Mark Madden: Evgeni Malkin will always be remembered as a Penguins' all-time great
Some have said I'm too hard on Evgeni Malkin.
I don't think that's correct.
It's true I don't see him as Sidney Crosby's equal. Because he's not. But Malkin is an all-time great.
It's true I would have traded Malkin in 2018 when he would have fetched big return. Assembling energy and younger talent around Crosby might have afforded the captain one last run at glory. It certainly couldn't have worked out much worse than currently. (Nor would it have offered any guarantees.)
I also suggested trading Malkin in 2015. Good thing the Penguins didn't. But the Penguins had underachieved since winning the Stanley Cup in 2009 and seemed irrevocably stale. But then-GM Jim Rutherford made a bunch of other deals that transformed the Penguins into the NHL's fastest team, winning Cups in '16 and '17. Malkin was a huge part of that.
When Malkin re-upped in 2022, there would have been little point to letting him walk. Same with Kris Letang. The Penguins had long since chosen nostalgia.
Which brought us to this past Wednesday: A pre-game ceremony at PPG Paints Arena to celebrate Malkin's 500th career goal.
It was awesome.
Malkin's 8-year-old son Nikita was delightfully wide-eyed at the moment and clearly adores his dad.
Malkin's parents Vladimir and Natalia were beaming. I saw them for the first time in years before the game and shared a warm embrace with Vladimir. The language barrier doesn't obstruct. These are two great people. I've always liked them. (They gave me borscht once.) What a career they've seen their son construct.
I don't have a relationship with Malkin, good or bad. That's laziness on my part, and to my detriment. Malkin is, by all accounts, a terrific guy. There was certainly no shortage of testimony to that during Wednesday night's function.
Malkin is one of the best players ever for the franchise I started supporting in 1967, ground zero, when I was 6. (Younger than Nikita.) It's been a privilege to witness what's he done.
There have been stretches when Malkin was the best hockey player in the world, not least his NHL MVP season in 2011-12 and his playoff MVP campaign in 2009. Rising above the other greats in his era was no easy feat.
The NHL's omission of Malkin when it released its 100 greatest players list for the league's 100th anniversary in 2017 invalidated the whole concept. Mats Sundin? Yikes. Malkin might be top 50, never mind top 100.
Malkin has his flaws, some exacerbated by age. His neutral-zone errors and petulant penalties are maddening.
But when Malkin got it going in his prime, he was a sight to behold. A locomotive. A human highlight reel. That still peeks through occasionally.
Wednesday's pre-game was so memorable.
But when that night's game got to overtime, Malkin has a chance to win it and was robbed. Detroit netted the decider shortly thereafter.
These Penguins have a lot of great old stories.
But they're out of new ones.
Stories about Malkin will be told forever in Pittsburgh. Long after No. 71 is raised to the rafters at PPG Paints Arena. Long after he's enshrined at Yonge Street in Toronto.
