After a lengthy absence on the injury list, Evgeni Malkin made his return to the lineup for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night.
Making his return to the lineup for the first time since December 4th, Malkin was re-joining a team that is on a tear as of late. After a horrid final month to 2025, the Penguins have rebounded and were riding a five-game winning streak heading into a matchup with the reeling New Jersey Devils.
The Devils, meanwhile, were coming off a 9-0 shellacking at the hands of the New York Islanders.
With the lineup a little bit in flux, head coach Dan Muse had Malkin play wing on a second line centered by Ben Kindel and flanked by fellow Russian (and new Penguin) Egor Chinakov. Though it was an unusual spot for the longtime center to be, it paid of for the Penguins.
Malkin had a goal in his return, helping Pittsburgh to a 4-1 win over New Jersey for their sixth straight win.
You could tell how much he wanted to get one in his first game back. He hunted the puck all night, and fired as many rubber discs as he could towards the net. He ended up leading the team with four shots on goal.
Late in the second period, he finally found the back of the net. On a 5-on-3 power play, Malkin fired a slap shot from right around the faceoff dot past Jake Allen to give the Penguins a 3-0 lead.
It was the pretty typical Malkin game. He had a few bad giveaways and took a needless penalty, but he also scored a pretty big goal as well. It felt like the Penguins fed off some of the energy Geno brought into this one, channeling it into a dominating effort over the Devils.
Getting Malkin’s production back in the lineup will be huge for a Penguins team that finds themselves occupying a wild card spot at 21-12-9 (51 points) and with games in hand on two Metropolitan Division teams in front of them.
But the team’s playoff chances are not the only surprise on this team.
Malkin’s production has been slowly trending downward over the last few seasons. Remember, it wasn’t all that long ago that Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas stated a decision had not been made on Malkin’s future. With his contract expiring at the end of this season, that opened the door for Malkin’s time in Pittsburgh coming to a close.
But now, at age 39, is one of the team’s best offensive producers to open the year. The forward had eight goals and 21 assists (29 points) in 26 games before he suffered an injury that kept him out for over a month.
He was on his best scoring pace in years. Of course, it’s hard to predict whether Malkin can stay on his current trajectory, but his 1.16 points per game would be his best mark since the 2019-20 season, when he had 1.35 points per game.
Even with 15 missed games, Malkin was still tied for fourth on the team in points heading into last night’s game. Losing that level of offense, amidst a string of other losses in the forward group, really hindered Pittsburgh’s game.
Though there were other factors at play, it’s not necessarily a coincidence that the Penguins immediately went on an eight-game losing streak after Malkin came out of the lineup.
Even though they were able to turn it around with a winning streak, it was clear the Penguins still missed his presence in the lineup. Now that he’s back, Pittsburgh has a real chance to continue their playoff push, especially if Malkin continues to produce at his current rate.
The Penguins have 14 games between now and the Olympic break. If Malkin and the Penguins can keep themselves afloat between now and then, they might just have a shot at an unexpected playoff bid.
Fifth Avenue Sports 
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