CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Evgeni Malkin remains as passionate as ever about hockey as his 21st season with the Pittsburgh Penguins begins.<\/p>\n
Whether it\u2019s his last, be it in Pittsburgh or anywhere else, only his body knows. And right now, it\u2019s not telling the 40-year-old Russian star anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean it\u2019s a hard question,\u201d Malkin said Friday. \u201cWe see what\u2019s going on during the season, you know. And right now I won\u2019t say yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also won\u2019t say no, though he has one very clear metric that will play a massive role in whatever happens beyond this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I not feel hundred percent, I\u2019m not playing,\u201d Malkin said, adding that if he\u2019s not helping the team to win, \u201cI\u2019m retired.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malkin was able to turn the clock back a bit last year, posting 19 goals to go with 42 assists despite missing time with injuries. He averaged over a point per game for the first time since 2019-20 and seemed fueled by the desire to prove to Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas he was still worth the investment.<\/p>\n
Dubas played his cards close to the vest until after Pittsburgh\u2019s first-round playoff exit to Philadelphia. He praised Malkin\u2019s effort and about a month later, negotiations that appeared a little tense outwardly resulted with Malkin signing a one-year deal to remain with the club where he\u2019s won three Stanley Cups, two scoring titles and an MVP during a career that will almost certainly end in the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
The deal also extended the partnership between Malkin, captain Sidney Crosby and defenseman Kris Letang to 21 years and counting, the longest three teammates have ever played together in major North American professional sports history.<\/p>\n
Though Malkin believes it\u2019s production, not nostalgia, that has kept them together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not we\u2019re just here because we win three Cups, you know,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope we\u2019re here because we still play good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Penguins are banking on it. Pittsburgh largely kept together the roster that finished a surprising second behind Carolina in the Metropolitan Division, including re-signing forward Egor Chinakhov, a Russian who blossomed while playing alongside Malkin after being acquired in a trade with Columbus.<\/p>\n
There are now four Russians on the team, allowing Malkin the chance to serve as a mentor in the same way former Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar did for him two decades ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny advice, any like \u2018Go to dinner,\u2019 you know, we just do it. \u201cI\u2019m the old guy here and I just have the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malkin begins the year with 1,407 career points, just 14 shy of surpassing Hall of Fame center Adam Oates to climb into the top 20 on the NHL\u2019s all-time list.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s done it while serving as the emotional \u2018yin\u2019 to Crosby\u2019s more reserved \u2018yang.\u2019 If Malkin had ended up somewhere else, maybe he\u2019d had been the face of the franchise. He\u2019s long made peace with the trade-off. If this is his final season, it\u2019s been a great ride. But he\u2019s not quite ready to head off into the sunset just yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think last year I showed my good games, and I am excited to be here,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd again, like, I\u2019m here to win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Evgeni Malkin remains as passionate as ever about hockey as his 21st season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-290655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}