CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Evgeni Malkin was in true midseason form on Thursday.
Yes, he was flying on the ice for Day 1 of the Penguins' training camp at the Lemieux Complex. Mike Sullivan took notice too, saying afterward that he thought Malkin "looks strong. He's fit. He's in shape, and he's hungry."
It was Malkin's performance in the locker room after practice though that made it truly feel like the hockey season is finally here. With locker rooms being fully open to the media for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, nothing says a return to normalcy like Malkin (jokingly?) expressing his disdain for speaking with the reporters.
Malkin, seeing the growing number of reporters immediately flocking to his stall once locker rooms opened, attempted a deflection. He pointed across the room at Sidney Crosby sitting in his stall, saying "Look! Sid is here!"
When a reporter responded with a "We want you!" Malkin quipped back with, "I don't want you. Jeeeesus!" before giving in, putting on his signature "Geno" hat, and readying himself for questions.
There's good reason for Malkin to be so popular on Day 1 of camp. After it seemed more and more likely that Malkin would be testing free agency and potentially have a new home next season, Malkin signed a four-year, $24.4 million contract extension on the night before the start of free agency.
It's a contract that will likely make him a Penguin for life.
If you ask Malkin, things didn't come as close to the wire as they may have seemed. This is where he knew he wanted to be.
"I believed I'd sign here," he said. "I believed I'd stay here forever. (The contract) wasn't easy, but we believed we understand each other. We talked every day, my agent did a nice job. I'm glad to stay here in a great organization, a great team. We're focusing on playing in the Finals again and trying to win."
There were reports the day prior to Malkin's contract being finalized that he had informed the Penguins he would be testing free agency. It seemed as if both sides were too far apart on a deal to get it done before the market opened.
Malkin said that he and the Penguins were much closer than it appeared.
"We were close to signing," he recalled. "It was just small details. We talked every day, just small details before signing. We understood I wanted to stay here, the team wanted me to stay here. It's my second hometown for sure. I didn't want to move to any team, any city. I'm glad to stay here, it's amazing to play four more years."
Malkin stayed in touch with Crosby and Kris Letang throughout the process. Crosby spoke on Monday with the reporters who were invited to attend his first season ticket delivery stop, and I asked if he had any influence on Malkin signing his deal and things coming together so quickly at the end.
"No," Crosby told me. "I mean, I tried to stay up to date with everything. You know, I don't want to bug guys. They've obviously got a lot on their mind trying to work through all that stuff. I'm sure there's a lot of people asking them what's going on. But yeah, I didn't. I was more just kind of waiting to see what was going to happen. I was trying to stay in touch with them relatively often, but I just didn't want to bug them either. I was hoping that everything worked itself out."
Malkin expressed a similar sentiment. He said he didn't see Crosby or Letang in person during the offseason, but the trio stayed in contact throughout the whole process. Malkin said that they exchanged text messages on almost a daily basis, and took advantage of "new technology" like FaceTime. Those calls and texts weren't about trying to convince Malkin to sign the contract, but rather just expressing support.
"(Sid) is one of the best guys here," Malkin said of getting that support. "He tried to support me almost every day. Stay positive, stay patient. I'm glad we stay together, and Tanger as well."
At the end of last season, there was external doubt that the Penguins might lose at least one of their key free agents to the open market due to the tight cap situation. Malkin, Letang, Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell were all unrestricted free agents, and it seemed unlikely that the Penguins could fit three of them under the cap, let alone all four. All three signed multi-year extensions to stay in Pittsburgh, with at least Malkin, Letang and Rust certainly taking less salary than they could have received on the open market.
Malkin said that he wasn't surprised to see all of the key free agents get re-signed, and he thinks it's an indication of how competitive this team can be this season.
"We have a good team," he said. "I think most players want to stay here. They understand that we have a chance to win. This is a professional organization, we work here every day. We work to win. New guys sign here and they want to stay here a long time because they have a chance to win. I'm glad we signed Tanger, Rakell, it's amazing."
Malkin's offseason was pretty standard for him. He went back home to Russia to train there and spend time with his family, including his parents and brother, who weren't able to visit him in Pittsburgh last season as they typically do. He came back to the U.S. in late August to train with Miami-based trainer Pete Bommarito, then was one of the first arrivals in Cranberry for the informal player-led skates.
It was a return to normalcy that Malkin welcomed after spending last summer rehabbing an injury. He injured his right knee in March 2021 in a collision in a game against the Bruins, then underwent surgery to repair it last June. The recovery process led to a long layoff, and he wasn't able to make his season debut until mid-January.
Asked if Malkin has something to prove after last season, he said that he hopes he does.
"I believe in myself," he said. "I'm still a good player. I believe in myself, I believe in my teammates. I'm here to win. I'm going to do my best, and I'll be ready for the first game."
Malkin is 36. He, Crosby and Letang are entering their 17th NHL season together, the most by any trio in league history. When he was asked about the energy he gets from the "veteran core" sticking together for a few more years, he had to interject.
"We're not veterans," he said. "Like, we're still young."
I think he was kidding, at least a little bit. But he's serious about what he thinks this core, and this team can do this season. The core may be another year older, but he doesn't think they've slowed down.
"Age is nothing," he said. "We have great experience, this is important. New guys, young guys, we help them. We're a leadership group. It's the same as we've done the last 16, 17 years. Nothing has changed too much. Just be a leader, be strong and be positive. We know it's not easy, every team tries to beat us. We just try to focus every game and play right and get the win."
MORE FROM CAMP
• The 31 forwards, 21 defensemen and six goaltenders attending camp were divided into three teams on Day 1. Here is how the different groups lined up:
TEAM 1
Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Valtteri Puustinen
Drew O'Connor - Ryan Poehling - Rickard Rakell
Jamie Devane/Alex Nylander - Sam Poulin - Danton Heinen
Marcus Pettersson - Jeff Petry
Ty Smith - Chad Ruhwedel
Jon Lizotte - Taylor Fedun
TEAM 2
Drake Caggiula - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker - Radim Zohorna - Josh Archibald
Raivis Ansons - Jonathan Gruden - Kyle Olson/Ty Glover
Brian Dumoulin - Mark Friedman
Chris Ortiz - Mitch Reinke
Xavier Ouellet - Jack St. Ivany
TEAM 3
Filip Hallander - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen
Brock McGinn - Teddy Blueger - Lukas Svejkovsky
Nathan Legare - Jordan Frasca - Corey Andonovski
(Brooklyn Kalmikov - Sam Houde rotating in)
P.O Joseph - Kris Letang
Isaac Belliveau - Jan Rutta
Colin Swoyer - Ryan McCleary
Nolan Collins - Josh Maniscalco
• Teams 1 and 2 scrimmaged. Team 2 won, 4-1. Drake Caggiula, Josh Archibald, Raivis Ansons and Evgeni Malkin (empty net) scored for Team 2, while Sam Poulin scored Team 1's lone goal off of a one-timer from a beautiful feed from Danton Heinen. Dustin Tokarski was perfect in the first half for Team 2, while Casey DeSmith let in three goals for Team 1. Taylor Gauthier replaced DeSmith and Filip Lindberg replaced Tokarski for the second half. Gauthier was perfect in net, while Lindberg let in one goal.
• I continue to be just in awe of Valtteri Puustinen's one-timer. It's an absolute rocket.
• I wouldn't read too much into the line combinations. Obviously, Caggiula isn't going to be second-line wing on opening night. Sullivan does focus a lot on pairs of players in forward lines, and some of the expected pairs were together, as with Crosby/Jake Guentzel, Brock McGinn/Teddy Blueger, and Jeff Carter/Kasperi Kapanen.
• Tristan Jarry shared some insight into his recovery from his foot injury that held him out until Game 7 of the first round. It was clear at the time that he wasn't totally healthy when he came back -- he left his postgame media availability that night with an ice pack wrapped around his foot. He said Thursday that the plan at the time was for him to come in and play Game 7, then go back on the shelf to fully heal, potentially not until Round 3 or 4. He didn't feel totally healthy until about a month after the season ended. The fact that he still came back for Game 7 anyway seems to be a pretty good indication of how management felt about Louis Domingue's performance at that point.
• With at least nine capable NHL defensemen in camp, Sullivan was asked about Mark Friedman's ability to move to forward if needed, as he has occasionally in the past.
"He has played a little bit of forward in his time," Sullvian said. "He's very capable because he's a real mobile guy. He's a good skater. It's one of his strengths, Frieds does have the ability to play multiple positions. I think he's most comfortable playing defense, for obvious reasons. But without a doubt, he's a guy that brings a little bit of versatility."
• Sullivan said that he thinks newcomers Jan Rutta, Jeff Petry and Ty Smith can make a "huge impact."
"When you look at the group we have assembled here, what I like about it is we have more diversity," he said. "What I mean by that is we have more players that bring a certain dimension that they're really good at. Jeff Petry is just a legitimate top-2, top-3 defenseman in the league. He's good on both sides of the puck. I think his size, his athleticism, he's going to make us harder at our net front, we don't give up anything from a transition standpoint or a mobility standpoint back there.
"I think he's going to make us a better team. You look at Rutta, he's hard to play against. He's a real good defender. He's a very good penalty-killer. He brings that dimension to our team. So just having guys that bring more diversity to our defense corps I think makes us a more formidable team. We've got puck movers on every defense pair depending on what it looks like. Even a player like Ty Smith, that's a young, really good offensively-gifted defenseman, mobile, can help us get out of our end and can play on the power play. Really good offensive instincts, a very good puck mover, he brings a dimension. These guys all bring a little something different and for me that's what makes a team a team. I like the diversity that our group has back there."
• I asked Sullivan where he thinks Poulin's game is now compared to this time last year, and how close Poulin is to realistically competing for a spot.
"I think he's lightyears ahead of where he was a year ago," Sullivan said. "He and some other young players are very much challenging for this roster, and that's exciting for us. I know it's exciting for them. That's an important element of sustaining a competitive organization, is having that internal competition where we have young players trying to push their way on the roster. That's happened in my time here, and when that does, it makes us a better team. And I think Sam is one of those guys."
• Defense prospect Nolan Collins remained in a non-contact jersey. He told me in rookie camp that he suffered a shoulder injury in his OHL team's training camp.
• Defense prospect Owen Pickering, who was sidelined for all of rookie camp with an undisclosed upper-body injury, skated on his own on Thursday.
