Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin named to NHL’s Quarter Century team

The 2000’s are already 1⁄4 of the way over…

The NHL is naming 25 players to their “Quarter Century” team, and for once the league finally got it right by including Evgeni Malkin! Oh yeah, and of course Sidney Crosby made the list too, no surprise there as being the greatest player the NHL has seen since the Lemieux/Gretzky days.

Malkin was famously omitted from the NHL 100 list of 100 players in the league’s 100 years of existence celebrated in 2017. Memes and a thousand tales of “Mr. 101” were launched. It was something that really stuck with people, former Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford admitted “I still get mad” when thinking about years it later in 2020.

For his part, Malkin kept his normal good humor.

“If the NHL celebrated its centennial this year, my chances would probably be a little higher,” he said in October 2024. “Now I have three Stanley Cups, 500 goals, 1,300 points… So I could probably get to 99th place now.”

It would have been impossible for the league not to recognize Malkin on this one. Geno’s 1,346 points rank fourth among all players since the start of the 2000-01 season, trailing only Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Joe Thornton. Add in the Conn Smythe, two Art Ross trophies for winning the scoring title and a league MVP season and for once Malkin was impossible to ignore.

A little more from the Pens:

Pittsburgh Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby and Alternate Captain Evgeni Malkin have been named to the NHL Quarter-Century Team, which recognizes the top 25 players of the last 25 years, it was announced today by the National Hockey League.

The Quarter-Century Team was selected through a two-stage campaign that included input from NHL officials, followed by a league-wide fan vote.

Over the last quarter century from January 1, 2000 through December 31, 2024, Crosby ranks at the top of every major regular-season category, including games played (1,311, 14th), goals (602, 2nd), assists (1,035, 2nd), points (1,637, 1st), game-winning goals (93, 3rd) and overtime goals (22, 2nd).

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Malkin, also a three-time Stanley Cup Champion (2009, ’16, ’17), has been a dominant force in the NHL since making his debut in the 2006-07 season. Since then, his performance has placed him near the top of various major statistical categories since the turn of the century. The 6-foot-5, 210-pound forward has scored 514 goals, 832 assists and 1,346 points, which rank sixth, fifth and fourth, respectively, among all players since 2000. Additionally, his production in the playoffs has been nothing but exceptional as his 180 points (67G-113A) rank second behind Crosby among all players over the past 25 years. Malkin reached the 100-point mark during the 2007-08, ‘08-09 and ‘11-12 seasons, being one of eight players to do so three or more times since he entered the league. He also reached the 50-goal mark once during the ‘11-12 season.