There has been a whole lot going right for the Pittsburgh Penguins during the 2025-26 season, and much of it can be credited to the work of general manager and president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas.
He brought in the right free agents during the offseason, including defenseman Parker Wotherspoon and forwards Justin Brazeau and Anthony Mantha. He has also managed to get maximum value from the trades he has made.
And one of those trades - and, inarguably, the best so far - was the one in late December that landed winger Egor Chinakhov for a second- and a third-round pick.
The 24-year-old forward - selected 21st overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2020 - requested a trade from Columbus over the summer, and his season didn’t start off the way he or the Jackets would have wanted it to. Before heading over to Pittsburgh this season, he had just three goals and six points in 29 games to go along with a minus-6.
Since then? Nine goals and 13 points in 20 games, and the vast majority of those have come playing on the same line as Evgeni Malkin. In fact, Malkin has six assists on Chinakhov’s nine goals, and five of them are primary assists.
A 39-goal pace for Chinakhov isn’t too shabby, but neither is an 87-point pace for the 39-year-old Malkin, who is on an expiring contract. Chinakhov is the kind of scoring winger that Malkin has lacked since the days of Phil Kessel from 2015-19, and their chemistry has, undeniably, been a huge asset to the Penguins winning hockey games, as they are 13-3-4 since acquiring Chinakhov.
On Saturday, Malkin clarified to reporters after the Penguins’ 3-2 shootout loss to the New York Rangers that contract extension talks between his representation and the Penguins’ would stall until the offseason. According to Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now, Malkin and GM/POHO Kyle Dubas will meet next week to discuss.
And, if the Penguins have been paying any attention to the magic of the Malkin-Chinakhov combination, it should be a no-brainer to bring Malkin back for another season or two.
The striking thing about Chinakhov is that his goal-scoring doesn’t appear to be a fluke. Yes, it’s highly unlikely that he will continue at his current pace for the rest of the season, but it’s also worth considering that he’ll be playing a more elevated role without Sidney Crosby in the lineup for a few more weeks.
But his shot is legitimate. So are his hockey smarts and his ability to somehow always expose the soft areas of the ice and be in position to create scoring chances. So is his defensive ability. So is his speed. This is a player who is not only a scoring threat, but a complete package.
Malkin’s playmaking is still legitimate, too. He is on pace for 68 assists, which would be the second-highest total of his career behind his 2008-09 campaign in which he registered 35 goals and 78 assists for 113 points. He is probably beyond the point in his career where he will be putting the puck in the back of the net with much regularity, but that’s almost a non-issue if he can consistently set up a player who is capable of putting the puck in the back of the net with regularity.
The fact is that Chinakhov is a revelation for Malkin and the Penguins, and he’s the exact kind of player who has the potential to extend Malkin’s career. With no Chinakhov in the picture, it’s very possible that Malkin would not be producing at the rate that he is, and even if he was, there’s no guarantee he would have the talent around him beyond this season to sustain this level of production.
Chinakhov is also a restricted free agent this offseason, and he has already expressed his desire to return to Pittsburgh. At this point, why not make Malkin and Chinakhov a package deal?
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