malkin obviously has a much longer and fuller career than kucherov, but i think kucherov might have already passed malkin’s peak.
malkin has a stunning five year peak as a historically elite player:
2008: second in scoring to ovechkin’s absolute peak year, hart runner up, strong run to the finals
2009: art ross, hart runner up again, historically dominant cup run and conn smythe
2010: /
2011: /
2012: one of those truly great end-to-end hart/ross seasons where no one else was ever close
kuch is at seven peak years now:
2017: fifth in scoring
2018: third in scoring (tbf, malkin in a late spike year was two pts behind)
2019: kuch’s own truly great end-to-end hart/ross season where no one else was ever close, except mcjesus for a hot minute at the end
2020: meh regular season, led the playoffs in scoring
2021: missed the whole regular season, led the playoffs in scoring again
2022: meh regular season, strong finals run
2023: third in scoring, behind absolute peak mcjesus, plus draisaitl
2024: probable art ross and broke his own single-season winger assist record
both guys had injury issues and each also had just a dud year or two (by their insanely high standards) during their peaks but they each also outscored generational talents right in the middle their peaks. absolute top end, i think malkin was a little better, but kucherov has the deeper peak and he probably will still be in it next year.