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Rights to Malone, Roberts traded to Tampa Bay

By Tony Ferrante | June 28th, 2008

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Penguins GM Ray Shero started his free agency ball rolling today, trading the rights to forwards Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Pens have initally received a fourth round draft pick from the Lightning, and if they are successful in signing at least Malone, that will turn into a third round pick.

Shero said the following in reference to the moves;

“I want to thank both Gary Roberts and Ryan Malone for their time here. They both did incredible jobs for us on and off the ice. They made our team better,” Shero said. “We had an incredible run this year and both players had a great amount to do with that. Both of their times here will be remembered fondly by the Penguins and the fans. We wish them nothing but the best.

“From our standpoint, we had discussions with Ryan throughout the year and it appeared from our ability to make a deal with him that July 1 was going to be there for both players,” he continued. “At end of the day with Ryan, in particular, we didn’t think we were going to go where he was going to be in the market. Ryan said he might want to go to July 1 and see what is there and those are his rights in CBA and I don’t begrudge him at all. It’s important contact for him and his family. Instead of taking the risk, we tried to do the best we could and acquiring the draft pick is important for us. I had a nice talk with him and thanked him for everything. It was a nice story for him in
Pittsburgh, especially with the way played. I hope it works out for everyone.

“
Gary said he wasn’t returning. He was going to move on, which was right for both sides. This deal gives both players before July 1 to get in discussions with

Tampa
Bay. That’d be a great story for them if it worked out.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 1:24 pm and is filed under Pens News, Opinion, Free Agency, Trades. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.