Malkin now 39th All-Time

[TheGoldenJet]

After scoring point number 1268 tonight in his 1108th game, Malkin passed Jean Ratelle (1267 points in 1280 games) for 39th place on the all-time scoring list.

There won’t be more than one active player (most likely zero) that pass Malkin between now and the day he retires, so he will hold a spot inside the top 40 all-time at the time of his retirement. Pretty noteworthy achievement for a player who came over late from Russia and missed hundreds of games due to injuries.

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[BenchBrawl]

Enigmatic player. Had the raw talent to do even more, but he did a lot.

My 2005 prediction was that Malkin would turn out the best out of him, Crosby and Ovechkin. I was wrong, but he gave it a solid shot.

He won everything, individually and team-wise.

Playing on the same team as Crosby will forever cloak his legacy behind a curtain of mystery.

 

[The Panther]

I don't really know what more Malkin could have done. He pretty much did it all.

Multiple 100-point seasons, scoring titles, and Stanley Cups, as well as Hart trophy, Pearson, Conn Smythe. Five times over a point-per-game in deep playoff runs. From 2007 to 2012, he was unstoppable.

Offensively, he's aged quite well, too, although I'd say his defensive game (which, like most top forwards, had always been hit and miss) has kind of fallen off a cliff in the past few years. 83 points last year at age 36.

 

[BenchBrawl]

I don't really know what more Malkin could have done. He pretty much did it all.

Multiple 100-point seasons, scoring titles, and Stanley Cups, as well as Hart trophy, Pearson, Conn Smythe. Five times over a point-per-game in deep playoff runs. From 2007 to 2012, he was unstoppable.

Offensively, he's aged quite well, too, although I'd say his defensive game (which, like most top forwards, had always been hit and miss) has kind of fallen off a cliff in the past few years. 83 points last year at age 36.

He could have become a Lemieux-like player, maybe.

I remember watching him as a prospect, and thinking this was the greatest young player I had ever seen. Purest natural talent (offensively) since Lemieux. More than Crosby, more than Ovechkin, more than McDavid.

Obviously this wasn't a reasonable expectation, but one could dream. He had everything. Neither Crosby nor McDavid had his shot arsenal, nor his size or dangling abilities, and Ovechkin didn't have his playmaking abilities.

Malkin did all of this with ease.

 

[buffalowing88]

Man. I love Malkin. He's the only player I've seen literally tilt the ice in person. That 09 series, It was like watching Jesus perform a miracle.

With that said, he has pisses me off nowadays. He doesn't seem to give a shit about all-time records, which is admirable. At the same time, he doesn't' seem to care about anything anymore. That's not fun to watch.

 

[Offtheboard412]

He could have become a Lemieux-like player, maybe.

I remember watching him as a prospect, and thinking this was the greatest young player I had ever seen. Purest natural talent (offensively) since Lemieux. More than Crosby, more than Ovechkin, more than McDavid.

Obviously this wasn't a reasonable expectation, but one could dream. He had everything. Neither Crosby nor McDavid had his shoarsenal, nor his size or dangling abilities, and Ovechkin didn't have his playmaking abilities.

Malkin did all of this with ease.

Idk I think McDavid is pretty easily the better dangler/stickhandler. Unless you mean something different than what I interpret "dangling" as.

Malkin was just so gifted though, he really had it all and when he was "on" it seemed like he could do whatever he wanted to on the ice. His 2009 playoff run was magical, from about game 3 of the Capitals series onward he was just unstoppable. He basically toyed with Carolina, and was a force at both ends of the ice in the finals against Detroit.

Unfortunately once he hit his late 20's the small nagging injuries started adding up, and he started missing time every year. His lack of complete seasons really hurts his all time standing, and I feel like he's been a bit of an underachiever in the latter half of his career. I think he's going to be surpassed in all time rankings by some players who he was better than, and he left the door open for a guy like Kucherov to surpass him, especially if he wins another Hart and Art Ross this season.

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

Idk I think McDavid is pretty easily the better dangler/stickhandler. Unless you mean something different than what I interpret "dangling" as.

Malkin was just so gifted though, he really had it all and when he was "on" it seemed like he could do whatever he wanted to on the ice. His 2009 playoff run was magical, from about game 3 of the Capitals series onward he was just unstoppable. He basically toyed with Carolina, and was a force at both ends of the ice in the finals against Detroit.

Unfortunately once he hit his late 20's the small nagging injuries started adding up, and he started missing time every year. His lack of complete seasons really hurts his all time standing, and I feel like he's been a bit of an underachiever in the latter half of his career. I think he's going to be surpassed in all time rankings by some players who he was better than, and he left the door open for a guy like Kucherov to surpass him, especially if he wins another Hart and Art Ross this season.

Kucherov may have the greater career due to injuries. But Malkin was simply the better player

 

[Overrated]

Internationally and while in Russia Malkin has done quite a bit better than Ovechkin. The narrow rink has helped Ovi quite a bit.

 

[K Fleur]

The only player I’ve ever seen actually fit the “enigmatic Russian” stereotype is Kuznetsov.

Malkin doesn’t fit that at all.

 

[jigglysquishy]

He still has a shot at finishing top 30 in points. He's only 82 back and will likely only need 50 next season to do it.

It'll be years before anyone overtakes him in points. McDavid will do it first and he's over 400 points back.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

After scoring point number 1268 tonight in his 1108th game, Malkin passed Jean Ratelle (1267 points in 1280 games) for 39th place on the all-time scoring list.

There won’t be more than one active player (most likely zero) that pass Malkin between now and the day he retires, so he will hold a spot inside the top 40 all-time at the time of his retirement. Pretty noteworthy achievement for a player who came over late from Russia and missed hundreds of games due to injuries.

He was only 20 in his first season in the NHL.

 

[wetcoast]

I don't really know what more Malkin could have done. He pretty much did it all.

Multiple 100-point seasons, scoring titles, and Stanley Cups, as well as Hart trophy, Pearson, Conn Smythe. Five times over a point-per-game in deep playoff runs. From 2007 to 2012, he was unstoppable.

Offensively, he's aged quite well, too, although I'd say his defensive game (which, like most top forwards, had always been hit and miss) has kind of fallen off a cliff in the past few years. 83 points last year at age 36.

He could have stayed healthy for starters.

Also aside from his offense he brought very little to the table especially after his peak.

 

[PrimumHockeyist]

After scoring point number 1268 tonight in his 1108th game, Malkin passed Jean Ratelle (1267 points in 1280 games) for 39th place on the all-time scoring list.

There won’t be more than one active player (most likely zero) that pass Malkin between now and the day he retires, so he will hold a spot inside the top 40 all-time at the time of his retirement. Pretty noteworthy achievement for a player who came over late from Russia and missed hundreds of games due to injuries.

Bravo Malkin.

Malkin v Ovie...?

There's a debate that I would think has been raised here in the last decade or so. I take Gino in what is, for me, a pretty easy decision

 

[MadLuke]

Outside the James Neal era, how much did he play with particularly solid wingers ?

most common Winger, by 5v5 minutes played with

08-10: old Sykora, old Fedotenko, Malone, Dupuis
11-13: Neal, Kunitz, Cooke, Sullivan
14-16: Kessel, Jokinen, Comeau, Neal
17-19: Kessel, Hagelin, Hornqvist, Rust
20-22: Rust, Kapanen, Guentzel, Zucker
23-24: Zucker, Rackell, Rust, Smith

A there was a lot of moment with Kessel has well, look a bit better than I thought, could be the debut and the current time (end) tenting the glasses negatively a bit.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

He could have become a Lemieux-like player, maybe.

I remember watching him as a prospect, and thinking this was the greatest young player I had ever seen. Purest natural talent (offensively) since Lemieux. More than Crosby, more than Ovechkin, more than McDavid.

Obviously this wasn't a reasonable expectation, but one could dream. He had everything. Neither Crosby nor McDavid had his shot arsenal, nor his size or dangling abilities, and Ovechkin didn't have his playmaking abilities.

Malkin did all of this with ease.

That's a great description.

It's too bad that his accomplishments are so "top heavy". Think back to 2012. Malkin had just finished his 6th season. He already won two Art Ross trophies. He had a Hart trophy and two 2nd place finishes. He had a historically great Conn Smythe win (posting more points than anyone in history than anyone except Gretzky, Lemieux and Coffey). Three first-team all-star selections in three full/healthy non-rookie seasons.

If I told you that he only would have been a top ten scorer once the rest of his career, the most reasonable assumption would have been he suffered a career-ending injury. Then imagine learning that he'd go on to play more than 700 games. Obviously there's more to hockey than accumulating top ten scoring finishes in the regular season, but his "resume" is very thin after those three huge years. (A similar criticism can be made of Peter Forsberg and Milt Schmidt).

 

[MadLuke]

If I told you that he only would have been a top ten scorer once the rest of his career,

This is one aspect where the could have done more look obvious to me, 4 Top 10 career for someone with 3 top 2 finish (including 2 art ross) is quite low.

He had 10 top 10 ppg finish for an easy idea of the potential there.

Stamkos had 6 of them for a contemporary that also had injury issues, Selanne an other player with is injuries problem had 7. 4 thats Pavel Bure career.... Malkin feel like he should have a superior resume in term of points finish talent wise.

To turn it around more positively, then the genie of the futur tell you that after the 2012 season he still get 100 more points in the playoff and we can imagine many Penguins fans still take that universe instead of rolling the dice for a new random one.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Offensively, he's aged quite well, too, although I'd say his defensive game (which, like most top forwards, had always been hit and miss) has kind of fallen off a cliff in the past few years

This season has been Malkin's best defensive season since at least 2008, but maybe ever. He never played defense except a little bit for Michel Therrien early on...

He has been surprisingly good (for him, at least) this year...I'm not even entirely sure why haha

 

[MVP of West Hollywd]

My guess is the biggest reason he fell slightly short of Crosby/Ovechkin is he was dealing with nagging injuries basically this whole time. This also took a little bit of gas of the start of his career, for example if the 2010 and 2011 seasons had been Hart Caliber giving him a consistent 5 year play of holy sht production before declining I think we would see him more like Ovie where the peak was early but was still good after.

 

[BenchBrawl]

That's a great description.

It's too bad that his accomplishments are so "top heavy". Think back to 2012. Malkin had just finished his 6th season. He already won two Art Ross trophies. He had a Hart trophy and two 2nd place finishes. He had a historically great Conn Smythe win (posting more points than anyone in history than anyone except Gretzky, Lemieux and Coffey). Three first-team all-star selections in three full/healthy non-rookie seasons.

If I told you that he only would have been a top ten scorer once the rest of his career, the most reasonable assumption would have been he suffered a career-ending injury. Then imagine learning that he'd go on to play more than 700 games. Obviously there's more to hockey than accumulating top ten scoring finishes in the regular season, but his "resume" is very thin after those three huge years. (A similar criticism can be made of Peter Forsberg and Milt Schmidt).

His career is similar to Patrick Kane's, but Malkin's raw potential is more path-independent and robust to randomness/variance. If we could "run the simulations", the difference would become apparent.

I feel the same way with Potvin vs. Bourque/Lidstrom.

 

[Gordon Lightfoot]

The only player I’ve ever seen actually fit the “enigmatic Russian” stereotype is Kuznetsov.

Malkin doesn’t fit that at all.

Thank you. He’s not enigmatic or mysterious at all. He’s an amazing player who kicked ass for years and is still a force.

 

[sr edler]

He has been surprisingly good (for him, at least) this year...I'm not even entirely sure why haha

Probably because he has to cover for Karlsson.

 

[DRW895]

He can hit many more, but forever will be just a supporting cast. It`s his choice

 

[Matsun]

He has only played 75 games in a season 6 times. 2 of those are as a rookie and last season so it's really 4 relevant seasons. In those 4 seasons he scored 113, 109, 106 and 98 points, was 1st, 2nd, 2nd and 7th (low imo) in Hart voting and was 1st, 1st, 2nd and 4th in scoring. When he was healthy I felt like he was always a monster.

 

[Crosby2010]

Malkin is an all-time great talent. Just a pleasure to watch, still is too. When he wound up................wow! There are maybe 4 or players in NHL history that I think when they wanted to could hang onto the puck in the offensive zone as long as they wanted to. Malkin and Mario are two of them I think. He was just so hard to knock off the puck and it just seemed like he was having fun while doing it. His English was never particularly good, and he is a quiet guy, very different from Ovechkin that way who was much more marketable, but I honestly think the reason Malkin didn't have the better career over Ovechkin or Crosby was consistency, and some missed games.

With Malkin I don't think he had the same sort of commitment game in and game out as Crosby. For Crosby he rarely plays a bad game where, he has that knack of playing great game in and game out, sort of how things were different with Gretzky and other players that way. Hard work, preparation, etc. Crosby had that, and I think as great as Malkin was, he lacked it a little more than Crosby. Now, don't get me wrong, while we marvel at Crosby and the fact he is in what will likely be his 19th straight year with over a point a game, Malkin is not far behind. In 2011 with 37 points in 43 games and 2021 with 28 points in 33 games, these are the only two years (this year might happen as well) that he is under a point a game, and both were injury riddled years.

Also, remember his postseason history. It is not that much further behind Crosby. 180 points overall. 14th all-time. The Pens are declining, so I don't know how many more playoff points he can get, but he is basically a 1st round victory away from being in the top 10. Crosby already has as many points as any non-Oiler in the playoffs. But I think Malkin was aesthetically beautiful to watch, in the mold of a Mario. Same sort of effortless look to him, big body, played big too, long reach, didn't have a weakness offensively.

Yeah I can remember the 2006 World Juniors and the talk was that Malkin would be better than Crosby and Ovechkin, and we already saw half an NHL season of those two and I remember thinking "Oh wow, I want to watch this guy................." Well even though we beat them in the gold medal game, he had clearly arrived. The Pens didn't miss the postseason his entire career until last year and maybe this year.

 

[GMR]

He might bump Toews from the top 100 list.