NEW YORK — Evgeni Malkin is always in the spotlight when Sidney Crosby is out with an injury. He’s also often in the spotlight at Madison Square Garden, a building in which he loves to perform.
Will he ever play there in a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey again? It seems to be worth questioning.
Malkin opened up about his contractual situation following a 3-2 shootout loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon.
The Penguins icon will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. At the end of that month, he turns 40. He’s having his best season in quite some time and has made it clear that he doesn’t want to retire and wishes to return to Pittsburgh next season. His representation, according to Malkin, met with Penguins’ president of hockey operations/general manager, Kyle Dubas, a couple of days ago.
No agreement was made on a new deal. In fact, it’s not clear that any negotiations even took place. Rather, it appears Dubas will wait until the conclusion of the 2025-26 season before deciding if Malkin will return for another season.
“He (Dubas) said wait until the end of the season, and we’ll see what’s going on,” Malkin said. “Nothing else I can say right now. I just play. It’s not my job to talk to Kyle. I just want to play my game and just wait. Sid is injured. I want to help the team. Nothing. No crazy news. I just wait. My agent tells me we’ll wait until the end of the season.”
When Malkin last spoke with reporters in January in Edmonton, he said, “I never said I wanted to retire.”
Malkin, in fact, has made it clear on numerous occasions that he wants to return.
While Dubas is organizing a youth movement by acquiring an enormous number of draft picks and prospects over the last two years, the Penguins are surprisingly good this season and in second place in the Metropolitan Division.
Malkin has delivered 13 goals and 46 points in 43 games this season.
Malkin, a no-doubt, first ballot Hall of Famer, has amassed 527 goals and 1,392 points in his legendary career.
Ten postgame observations
• The Malkin situation is fascinating.
I reported last summer that the Penguins didn’t intend to bring him back following this season. He was not part of the Dubas’ plan following this season.
One can’t deny, however, that Malkin’s performance this season has greatly exceeded anyone’s reasonable expectations. He’s been magnificent. Malkin has consistently produced offensively, both in five-on-five play and on one of the NHL’s best power plays.
The real question here, essentially, is this: Has Malkin’s surprisingly impressive play been enough to convince Dubas and the Penguins to change their course and bring Malkin back next season? Only Dubas, who is scheduled to speak with the media next Friday following the conclusion of the trade deadline, owns those answers. In fact, maybe he doesn’t yet know. Remember, the Penguins were supposed to be one of the NHL’s worst teams this season, a rebuilding project to be sure.
Instead, they’ve been one of the 10 best teams almost all season. Malkin has played a significant role in this.
I chatted with Malkin briefly after he met with the media in the visitors’ locker room. He’s absolutely frustrated and badly wants to return.
• I couldn’t help but think of Crosby and his role in all of this.
Crosby, who will miss at least three more weeks with an injury sustained in the Milan Olympics, did not make the trip to New York. He and Malkin have played together for 20 years and counting and are extremely close friends.
The Penguins captain has never flexed his muscles regarding personnel moves. It’s merely not his way. However, in 2022, he made it quite clear to former general manager Ron Hextall that he wanted impending free agents Malkin and Kris Letang to return.
This wasn’t what Hextall wanted to do with the Penguins, but he reluctantly gave in, signing off on a six-year deal for Letang and a four-year deal for Malkin.
Crosby wants Malkin to return. The fan base wants Malkin to return. Malkin wants to return.
But does Dubas want him to return? If the answer was a clear yes, he’d be signed by now.
This doesn’t mean Malkin is done in Pittsburgh, but I suspect it means Dubas wants as much time as possible to come to a final decision.
• Malkin is playing high-level hockey. His legs are lively at the moment. He certainly isn’t the goal scorer he once was, but when he’s skating like he is, he remains a force.
On two occasions late in overtime, Malkin nearly beat the Rangers, only to be denied by the great Igor Shesterkin.
With Crosby out, the Penguins only have one line that is consistently providing offense. That, of course, is Malkin’s line.
• This was a strange hockey game. The Penguins utterly dominated the first period and, five minutes into the second period, they were up 2-0 and had allowed only four shots.
Surely, the game was over, given that the Rangers are among the NHL’s worst teams.
However, for the remainder of the game, the Rangers took it to the Penguins. This was not a good performance. There was too much east-west in the Penguins’ game, not enough physicality, not enough energy.
Just a bad performance, quite frankly.
All in all, getting three out of four points to start play after the Olympic break isn’t the end of the world. In fact, holding on to get a point was an important development, as they felt in trouble during much of the third period. It’s hard to feel great about how they played today, though. The second and third periods were objectively poor.
• I mentioned following the New Jersey game that I didn’t like Rickard Rakell at center. One game later, I feel even more strongly about it.
The top line of Rakell, Bryan Rust and Avery Hayes struggled much of the afternoon and didn’t provide much offense. Rakell took 10 faceoffs and lost all of them. Vincent Trocheck, conversely, won an astounding 18 of 21 draws for the Rangers.
Ben Kindel didn’t have a sharp game, but I’d still put him between Rust and Rakell in the next game. I love Hayes. He can really play. But he’s not a top-six guy, at least not right now, and needs to unleash all of his energy in a crash-and-bang bottom-six role.
• The Penguins would be wise to keep the Tommy Novak-Egor Chinakhov-Malkin line together. It’s electric. It produces consistent offense.
Their other line combinations, however, are worth exploring for Dan Muse. As mentioned above, I’d try Kindel between Rust and Rakell.
We’ll probably know more about the Crosby-less Penguins following tomorrow, when they host the Golden Knights. Vegas offers a far better roster than the Rangers.
• The Penguins immediately took the lead in the first period on Anthony Mantha’s power-play goal. They then scored another power-play goal, this one by Rust, but it was overturned because of a goaltending interference challenge. Mantha’s skate made contact with Shesterkin.
While I acknowledge these are tough calls to make, the NHL has a real problem on its hands. Plays like this are ruled goals all the time. This wasn’t the case on this day.
“I was surprised,” Muse said. “I was definitely surprised by the ruling. I’m not sure what to make of it anymore. I’ll just leave it at that.”
• On the bright side, Skinner was sharp in this game. He hadn’t played in three and a half weeks and performed well.
Muse noted that the Penguins earned a point because of Skinner.
That’s a pretty fair assessment.
Skinner allowed a goal in the shootout to Trocheck, which is all that was required to beat the Penguins, who are now an unfathomable 1-8 in shootouts.
• It was another bumpy day for the Letang/Samuel Girard pairing. It wasn’t a disaster, but I don’t think they look comfortable together just yet.
We’ll see.
• I asked Mike Sullivan what his emotions were like when he heard Crosby, his captain of 10 years in Pittsburgh, wasn’t able to play against his Team USA team for Team Canada in the Olympic gold medal game last week.
Sullivan’s affection for Crosby goes without saying.
“Obviously I know what it means to him,” Sullivan said. “Given the relationship that I have with him and how much I care about him, and think of him as a person, I wanted him to be in the lineup for all the reasons I just spoke about. He’s a terrific person, a great hockey player. He’s built such an incredible legacy, and obviously the Olympics is just one more opportunity for him to continue to build that legacy. I was disappointed for him.”