next season. There are some spectacularly

stupid misconceptions about where he is in his career. So I want to set the groundwork there first.

Here's another. He's still a tremendous value to the franchise. Not in any sort of sentimental capacity either.

I mean, there's some of that. But I'm just talking about from the hockey standpoint, think of it this way.

If out of nowhere, the penguin signed somebody for $5 million a year out of free agency. And you didn't

ever hear this name before, who's this Yvgeny Malkin guy. And he was, let's just say somebody

...