Malkin climbs Penguins rankings with 11th career nine-game point streak

Heading into the All-Star break, Evgeni Malkin has racked up a pretty respectable 13 points (5-8—13) through the 12 Penguins contests he’s skated in this season. He’s recorded 10 of those points (3-7—10) during his current nine-game point streak, which began January 17 and paused on February 1 only due to the schedule pause.

This is the 11th nine-game point streak of Malkin’s regular-season NHL career. Only three Penguins have recorded more: Sidney Crosby and Jaromir Jagr each hit the nine-game point 12 times, while Mario Lemieux leads the franchise with 18 career streaks.

The last time Malkin recorded a nine-game production streak was in December 2019; the last time he topped nine games was early in 2014-15, when he notched points in 11 straight.

Let’s look back at some of the longest production streaks of his illustrious career, thanks to data from Stathead Hockey.

October 23 - November 22, 2007: 15 games

Malkin: 7-15—22

Penguins: 5-8-2

The Penguins suffered their way through a rough month in early 2007-08, but the same can’t be said for Malkin, who opened his second NHL season with a 15-game point streak. The 21-year-old opened the stretch on October 23 with the lone goal in a 1-0 shutout of the visiting Rangers, then went on to piece together the first 15-game point streak of his career on his way to finishing the season second only to draftmate Alex Ovechkin in production with 106 points.

January 16 - March 4, 2010: 15 games

Malkin: 9-15—24

Penguins: 8-4-3

This streak contained Malkin’s fifth regular-season hat trick (as of today, he has recorded 12 in his career.) So far in 2021-22, he’s scored three of his five goals on the power play; he was just as much as a man-advantage threat in 2010, when he scored a power-play hat trick on January 19 to lift the Penguins to a 6-4 win over the visiting Islanders.

October 16 - November 15, 2008: 13 games

Malkin: 6-21—27

Penguins: 9-3-1

27 points in 13 games.

It’s hard to overstate Malkin’s dominance in the 2008-09 season, when he led the NHL with 78 assists and 113 points to claim the Art Ross Trophy.

One of the most dominant stretches of the season contained the third-longest point streak of his career so far. Not only did he produce at a clip of over two points per game, but Malkin helped Sidney Crosby reach a trio of milestones— his 100th goal, 200th assist and 300th point— by setting up each and every Penguins goal during a 4-1 win over the visiting Maple Leafs on October 18.

October 9 - November 4, 2014: 11 games

Malkin: 5-11—16

Penguins: 8-2-1

If Malkin records a point against the Bruins when the Penguins emerge from the break on February 8, it will mark the first time he’s strung together points in 10 straight games since 2014. The center started out the season with a bang by recording points in each of the Penguins’ first 11 games, eventually helping spark a seven-game winning streak for Pittsburgh.

Will Malkin record the eighth 10-game point streak of his career when the Penguins return?