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Featured Columnist IVJanuary 27, 2025
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The Pittsburgh Penguins announced Monday they placed star forward Evgeni Malkin on injured reserve with a lower-body injury.
The Athletic’s Rob Rossi reported Malkin is expected to miss a few weeks.
“If that early word holds up—and to be clear, with all knee injuries, things can change after the swelling goes down and doctors get clearer images—Malkin would probably not play again until after the Penguins return from the break for the upcoming 4 Nations tournament next month,” Rossi said. “They have six games before that break begins.”
In this his 19th NHL season, the 38-year-old veteran has registered nine goals and 25 assists in 47 appearances.
Ever since going No. 2 overall to the Pens in the 2004 NHL draft, Malkin has been among the best and most dynamic players in the league.
Malkin has three seasons with 40 or more goals and three seasons with 100 or more points to his credit, and few active NHL players are more decorated than he is in terms of awards and accolades.
The Russian center is a seven-time All-Star, plus he won the 2007 Calder Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year, the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer in both 2009 and 2012, and the Hart Memorial Trophy as NHL MVP in 2012.
Malkin also helped lead the Penguins to three Stanley Cup victories in 2009, 2016 and 2017, and he was named playoff MVP in 2009 as the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Prior to the 2020-21 season, Malkin had produced at a point-per-game or better clip in nine consecutive seasons. That included 74 points in just 55 games in 2019-20.
Injuries limited Malkin to just 33 games in 2020-21 and 41 games in 2021-22, but he was productive when healthy, recording 42 points in those 41 contests.
Malkin bounced back to appear in all 82 games in both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 campaigns, finishing with 83 points and 67 points, respectively.
Despite his past durability issues and the fact that he is no longer an elite point producer, Malkin is still of the utmost importance to the Penguins’ success, as evidenced by his more than 1,300 career points, and he will be missed now that he’s back on the shelf.