Malkin's great performance at the 2012 IIHF World Championship

Evgeniy Vladimirovich Malkin

(born July 31, 1986, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk region, USSR) is a Russian hockey player, center forward for the NHL club Pittsburgh Penguins and the Russian national team. Three-time Stanley Cup winner (2009, 2021 and 2017) with the Penguins, two-time world champion (2012 and 2014), participant in three Olympic Games (2006, 2010, 2014). Honored Master of Sports of Russia (2012).[1]

A student of the Magnitogorsk Metallurg hockey school. World Junior Champion 2004. Two-time silver medalist at the World Youth Championships. Silver and bronze medalist of the Russian championships as part of Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Two-time world champion, best player of the 2012 World Championship.

At the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, he was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round, 2nd overall. Since 2006, he has been playing for the Penguins, serving as the club's alternate captain.

Best rookie of the NHL season 2006/07. Winner of the Stanley Cup in the 2008/09 and 2015/16 seasons. The first Russian player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy.

Carier start

Evgeniy’s father, Vladimir Anatolyevich, himself once played hockey and already put his son on skates at the age of three. The first coach of the future star at the Magnitogorsk Metallurg hockey school was Yuri Tukaserov. At the age of 8, Sergei Zinov became Evgeniy’s coach.

Until the age of fifteen, not all experts could discern the potential of the young hockey player - at one time he was not even accepted into the youth team of the Ural region.[2]

However, with his determination and efficiency, the hockey player proved his right to be in the junior and youth national teams of Russia. In 2004, at the World Youth Championship (players no older than 18 years old) in Minsk, as part of the Russian team, Evgeniy became the world champion. At the World Youth Championship (players no older than 20 years old), his successes are a little more modest: 5th place at the 2004 World Championships (where he was the youngest hockey player on the Russian team) and two silver medals at the 2005 and 2006 World Championships, held respectively in the USA and Canada.

Biography of Evgeni Malkin

Evgeni Malkin is a hockey player known on both sides of the Atlantic. His play is admired by specialists and ordinary fans; coaches in any team always assign him leading roles. At times, it seems that Malkin was born to play hockey. His path to the top was not thorny or difficult - passion, fire and hockey intuition were literally in his blood. Everything was given to him, because ice was his native element. Moving forward, Evgeniy constantly moved towards perfection in order to one day reach truly amazing heights.

Evgeni Malkin is a great forward

Career in Russia

Malkin's debut match at the highest level of the Russian Championship was the away game of Metallurg with Yaroslavl Lokomotiv on September 12, 2003 in the 2003/2004 season (Lokomotiv won with a score of 7:2)[3]. Before this, Evgeniy played two matches for the main team of Magnitogorsk at the XII I. Kh. Romazan Memorial in 2003. He opened his scoring account on October 11, 2003 in Moscow in a match against Dynamo (Moscow) - together with Ravil Gusmanov, he assisted Alexander Koreshkov[4]. Malkin scored his first goal in Yaroslavl in a match with the same Lokomotiv on December 12, 2003, and in this game he scored two goals[5].

In total, Evgeniy Malkin played for the Magnitogorsk club for 3 seasons - 2003/2004, 2004/2005 and 2005/2006. During this time, he turned from a promising “masker” into one of the leaders of the club and the national team. During this time, he became a silver and bronze medalist at the Russian Championship (seasons 2003/04 and 2005/06). In his first season, he was named the best rookie of the season, and in the 2005/06 season he won the Golden Helmet award as the best center forward (in addition, he became the second highest scorer of the season after Alexei Morozov). Due to the lockout in the NHL, Malkin began the 2012/2013 season in the KHL as part of his native Magnitogorsk Metallurg. In total he played 37 matches, in which he scored 65 (23+42) points.

Personal life

Evgeni Malkin’s personal life began to improve while still in Magnitogorsk. A prominent athlete (Malkin’s height is 190 cm, weight is 84 kg) always attracted the attention of girls. At one time, Zhenya dated a student from Ufa, but the romance did not last long, as his lover tried to get on the screen without devoting time to the relationship.

Evgeniy Malkin

After a while, he meets Oksana Kondakova. She is 4 years older than him, but this fact did not prevent the emergence of a new romance. The couple begins dating and moves to live in Moscow. The hockey player buys an apartment for the girl in an elite area of the capital and helps Kondakova enter the Moscow Institute of Television. Later, Evgeniy leaves for America, but this is not an obstacle to the development of relations.

Evgeni Malkin and Oksana Kondakova

4 years passed, the girl hinted that she was ready to become the wife of a talented athlete, but his family reacted negatively to such an initiative. Eugene’s relatives recommended not to rush into marriage and having children. It seemed to the parents that their beloved was interested in their son only as a person with great financial resources. As a result, Kondakova and Malkin broke up.

Evgeni Malkin and Anna Kasterova

Now Evgeni Malkin is married to TV presenter Anna Kasterova. The wedding ceremony took place in 2021. The couple formalized their relationship in the United States, and the newlyweds celebrated their wedding in their homeland.

NHL career

After his escape from Metallurg Magnitogorsk, Malkin signed a contract with the NHL club Pittsburgh Penguins on September 5, 2006[6]. In the first exhibition match on September 20, 2006 against the Philadelphia Flyers, Malkin made an assist in the first period in the 2nd minute, after which Sergei Gonchar scored. However, at the very beginning of the second period, after a collision with his own partner John Leclerc, he fell unsuccessfully and injured his shoulder [7]. Fortunately for the player, the injury was not so serious, and the hockey player missed only four of Pittsburgh's starting matches in the 2006/2007 season.

Malkin played his NHL debut on October 19, 2006 at the Penguins' home ice, Mellon Arena, in a match against the New Jersey Devils. After spending 18 minutes 15 seconds on the court and making two shots at the opponent's goal, he managed to score at the 38 minute 38 second of the game with assists from Ryan Whitney and Mark Recchi.

“I was worried because it was my first game here. Next, I think, it will be easier"

Pittsburgh was able to make the playoffs for the first time since 2001. In the first round of the Stanley Cup against the Ottawa Senators, the Penguins lost 4-1. Malkin scored 4 points in five matches. At the end of the season, Evgeniy received the Calder Trophy.

Malkin with the Penguins in 2011

Malkin was able to very successfully replace Sidney Crosby during his absence due to injury, thanks to which he made it to his first All-Star Game. In January, after a match with Washington, Malkin accused Alexander Ovechkin of being too harsh towards him and of attempting to intentionally inflict injury. The players exchanged reproaches to each other through the press, thereby fueling interest in the conflict. And during their teams’ matches with each other, attention was constantly focused on the players[9]. After Crosby's return and the acquisition of Marian Gossa from Atlanta, Pittsburgh won its division and was recognized by all experts as one of the playoff favorites. In the first round, like a year ago, the Penguins again played with Ottawa, but this time Pittsburgh did not leave a single chance for the Senators, beating them in four matches. After which they successively knocked out the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers from the playoffs with the same score of 4:1 in the series and, for the first time since 1992, reached the finals, where they met the Detroit Red Wings, but won They couldn’t win the Cup[10]. Following the season, Malkin signed a five-year contract with the Penguins totaling $43.5 million.

The team's regular season in the 2008/2009 season is uneven, but thanks to a change of coach, the Penguins advance from fifth place to the playoffs. For Malkin himself, this season was the best in his career. In the regular season, he wins the scorers race with 113 points and receives the Art Ross Trophy. At the All-Star game he was included in the starting five and won the shooting accuracy competition. Also on that stellar weekend, his reconciliation with Alexander Ovechkin took place[11]. In the first round of the playoffs, Pittsburgh beat Philadelphia, and in the second round, after seven matches, they were stronger than Washington. In the conference finals, the Penguins easily defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4:0. In the decisive series, Pittsburgh meets Detroit again. Just like last year, the Wings win the first two matches, but Pittsburgh's players were able to even the score. After this, the teams exchange victories on home ice and meet in the seventh game. Pittsburgh was able to win the decisive game 2:1 and take revenge for last year's defeat. Malkin scores 36 points in the playoffs and wins the Conn Smythe Trophy.

Malkin spent the next season weaker, the reason for this was injuries and an unsuccessful performance at the Olympics in Vancouver[12].

The 2010/2011 season for Malkin was the most unsuccessful in the NHL, playing only 43 games; Evgeni was forced to miss the rest of the regular season and playoffs due to a severe injury to his right knee. The next season, Evgeniy completely rehabilitated himself from the previous unsuccessful season. Malkin became the league's top scorer with 109 points, and for the first time in his career, he overcame the 50-goal mark during the regular season. At the end of the season, he received the Art Ross Trophy, Hart Trophy, and Ted Lindsay Award.

On June 13, 2013, Malkin extended his contract with Pittsburgh for 8 years and a total of $76 million.

On October 29, 2021, Malkin scored a double in a match against Philadelphia and, as a result, reached the 300-goal mark in the NHL regular championships.

In the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, he became the top scorer with 28 points in 25 games. As a result, Pittsburgh won its second consecutive Stanley Cup, the first since Detroit in 1998.

Russian team

Evgeni Malkin at the 2010 Winter Olympics in a match against Latvia

Malkin made his first appearance in the Russian national team sweater at the 2003 World Junior Championships in Yaroslavl, where he scored 9 points in 6 matches and won bronze. The next year in Minsk he becomes the champion, and a few months later he is invited to the youth team for the World Championship.

At the 2005 and 2006 World Youth Championships he won silver.

At the level of the adult Russian national hockey team, Evgeni Malkin made his debut in the finals of the Eurotour of the 2004/2005 season. In the first match against the Swedish national team in Stockholm, he scored the winning goal with a pass from Alexander Ovechkin. Together with the Russian national team, Evgeniy twice became the winner of the hockey Eurotour - in the 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 seasons. On May 18, 2010, he played his 50th match with the Russian national team.

Evgeni Malkin participated in seven world championships - 2005 in Austria (where he won a bronze medal), 2006 in Latvia, 2007 in Russia (where he became a two-time bronze medalist at the world championships), 2010 in Germany, winning silver.

At the 2012 World Championships, Malkin won a gold medal and was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. At this World Championship, Evgeniy became the main striking force of the Russian team. Playing on the same line with Avangard forwards Alexander Perezhogin and Alexander Popov, Malkin scored 11 goals and made 8 assists in 10 matches, and also scored 2 hat-tricks: in the match with the Swedes in the group (7:3) and in the semifinals with Finns (6:2). During each of these matches, the Russian team was inferior in score to the opponent, but Evgeniy scored goals that reduced the gap in the score and brought the team ahead. Malkin also scored a goal in the final match with the Slovakian national team, setting the final score of the match - 6:2.

At the 2014 World Championship, he became a two-time world champion, scoring the third goal in a numerical majority (5 on 3) in the final match with the Finnish national team.

Also, as a member of the Russian national team, Malkin took part in three Winter Olympic Games: in 2006 in Turin, in 2010 in Vancouver and in 2014 in Sochi.

Other

First player since the 1917–1918 season to score in each of his first six NHL games.
Has the longest scoring streak in the NHL regular championships for players from Russia - 15 matches.
The second player after Wayne Gretzky to become the top scorer of the NHL regular season and the World Championship in the same season.
Repeated Wayne Gretzky's achievement in the number of assists in one month (21 assists in November 2013)

Material taken from ru.wikipedia.org under GFDL license. List of authors here: [link].

American citizenship

At the end of October 2021, a hockey player of the Russian national team and the Pittsburgh Penguins club admitted that he has an American passport. The athlete himself does not find anything wrong with this. How did a Putin Team member come to this life?

Malkin’s American citizenship was first reported by his lawyer Dmitry Machikhin. He helps the athlete do business in the States.

Machikhin confirmed information about Malkin’s American citizenship to Sports.ru journalists, who were preparing material about the hockey player’s loss of money by investing in cryptocurrency.

Later, Evgeni Malkin himself spoke. He noted that the USA is a second home for him, fortunately he has been living there for 13 years. Evgeniy noted that the laws of the Russian Federation do not prohibit having a second passport.