page_title: Evgeni Malkin
section_title: Pittsburgh Penguins (2006–present)
hierarchical_section_title: Evgeni Malkin / Playing career / Pittsburgh Penguins (2006–present)
caption_attribution_description: 71 Evgeni Malkin (C, PIT) Photos from the Pittsburgh Penguins at Boston Bruins NHL game on 2011-01-15, TD Banknorth Garden
context_page_description: Evgeni Vladimirovich Malkin is a Russian professional ice hockey centre and alternate captain for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League.
  Nicknamed "Geno", Malkin began his career with his hometown club Metallurg Magnitogorsk, playing for their junior and senior teams. He was then selected second overall in the 2004 NHL Draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins, though an international transfer dispute delayed the start of his NHL career until 2006. After his first season with the Penguins Malkin was awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's best rookie. In his second season, he helped lead Pittsburgh to the 2008 Stanley Cup Final and was a runner-up for the Hart Memorial Trophy, awarded to the NHL's most valuable player during the regular season. The following season saw Malkin win the Art Ross Trophy, awarded to the top-scorer in the NHL and again place second for the Hart Trophy. He and the Penguins again reached the Stanley Cup Final, winning the Stanley Cup championship this time around. Malkin was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs.
context_section_description: In his first pre-season game with the Penguins, on 20 September 2006, Malkin collided with teammate John LeClair and dislocated his own shoulder, which forced him to miss the start of the season. Subsequently, his NHL debut would be delayed until 18 October, against the New Jersey Devils, in which he scored his first goal against Martin Brodeur.
  Malkin set a modern NHL record when he scored a goal in each of his first six games. No player had achieved this feat since the NHL's inaugural season in 1917–18, when Joe Malone scored at least 1 goal in 14 consecutive games to start his NHL career (Malone, however, had played in the National Hockey Association, the predecessor league to the NHL). Malkin's streak was eventually stopped in his seventh game by the San Jose Sharks.
  Playing on a team with another highly touted prospect, Sidney Crosby, Malkin finished his rookie season with 33 goals and 85 points, leading all first-year players and capturing the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's top rookie, the second Penguin to win the award after Mario Lemieux. Malkin was named alternate captain for the Penguins shortly after.
  When Malkin arrived in the United States, he spoke little English, but through the help of fellow Russian teammate Sergei Gonchar, he eventually started to give short, simple interviews in the language.
   
  In his sophomore season, Malkin recorded his first NHL hat-trick, against the Toronto Maple Leafs, on 3 January 2008. He earned another three-goal performance several games later, on 14 January, against the New York Rangers. Midway through the season, when more heralded teammate and captain Sidney Crosby went down with an ankle injury, Malkin seized the opportunity to lead the Penguins, scoring 44 points in the 28 games Crosby was absent. In total, Malkin completed the season second in NHL scoring with 106 points, six points behind Alexander Ovechkin for the Art Ross Trophy. Malkin continued to dominate into the Stanley Cup playoffs as the Penguins made it to the 2008 Stanley Cup Final. He scored three points against the Detroit Red Wings in the finals, totaling 22 points overall, but the Penguins were defeated by Detroit in six games.
  Malkin's sophomore season culminated in a Hart Memorial Trophy nomination as NHL MVP—the award was given to Ovechkin—and First Team All-Star honors. On 2 July 2008, with one year left in his entry-level contract, he signed a five-year, $43.5 million contract extension with Pittsburgh.
  Malkin began the 2008–09 season by scoring his 200th NHL point with an assist to Sidney Crosby on 18 October 2008. The goal was also Crosby's 100th career goal and 300th career point. Crosby had a team trainer cut the puck in half so both players could commemorate the moment. Voted as a starter to the 2009 NHL All-Star Game later in the season, Malkin won the shooting accuracy segment of the Skills Competition, initially shooting four-for-four before beating Dany Heatley three-for-four in a tie-breaker. After having finished runner-up to Alexander Ovechkin the previous season for the Art Ross Trophy, Malkin captured the scoring championship with 113 points. He became the second Russian-born player to win it, after Ovechkin, and the fourth Penguin, after Mario Lemieux, Jaromír Jágr and Crosby. However, he would once again be runner-up to Ovechkin for the Hart Trophy, although this time garnering a few more first-place votes. In 2008, he had just one first-place vote (out of 134 votes) and 659 points to Ovechkin's 128 first-place votes and 1,313 points. In 2009, Malkin had 12 first-place votes (out of 133 votes) and 787 points to Ovechkin's 115 first-place votes and 1,264 points.
  On 12 June 2009, the Penguins won the Stanley Cup after defeating the Detroit Red Wings 2–1 in Game 7 of the Finals. Malkin tallied 36 points (14 goals and 22 assists) to become the first player to lead both the regular season and playoffs in scoring since Mario Lemieux accomplished the feat in 1992. His 36 points were the highest playoff total of any player since Wayne Gretzky amassed 40 points in 1993. Malkin received 
caption: During his sophomore season (2007–08 season), Malkin scored 106 points, the second-highest amongst NHL players that season.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.", "Image Model": "SP560UZ", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Version 1.0", "Image DateTime": "2011:01:15 13:17:04", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "984", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 37, 0, 1, 0, 20, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4838", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7237", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Creative", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:01:15 13:17:04", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:01:15 13:17:04", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "297/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Cool white fluorescent (W 3900 - 4500K)", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "2106/25", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1351", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1896", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3264", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2448", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "4690", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "26a82425c60edaad395259dc2ede32fa"}