Molinari: Should Penguins Put Malkin On a ‘Shift Count?’

The Pittsburgh Penguins have entered the offseason with a number of concerns, and even more questions.

Atop the to-do list, of course, is replacing Mike Sullivan as coach, now that he has moved on to the New York Rangers.

Then there is the matter of upgrading what, by almost any measure, is one of the NHL’s worst defense corps. Which actually might be a charitable assessment.

Kyle Dubas, the Penguins’ president of hockey operations and general manager, also has to decide whether the organization has a goaltender, with or without NHL experience, who can be counted on to be consistently effective here in 2025-26. And finding a few forwards who can make regular, if not major, contributions to the offense certainly would be a plus.

One thing the Penguins do have going for them is the makings of two pretty fair top lines.

Well, almost.

There’s plenty of reason to believe that the Ville Koivunen-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust unit can continue to be as productive as it was in the final weeks of the just-concluded season, and Rutger McGroarty and Rickard Rakell project as quality wingers on the No. 2 line.

The uncertainty with the latter group is in the middle.

Evgeni Malkin has been the Penguins’ second-line center for the better part of two decades and, at least for now, stands to fill that role in the fall.

How well he can be expected to perform there is the issue.

That is not to question Malkin’s Hall of Fame credentials; those were established years ago, and it’s almost inconceivable that he won’t be inducted as soon as he is eligible. (Which, assuming he retires after his contract expires next year, would be in 2029.)

Rather, it is what the Penguins can reasonably count on from Malkin, who will turn 39 on July 31.

Injuries forced him to sit out 14 games in 2024-25, and he put up 16 goals and 34 assists in the 68 games in which he participated. Thirty-four of those points came at even-strength, the rest on the power play.

Malkin averaged 17 minutes, 47 seconds of ice time per game, a reasonable figure for a top-six forward who does not kill penalties.

He did, however, average 50 seconds per shift, tying Crosby for the highest total among Penguins forwards, and leaving him only one second behind Marcus Pettersson’s team-leading average of 51 seconds before he was traded to Vancouver.

That’s significant because, predictably and understandably, Malkin’s age is showing in his game.

He still shows flashes of brilliance, but they are increasingly rare and seem to come most often when he is rested.

Whether Sullivan’s successor will be able to get Malkin to shorten his shifts – assuming the next coach is interested in doing so – remains to be seen, but taking some step to reduce his workload would be prudent.

One extreme step would be to make him a healthy scratch occasionally, not as punishment but to keep him as fresh as possible. If Malkin shows signs of wearing down, which hardly would be an embarrassment for a guy who has played so much, for so long, putting him in street clothes now and then might enhance the chances of him being at his best when he’s in the lineup.

A case also could be made for cutting back on how much he is used in games, especially those in which the outcome is not in doubt. (Sure, improbable comebacks and collapses happen, but betting on one to happen in a given game is no way to get wealthy.)

Think of it as a “shift count” of sorts, hockey’s answer to a pitch count in baseball.

It wouldn’t necessarily be something to which strict adherence is mandatory – Malkin wouldn’t have to be stapled to the bench after he’s gone over the boards, say, 18 times – but not subjecting him to avoidable wear-and-tear could pay off.

One big drawback to that approach is that the Penguins do not appear to have another center on their organizational depth chart who could be relied on to step in for Malkin without there being a significant decline in offensive effectiveness.

Perhaps Kyle Dubas, the Penguins’ president of hockey operations and general manager, could add a middle-six center who could handle such occasional duty to his offseason shopping list.