Pittsburgh Penguins star Evgeni Malkin has shared that he is planning to play when the team returns from break on Saturday, per Rob Rossi of The Athletic. Malkin has missed Pittsburgh’s last six games after suffering an injury in the team’s January 25th loss to Seattle. He sustained the injury roughly halfway through the first period, after the skate of Kraken forward Chandler Stephenson seemed to catch Malkin in the thigh. He attempted to return for a brief shift later in the first, but was ruled out before the game’s second period. Pittsburgh placed Malkin on injured reserve just two days later. He’ll need to be activated off of IR before Saturday’s game, which will force Pittsburgh to reassign a player like Vasiliy Ponomarev or Bokondji Imama.
The return of one of their lineup pillars will be great news in Pittsburgh. Malkin has continued to perform at a premier level this year, with his 34 points in 47 games ranked fifth on the team in total scoring. In even better news, Malkin went on to emphasize to Rossi that he has no intentions of retiring this summer or playing anywhere else. He told The Athletic, “[I’ll] retire with Pittsburgh. The Penguins are my team… When I retire, [it’ll be] here.” Malkin added that, despite speculation, he has no plans of playing anymore Russian hockey either – save for potentially a one-game send-off with his hometown Metallurg Magnitogorsk when all is said and done.
Malkin is signed through the end of the 2025-26 season, setting him up for at least one more full year in Pittsburgh’s black-and-gold. He’s squashed talks of a potential retirement this summer, which will naturally push attention back until his deal ends in 2026. But Malkin continues to hold down a strong, middle-six role for the Penguins, averaging north of 18 minutes of ice time each game this season. Fellow Penguins legend Sidney Crosby is signed through the end of the 2026-27 campaign, which could be enough to convince Malkin to find an extra gear and retire alongside his longtime partner-in-crime. Malkin entered the NHL in 2006-07, one year after Crosby’s debut. Crosby scored a career-high 120 points in his first year alongside Malkin, while the latter managed his career-high of 113 points in their second year together.
Few duos in hockey history have stood as tall as Crosby and Malkin. The two have led three Stanley Cup wins and recorded the sole assist on each the other’s 500th NHL goal. They’re a ubiquitous tandem, and Malkin’s imminent return from lower-body injury sets him up to continue his role second to Crosby on the depth chart.
Malkin’s return will likely push one of Ponomarev, Blake Lizotte, or Emil Bemstrom out of the lineup. Lizotte and Bemstrom have each scored one goal through their last 10 games, while Ponomarev is still searching for his first point after four NHL games this season. Should Ponomarev be the odd man out, he’ll likely head back to a red-hot minor-league season. Ponomarev ranks fourth on the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in scoring with 29 points in 34 games.
Malkin is playing at a “world-class” level? Someone needs to adjust their AI prompt levels, because Geno hasn’t been “world-class” in a long, long time. (Srsly, 5th on the team in scoring, on a team next-to-last in their division is “world-class” ?!?)
… then throw in that he’s even more terrible than usual at the dot (Malkin’s never been good at faceoffs) and has no physical dimension to his game. He’s still an NHL player, he can still contribute on a middle-six level, and there’s no shame in a 38 year old man no longer being elite, but those days are in the rear view mirror.
Malkin will hang around to long like alot of other players, They just can’t let go, It becomes embarrassing. MAF has been cringeworthy this season.
Ironic you use cringeworthy in one of your own posts
Eventually hall of famer, but if Penguins were smart they’d deal him at next year’s TDL for a 2nd round pick
Except he has a full NMC and has said, as put in the article, he won’t play anywhere but Pitts. That and he likely isn’t worth a 2nd when he has a 6.1M cap hit.
At some point both Pitt and Phi need to figure out their rebuild. Pitt has 15 picks in top 3 rounds next 3 drafts. drafting someone now doesn’t mean they help in Crosby and Malkin’s window unless they trade those picks for talent to surround Crosby and Malkin. Probably around free agency/ draft not at deadline..
And PHL already has 3 first rounders in the next draft. Do they sell off more assets for more draft picks? I guess their window is longer than Pitt so makes sense.
On many/most other teams, Geno would be the best player in that team’s history. Here, he has to get in line behind Mario, Sid and Jagr (Francis and Coffey is you count their whole careers).
We are once again spoiled rotten to have such a great player be the second best guy on the team the whole time.
Calder. 2 scoring titles. MVP. Conn Smythe. Slam dunk first ballot HOF’er in only our jersey.
Meanwhile, yinzers have had to watch one meaningless game in each of the past two seasons so they are personally aggrieved and betrayed.
You will be making this exact post in 2030.
That would be odd.
So, you expect Geno to play until he’s 45?
And that we will continue to miss the playoffs by one game in perpetuity?
If your point is that the Pens will be bad for a long time, yes.
And we’ll still have more Cups, scoring titles, MVP’s and HOF’ers than any other contemporary club, even after that drought…we’ll be fine.