Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin wants to return to the team and play in the NHL for another year or two, the veteran said following Monday’s win over the Colorado Avalanche.
The 39-year-old is playing in his 20th NHL season, all with Pittsburgh, and said he and general manager Kyle Dubas will wait until after the season to discuss his future.
“I can’t say anything. We talked two weeks ago and he told me we’d wait for the summer. He said ‘Don’t worry, we’ll talk after the season,’” Malkin said of his contract discussions. “I’m okay. I feel great. I want to play next year, maybe two, who knows?”
“We have 15 games left. I hope [we make the] playoffs. I want to just play.”
Malkin had two goals and one assist in Monday’s 7-2 rout of the league-leading Avalanche and is now up to 15 goals and 50 points in 47 games this season. If he continues scoring at this pace, he will surpass a point-per-game for the 16th time in his NHL career.
The Penguins (34-18-15) sit second in the Metropolitan Division with 83 points, two ahead of the third-place New York Islanders and the Boston Bruins, who hold the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Malkin is in the final season of a four-year, $24.4 million deal he signed with the club in 2022 that carries a cap hit of $6.1 million.
The Magnitogorsk, Russia native was selected second overall by the Penguins in the 2004 NHL Draft and has scored 529 goals and 1,396 points in 1,260 career games. He ranks third on the Penguins’ all-time list in points, goals, and assists behind Sidney Crosby and Mario Lemieux.
The three-time Stanley Cup champion (2009, 2016, 2017), has previously expressed his desire to remain in Pittsburgh with longtime teammates Crosby and Kris Letang.