Evgeni Malkin is one pace for a career-defining year for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

It’s never easy to predict what kind of season a 37-year-old with injury history will put together, but the Pittsburgh Penguins are getting something extremely special from Evgeni Malkin right now.

Through the first 13 games of the 2023-24 season, Malkin is leading the Penguins with eight goals and 16 total points.

That’s an 82 game pace of 101 points, a number he hasn’t hit since since his 109-point season in 2011-12; Malkin took home the Art Ross and Hart Trophies that year as league top scorer and MVP.

Malkin’s health has played a huge role in his recent surge, that isn’t all that recent.

In 2022-23, Malkin played in all 82 games for the first time since the 2008-09 season and he recorded 83 points (27G-56A) in the full season of play.

Entering that year with a clean bill of health allowed Malkin the opportunity to find a new gear just in time for what could be the final contract of his NHL career.

Now, in 2023-24, Malkin is not only healthy, but he’s again posting unreal offensive numbers.

Not to say that Malkin has been a bad player, he’s always been fantastic, but there’s something genuinely special about a player of his age and injury history putting up this kind of pace.

Also consider that in the shortened 2020-21 season, Malkin played in 33 total games and recorded eight total goals.

Through 13 games in the 2023-24 season, he’s already sitting on eight goals with so many more to come.

If Malkin can keep up this pace, he can become just the third player in NHL history to record 100 points or more at or past the age of 37.

Joe Sakic picked up 100 at at the age of 37 and Gordie Howe notched 103 at age 40.

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