Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin Placed on IR With Upper-Body Injury, Considered Day-To-Day
The Pittsburgh Penguins will remain without one of their top skaters, forward Evgeni Malkin, currently sidelined with an upper-body injury.
Prior to Sunday’s contest against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the club announced it had placed Malkin on injured reserve, forcing the future Hall-of-Fame skater to miss at least four additional games. He had already missed the previous three contests dating back to his last appearance on January 5th versus the Carolina Hurricanes.
The 38-year-old was a late scratch ahead of the Jan. 7 matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Despite participating in the morning skate before puck drop, he didn’t appear in pre-game warmups and was ultimately ruled unavailable due to injury.
Placing Malkin on IR was a procedural move for the Penguins, as head coach Mike Sullivan told reporters Sunday, including the Associated Press. The paper transaction allowed the club to activate forward Philip Tomasino from injured reserve, marking his return from a four-game absence.
Tomasino, acquired from the Nashville Predators in late November for a 2027 fourth-round pick, has been excellent since arriving in Pittsburgh. In 17 games, the 23-year-old has four goals and seven points, averaging 13:36 per night, over two minutes more than he averaged with his former club.
Forward Michael Bunting also missed Sunday’s contest versus Tampa Bay after being involved in a car accident outside PPG Paints Arena. But the 29-year-old didn’t suffer any significant injuries and should be fine moving forward, according to the Penguins’ head coach.
Pittsburgh is currently listing Malkin as day-to-day, per Sullivan. After landing on IR, the earliest he can re-enter the lineup will be when the team travels to Los Angeles on Jan. 20 to face the Kings.
Unsurprisingly, the 2012 Hart Trophy winner had been among the Penguins’ most productive performers this season, posting eight goals and 32 points across 41 games. He also had at least one point in six of his previous nine games, including a multi-point performance, before sustaining the injury.
Prior to his current IR stint, Malkin hadn’t missed a single game since the 2022-23 season, playing all 82 in back-to-back campaigns. Sadly, his streak of 209 consecutive games played – the 12th-longest in franchise history – was snapped on Jan. 7.
The Penguins are 1-2-1 without No. 71 during this recent stretch, and they’ll attempt to improve that record during a three-game span versus the Seattle Kraken, Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals before he’s first eligible to return.
Across this season’s halfway mark, Pittsburgh enters Monday’s slate two points back of the final wild-card seed in the East, currently held by Columbus with 46 points. However, those two are separated by three teams – the Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings.
There’s still plenty of time for the Penguins to claim one of the two wild-card positions, especially considering how wide open the Eastern Conference playoff race is. One element to consider, though, is they only feature a 4.6-percent chance to make the postseason, per MoneyPuck.
So, for a roster that includes aging stars like Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson, it appears far more likely they’ll become sellers than legitimate playoff contenders once again.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @Hall_Thomas_
Photo: Michael Miller. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.