The Pittsburgh Penguins dodged a bullet this off-season, as the club announced that star center Evgeni Malkin won’t require surgery on his injured elbow. He isn’t expected to miss any time, per the Penguins.
Malkin missed two long stints of action this season. He was sidelined for 10 games between Feb. 5 and Feb. 24 because of a lower-body injury and then suffered this elbow injury on Mar. 11 against Columbus (top). The 29-year-old was originally supposed to be out for six to eight weeks, but he came back just over a month later for Game 2 of the first round series against the Rangers.
Just days after the Penguins hoisted the cup, general manager Jim Rutherford admitted that Malkin’s injury was pretty serious:
Rutherford described Malkin's injury as real serious. Noted he came back earlier than most players would have.
— Seth Rorabaugh (@SethRorabaugh) June 16, 2016
The fact that he’ll avoid surgery is great news considering how much time he’s missed over the last few seasons. Malkin missed 17 games in 2012-13, 22 games in 2013-14, 13 games in 2014-15 and 25 games this season.
Malkin’s been in the news quite a bit since winning the Stanley Cup on June 12th. Earlier this week, there were rumors about the ‘Hawks being interested in acquiring him, but Rutherford shot that down pretty quickly.