Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Remembering Evgeni Malkin's BEST MOMENTS on his 40th birthday!

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

Evgeni Malkin is 40 years old today, so we're telling the story of how he became a Penguin and remembering his best moments! Patrick and Hunter begin the Friday edition of the Locked On Penguins Podcast by first acknowledging that it has been TWENTY-ONE years since the Penguins drafted captain Sidney Crosby. (0:00) Then, it's Evgeni Malkin time. They go over his arrival in North America, his ability to elevate in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and his incredible personality that has shined through for years. (10:35) Finally, as part of Fan Take Friday, they go over some of your favorite Evgeni Malkin moments! (21:39)  Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COM to play Daily Dingers and make your free pick on who’s hitting a homer this MLB season. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

He is score. He is heart trophy winner. He is Stanley Cup champion. He is 40. It's Evgeny Malkins's birthday. And on today's Locked-on Penguins, we go through some of our favorite and some of your favorite of Gennie Malkin moments. You're Locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on podcast network. Your team every day. Happy Friday, everyone, and welcome to the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Patrick Damp. You can find me on most social media platforms at Synonym 4WET,

joined by my good pal Hunter Hodes. You can follow Hunter on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can follow our show's Twitter account at L-O-U-U-Score Penguins, and you can find us on TikTok at Locked-on Penguins. It's another Friday edition of Fan Take Friday because it is Evgeny Malkins 40th birthday. And this is pretty much going to be just an episode of nostalgia. We're not going to have a ton of analysis. We're not going to have a ton of takes because, one, there ain't much going on in the world of the penguins or the NHL for that matter,

save for Macklin Celebrini. But go listen to our pals on Locked On Sharks for that one. So we are going to talk about Evgeny Malkin, our favorite moments, your favorite moments, all the stories and everything in between. But there is one thing that we do have to mention first because, of course, you can't talk about Gino without talking about the other head of the two-headed monster, Sidney Crosby. 21 years ago on Thursday, Craig Patrick stepped to the podium and announced the pick that changed the Penguins Fortunes forever picking Crosby first overall.

And I'm just going to run this down, Hunter, because Bleacher Report Open Ice put this on their Instagram account yesterday, and it's perfect. Since the Penguins drafted Crosby, three Stanley Cups, two consmite trophies, two heart trophies, two Rocket Richard trophies, set the Penguins regular season points record, set the NHL's point per game season's record. It has gone pretty well for Crosby in Pittsburgh. Not bad. I think he's washed, right? You might as well just retire now. Nothing left to do. Obviously, I'm just messing around. But yeah, time flies 21 years. And he's at to turn 39 here in about a week. Next week is when he is officially turning 39. Time flies when you're having fun. And it really

is weird man i mean i remember just when he was in his young 20s i was in middle school at the time i'm going to be 30 in less than a year and a half and he's already about to be 39 like where has the time gone truly but yeah he's done everything you have possibly imagined that he was going to do and then some he's going to go down as a top five player of all time he's probably going to go down to some people as a top three player of all time you can easily argue that but at the very least pat top five, not even close, considering what he has done, not just on the NHL scale, but on the international scale as well. And you look right now, Pat, going into this upcoming season, he's got some more milestones.

He's 10 points away from tying Marcel Dion for 6 on the all-time points list. He's 11 away from being there by himself. He's also not even 30 points away from getting into the top five all-time in terms of NHL points he would pass Ron Francis. After that, it's Cordy Howl at 1850. I think he is going to pass him by the end of his career. And then time will tell if he can pass one of Mark Messier or Yarmu Yager or potentially both. But at the very least, by the time he ends his career, he's going to be fourth on that list. Again, time will tell Pat if he's going to pass Messier, if he's going to pass Yager. But, you know, considering what he has done, what he has left to do, and there's really honestly

not much left that he has to do for his career. It has gone better than anyone could have expected. Yeah, his legacy and his career are already set so deep in stone that it goes to the core of the earth. It is not going to be moved. He could show up next season and be completely washed and it would not make a damn bit of difference. That's how good he has been these last 21 years.

And though I did say there isn't going to be a ton of analysis or a ton of takes on this episode, I am going to say this much. He should be a penguin until he no longer chooses to be. And I know a lot of people and a lot of fans want the penguins to get ready and move on to the next era of penguins hockey. But I will again get on my soapbox and say, please proceed with caution. because the culture he has set in the penguin's organization, regardless if he's still really good, regardless if he ends up becoming washed up or not,

goes further than just his on-ice performance. And you want these younger players, you want this next generation to not just learn from him the hockey player, but him the person and him the professional. because there is a lot to be said for the way he works, the way he conducts himself, the way he trains, the way he dedicates himself to the sport.

And it leaves no excuses for anybody else in the organization. Sidney Crosby could very easily be on a nostalgia farewell tour for the next couple of years and take some days off. And, oh, I'm going to meet up with this guy who I played against for a decade and we're going to crush a couple bottles of wine at dinner the night before the game. And you know what? I'm going to take the healthy scratch the next night. But instead, he's in the gym.

He's putting in the extra reps. He's still working hard despite having done everything there is to do in the sport. And if you're a 19, 20-year-old first or second round pick with high expectations, and you walk into that locker room and you see near 40-year-old, Sidney Crosby doing all of this, you're going to go, well, the second I slack off is the second I take this train off the rails and I don't want to be that guy. Right. And it's not even just his all nice play.

You know, you see him, Pat, call the recent draft picks and say, hey, welcome to the team. And you saw, for example, the Rock Twins, they were starstruck. They were like, holy crap, Sydney Crosby just called us right after we were selected in the 26 NHL draft. And they were smiling for what looked like in eternity. But you have stuff like that. You have his little penguin program where he's with all the little kids that are on the ice. And he's just such a great ambassador for the sport.

And there was that story. I think Josh Yowie told it when it was kind of during COVID, when him and him and Evgeny Malkin kind of just played pickup with some kids in their neighborhood just because you really couldn't do anything. You really couldn't go out during that time. It's stories like that. And there's countless others that I know I'm forgetting. But it's stuff like that that just makes you go, yeah, he's an amazing hockey player,

but he's an even better human being as well. And we are just so lucky, so spoiled that he has been here for over two decades now. Again, it's really hard to believe. And I should correct my statement from earlier, Pat, it's not less than 30 points until he gets to the top five. It's less than 40 points. Sometimes math is hard for me. But it's hard for me all the time, Hunter.

So I understand. I'm notoriously not a math guy. Either way, he is getting it this season. He'll be in the top five by the end of the year. I have zero doubts, barring injury or anything weird happening. If he gets less than 40 points this season, we've got much bigger problems to discuss than Sidney Crosby's legacy because that's probably not a great sign.

Again, barring injury. But if he's healthy and that happens, we get some tough conversations ahead of us. But that is going to do it. for this opening segment, because as it always seems to happen, we got to talk about Sid before we got to talk about Gino. But it is, in fact, Evgeny Malkins' 40th birthday today. So we are going to talk about some of our favorite Gino moments and stories

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your free pick on who's hitting a home run. Play ball and swing for the fences on Fandul, an official partner of the MLB. We're back here on the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hode's. Happy birthday to number 71, Ev Genney, Moll. The Russian bear, the Russian bully, whatever nickname you have got for Evgeny Malkin today is his day, his 40th birthday. And Hunter, I want to start at the beginning because it apparently has been scrubbed from the internet. I don't know why, but formerly of Penn's inside scoop, Sam Kassan had a great feature a few years back about ifgeny Malkin's defection. to North America because if you don't know the story, he basically got coerced into signing a one-year deal

with his hometown team in the KHL Magnitogorsk, and he didn't want to sign it, but he got coerced into it to return after being drafted. He wanted to come to Pittsburgh. He wanted to be a penguin. And what do you know, straight out of a James Bond spy thriller. He's on the road with the Russian, national team.

They, I believe, show up in Finland for an international game. His team goes one way. He breaks off another way. He's smuggled into the United States. He hides out in California for a few days. And next thing you know, he's in Pittsburgh signing his rookie contract and he becomes a penguin. But if you have not seen that story or heard that story, I gave you the Cliff Notes version.

it is again straight up out of a spy novel it really is and just from that point on again much like sid he has hit not even hit he has smashed every single expectation that fans had for him coming into the league and he is going to go down at least for me as a top 25 player of all time I think right now he's still the second greatest Russian player ever behind Alex Leveschkin. He's probably going to be three when it's all said and done. But hey, that's still a pretty damn good honor to have considering, you know, where we were two decades ago, comes in the league.

And then it's just been hit after hit ever since with Evgeny Malkin. And there are also interviews, Pat, if you remember, you know, him and his dad talked about, you know, where could have gone to his own. team been his star there, didn't want to do it. He loved playing with Sid so much that he wanted to stay here every single time it got close to his contract being up. And he's a penguin for life. You saw all those takes. Oh, he's going to leave. He's going to go somewhere else. Like as early as like four years ago. You even saw some of it this year like, oh, he might go and play somewhere else. I never believed that for a second. This dude's a penguin for life. He always wants to retire as a penguin. It would have been flat. out weird if he played for another team, even if it was just for one season this year,

it would have felt awkward. It would have felt weird. I would not have been comfortable with it. I don't think really a lot of fans would have been either. And again, he has just been so freaking awesome every single year. His heart trophy year, for example, best player in the world. Like that was him. That in the 2009 run to the Stanley Cup, those were the two specific times, at least for me, when he was undisputedly the best player on the planet. No one, and I mean, no one could touch him. 2009 might be up there for my favorite. And like you just said, it's a tie for me between the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs run and the 2012 season when he basically had to carry the penguins on his back because Crosby was still dealing with the concussion and the broken

neck and he elevated his game to a level we had never seen before. But the 2009 Stanley Cup run where he wins the Khan Smyth is next level because you could tell he was stung by the 2008 playoffs and not just because they went to the finals and lost, but it kind of gets lost to history because of everything that's happened since. it would be a little harsh of me to say that Malkin was a non-factor in 2008, but he wasn't all that good in the 2008 playoffs. He was solid. He produced, but it was not like it was in 2009.

In 2009, from about the midway point of the Capitals series in the second round, all the way through to them winning in Detroit in game seven, there was not a better player on the planet than of Gennie Malkin. He elevated his game so high, almost to the point in a sport like hockey, where you rarely, if ever see this, Malkin pretty much said, jump on my back, we're winning the Stanley Cup this year and nobody is going to stop it. Again, I'm not saying that he stunk in 08 because he didn't. There's no word where he did.

I mean, he had 22 points in 20 games. I would say he was pretty good. But he ate a lot in the early series in kind of what. But at the same time, he was motivated. He was more motivated in 2009 than he was in 08. And then 2012, I mean, just comes back from a reconstructed knee. Sid's still out. Everybody's starting the conversations of,

is this era of Penguins hockey going to be a one and done? Are they ever going to get anywhere with. Crosby Malkin in stall, even though the stall trade and everything had already happened, people were really saying like, yeah, the penguins, their one hit wonders. This isn't going to happen again. And even though that ended with that circus of a series against the Flyers, that was of Guinea Malkin putting his flag in the ground and going, you forget about us at your own peril.

Right. And just going back to, oh, wait for just a second, Pat, I think you were being a little too harsh. He was third on the team in points in the O'Neill. 08 playoffs behind only Sid and Marion Hosa, and we all know how great Hosa was with Crosby. But Malkin was still very much there with those two. Now, was he as good as he was in 09. No, again, he was the best player in the world, in my opinion, during the 09 playoffs. But he was still really good in those 08 playoffs and a big reason why they were able to get to the cup final

and come within two games of somehow beating the best hockey team I've ever seen in the 08 Red Wings. I mean, again, I know I'm not even 30 yet, excuse me. The 08 Red Wings are still to me the best team I have ever watched. Hall of Famer after Hall of Famer, the way they would come at you in waves. It was a miracle that the Penguins even got that series to six games. I'm sure I have said this on the pod, and it's just slightly related to this. If the Penguins would have gone to Game 7 in 2008 and still lost, I genuinely would have given the consmite to Mark Andre Fleury.

He was that good in that 08 series that the Penguins were in it, but they were not in it without Mark Andre Fleury. But we're talking about of Gennie Malkin. Yeah, no, I was going to say, like, he was better in 08 than he was in 09. And I know he made the Lydstrom save in 2009, but he was better in 08 against that Red Wings team. And again, just for that 08 Penguins team in general, Pat, they only had five players who had double digit points in the playoffs. So again, I think you were being a little too harsh there on Malkin. I might be.

But you, but there are several instances of Gino basically in 09 being like, yeah, 2008 wasn't acceptable. Like that was not a great. Sure. If you want to get it. And between the motivation and the way he played from the middle of the cap series until the end was just, he was unstoppable. It was, it was a sight to behold. And then the other thing that, that I don't think gets talked enough about, it gets talked about. But we kind of forget it in the day to day. And we kind of forget it in the analysis of the penguins.

he really is the emotional center in everything of this franchise right now. Yeah, Sidney Crosby's the leader. He sets the standard. He's one of the best players of all time. But if you want to know where the temperature is with the Pittsburgh Penguins, you go to Wvgeny Malkin. Because half because English is his second language and Russia is a completely different culture than North America.

He's also just hilarious, and he will tell you how it is every single time. And there are times where when the team stinks and is not playing well, Gino's not going to do the nice Canadian boy. Oh, you know, we're working hard. Everyone's doing their best. And, you know, we got to keep good doing everything. He comes out and says, no, we stink. We stink right now.

We have to get better. No, 100%. That's it. You echoed what I just said, where he will always be honest. Yeah. He's hilarious. He'll crack jokes. Like, that's all fun and dandy. And it is, the vibes are great when he does that stuff.

But he will always be real. He will always tell you how it is. Talked about how he wanted so badly to get back to the playoffs this year. Well, there you go. They got back. He was obviously very happy. And honestly, forward-wise, you can make an argument that he was the Penguin's best forward in that series against the flyers. Him and Connor Dewar are right up there for me in terms of their two.

best forwards. I know Malkin, you know, towards the later stages of that series, he wasn't as good as he was in the first half, but I still think in general, just because so many players just did not show up in that series, I'd put Malkin up there. He was not a problem at all. Without a doubt, he was what you said. He was probably their best, if not their second best forward. If for nothing else, he was their most consistent forward throughout that six game series. and that kind of shows you that, one, he still has some gas left in the tank, and two, a lot of people decided not to show up for the entirety, I should say, of the Penguins Flyers series, because by game four, everybody started to come around,

but games one through three wasn't a very pretty sight. But that will be enough negativity. That will be enough arguing over which version of of Genie Malkin was better because we got to talk about some Gino moments that, You guys sent our way as another edition of Fan Take Friday. So stick with us. We're going to get into those when we come back right after this. We are back here on the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. It's Fan Take Friday. It's an Afghani Malkin edition. We kept it really, really simple for you on this Friday. being it is Gino's birthday, we wanted to hear from you in what your favorite Gino moments were.

In this one, I want to start with Hunter from Kevin on YouTube. He gives us two of them. I want to focus on the second one, but I will read both of them. First, the Spinerama backhand bar down goal versus Edmonton. I will hear that ping forever. It was just a thing of beauty.

Sagi's call was also great there, by the way. Oh, my God. picks the pocket, spinnerama, backhander, bar down, absolutely incredible. And then when Malkin beaked out Gabriel Landisog and Verlamov so bad to give the penguins the four three lead in a game against Colorado in 2011, when at one point, they were losing three to one. I remember exactly where I was for that game. I had been 21 years old for less than a month.

I'm probably sure that game was on NBCSN, if I recall correctly. It was on NBCSN. I was in college at IUP at the sports bar they had up there. And this is how awesome of a goal it was. He scored and it got quiet for like two seconds because everybody couldn't believe what they saw. And then we all cheered. that's what an unreal goal that was. Yeah, I remember watching that game in my basement, NBCSN.

Again, I was in late middle school. I went nuts because it looked like for a while. Oh, no, penguins are going to lose, but a Mountback come back. And then, againie Malkin has that beautiful, beautiful goal. And that's one that I think a lot of fans sometimes forget about. like yeah we're going to talk about some of the other more famous ones in a second just because they're flat out awesome but this is one that kind of gets lost in the shuffle because it was a

beautiful move by gino another song on youtube says pat on ice malkin versus rick nash during the kids game mainly gets off the ice legendary interview from i am score to i will be fire and one more zero in every video bomb and prank yeah i mean that's also true like the one that obviously does get some airtime still when James Neal is talking after his big game and Malkins still a bit banged up. Yeah, he comes from behind him. And then he says the, yes, James, and then just slaps his shoulder. Like, those two had such an awesome bromance during. They really did. They really did. It was so fun. I also to another great off ice miced up interview moment back when they were still doing in the room on the penguin's website and YouTube channel. as they were getting ready to leave for the 2014 Olympics.

And at the time, Dana Hinesy was still the equipment manager, and they're packing up all their stuff. And he is given Hinesy the business because Gino just has a plain black equipment bag. And Sidney Crosby's got like this black and white and red with a Canadian flag on it bag as he's getting ready to go over to So. and Gino's just asking Heinzzi over and over. Dana, where's my flag? Dana, why doesn't my bag have a flag on it? And he was so mad about it. That was great.

One of my all-time favorites. Or when Pascal DuPlee comes into the facility, morning boys, not allowed to say that word, but everyone knows that. F you know. Everyone knows that one. Now, somebody brings it up. we will get to it because I know it's the goal everybody loves, but here's one the year before it when I said he stunk. That's not what I said. I just said he wasn't as good. 2008 against the flyers short-handed breakaway slap shot. Listen, that was going in the net no matter what, because if he would have hit Marty Barron with that shot, it would have been like the Mighty

Ducks movies and he would have sent Barron. into the net with the puck. That is how much, how much torque if Gany Malkin got on that shot. I think he would have broken his blocker, his stick, his glove, whatever. I mean,

it didn't go through any of those, but he just uncorked that sucker. And you can tell right away, because Mike Richards buried him behind the net, and the crowd wasn't happy. Chino wasn't happy. He was kind of looking around for a second, being like, did you guys not see this?

He's a little slow to get up. And, you know, the announcer, you know, Malkins basket hanging, Joe Beninati, who is now the play-by-play announcer for the Capitals. And by the way, he is still one of the best play-by-play announcers in all the NHL. He was doing work with Versus. And, you know, he's in solo, he winds and scores. Againy Malkin says, take that. And you just see, like, you know, Whitney comes over and he's just like going nuts with him. Sid's the same. And just Malkin's celebration, this looks into the boards and he just puts his arms out like, yeah,

Come on, Mike Richards. You don't poke the bear like that. And you just see Mike Richards kind of on one knee being like, oh, crap. I really did mess that up, didn't I? But like, that's still my favorite goal to this day. As I always say, it's the FU goal because he was so mad. And he was like, you know what?

I don't care if I'm cherry picking at the blue line. I'm going to come in and I'm going to uncork this thing. And there is no chance you are going to stop it. There was another mention of the hat trick against Carolina. we all knew that was coming when he just played bully puck and the spinorama goal all me all the time. His parents are going nuts in the crowd. The extended hat trick, I forget the person that posted it. It used to be ingrained in my memory, the YouTube channel that posted it.

It's about six or seven minutes long. But it is so freaking good. You see the reactions from the bench, the coaching staff, his parents in the crowd. that still just lives red-free in my head. That was, I mean, Bill Garen says it in the 2009 Cup documentary, he couldn't be stopped. And if you go back and watch games one through four, because there were only four games against the hurricanes in 2009,

genuinely they could, like, it was to the point almost where Carolina's defenseman and forwards might have well been on the ice doing this. Yeah. What do we do? It was the same thing for the Dwayne Rollis and the goal. Malkin just comes up one on everybody and there was just no way you were stopping him. Like, it feels like the lightning players were probably just like, like, what do you, what do you want us to do there?

Because I'm glad you bring up the lightning goal because the thing with that one is if you go back and watch it, It's a great individual effort by Evgeny Malkin. And this is going to sound like I'm downplaying it. And I'm not. That's all it is. It's a great individual effort. You look at all the defensemen and even Dwayne Rollis and himself, they all play it correctly.

Nobody does anything wrong. There's no like, oh, he caught this guy flat footed or this guy was out of position. They all play them correctly. He just beats every single one of them. And they don't know what to do about it. I want to end with this one to close out the show. show to give our listeners who have made it this far into the show, a bit of an Easter egg. If you have never seen it, if you are not this deep in the penguins lore, go on YouTube and

Google cooking with Gino. It is from the very early days of Sid and Gino with the Penguins. It was when we didn't really know what social media was quite yet. We were all figuring it out. And it is an absolute treat. And I'm not going to spoil anything else. I want you to go look it up. And you will be laughing for the next four days.

But that is going to do it for our Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Hunter and I, we will be back with a brand new episode for you on Monday, talking about any news that may break over the weekend. anything else we may want to talk about as we get even closer to training camp in the start of the 2026, 2027 season. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always, for tuning in. And we will be back on Monday.