2024-25 Season In Review: Evgeni Malkin

Looking at the 2024-25 regular season performance of Evgeni Malkin for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Vitals

Player: Evgeni Malkin
Born: July 31, 1986 (Age 38 season)
Height: 6’5
Weight: 210 pounds
Hometown: Magnitogorsk, Russia
Shoots: Left
Draft: 2004 first round (2nd overall) by the Pittsburgh Penguins
2024-25 Statistics: 68 games played, 16 goals. 34 assists, 50 points
Contract Status: Malkin is entering the final year of a four-year, $24.4 million contract that he signed prior to the 2022-23 season. It has a salary cap number of $6.1 million.

Monthly Splits

via Yahoo!

Things started off strong for Malkin in October offensively, averaging more than a point-per-game through the first 12 games of the season. From that point on things became a little more inconsistent on a month-to-month basis.

Story of the Season

From a purely offensive standpoint that was pretty easily the toughest season of Malkin’s career when you look at it from a big picture perspective.

After playing in all 82 games in back-to-back seasons, he was limited to just 68 games this season, scored only 16 goals and tallied only 50 total points.

There were times where we would see flashes of the old Malkin. There would be shifts and games where he still had the juice and could take over for long periods of time. But there were other stretches where he looked like a 38-year-old forward whose best days are clearly in the rear-view mirror.

He also never really had consistent linemates and wasn’t always put in the best possible positions to succeed when it came to the players on the ice with him.

In the past he might have been able to make it work. He might have been able to turn nothing into something. He is, unfortunately, not that player anymore.

Regular season 5v5 advanced stats

Data via Natural Stat Trick. Ranking is out of 17 forwards on the team who qualified by playing a minimum of 150 minutes.

Corsi For%: 49.8 % (12th)
Goals For%: 45.7% (8th)
xGF%: 48.1% (13th)
Scoring Chance %: 48.5% (11th)
High Danger Scoring Chance%: 47.1% (12th)
5v5 on-ice shooting%: 8.2% (9th)
On-ice save%: .907 (5th)
Goals/60: 0.61 (11th)
Assist/60: 1.04 (6th)
Points/60: 1.65 (8th)

Some of these numbers are tough to look at it, especially as it relates to his individual goal-scoring, as well as the the scoring chance and expected goal differentials. The Penguins were statistically dominated during Malkin’s ice-time at 5-on-5. I don’t think it would be fair to put all of that blame on Malkin given the inconsistency with the linemates (and at times the lack of quality), but the Penguins consistently lost the minutes Malkin was on the ice this season. That is just not something we are used to seeing.

Charts n’at

WAR% shows a fading star in recent years. Malkin is aging into a shell of what he once was, but over his career was one of the best offensive players of his generation.

It’s been a fall lately, but over the long haul Malkin brought so much to the table.

Shooting and scoring goals has taken a big decline, but Malkin still thrives at setting his linemates up for shot assists and making quality passes in the danger areas.

While Malkin’s speed burst are gone at age-38 and after two major knee surgeries, one interesting area is the distance he travels hasn’t been hindered, as we’ll see below.

Malkin was covering 3-4 miles per game regularly at the start of the season. That faded as the year went along but goes to show that when he was fresh the big guy still circled around the ice hunting pucks and getting up in the play as much as anyone – just not as quick as he did it in his younger days.

Highlights

Question to ponder

The big question for Malkin right now is simply a big one one regarding his future in the NHL. Specifically, will the 2025-26 season be it for him? His contract expires after the 2025-26 season, and while Sidney Crosby seems like he still might have a few more years remaining, Malkin seems to have lost a step a little sooner. Would it really be a surprise if he retired after this season? That is a reality that has to be pondered.

Ideal 2025-26

Malkin’s days as a point-per-game, or 100-point player are almost certainly done. But if the Penguins could find some steady linemates for him and put him into sheltered minutes where he can focus strictly on offense there is still probably something in there. We saw some glimpses of the old Malkin at times this season, and it can still be in there on occasion. If the Penguins can get 20-25 goals and 55-60 points out of him that would probably be a solid performance.

Bottom line

Malkin is one of the all-time greatest Penguins and one of the best players of this generation league-wide. His resume speaks for itself, and he is one of the most important players in Penguins franchise history. Even though he is not still on that same level, his contract is still manageable (only $6 million against the salary cap for one more season) for the production he is still capable of. If this season ends up being a farewell tour for him at the end of his career, make sure you make the most of seeing him in person while he is still playing. Especially since there is still a chance you could still see him do something spectacular on the ice.