'Burgh's best to wear it, No. 71: Evgeni Malkin was worth the wait

The Tribune-Review sports staff is conducting a daily countdown of the best players in Pittsburgh pro and college sports history to wear each jersey number.

No. 71: Evgeni Malkin

If the Pittsburgh Penguins’ plans had gone as hoped, this might be an article explaining why defenseman Jiri Slegr is the best Pittsburgh athlete to wear No. 71.

And there definitely would be a different choice for No. 8 because Alex Ovechkin would be a Pittsburgh Penguin.

In the winter of 2004, the Penguins, by design, were routinely dressing a terrible lineup full of Rico Fatas, Mike Eastwoods and Landon Wilsons.

They labeled it as rebuilding. Some would accuse them of tanking.

Whatever you want to call it, they weren’t the only ones doing it.

The Washington Capitals were doing the same thing and won the NHL’s draft lottery, which allowed them to draft Ovechkin and transform their franchise.

That left the Penguins with the No. 2 overall pick, and they ended up with a consolation prize in Evgeni Malkin, an equally spectacular, albeit far more introverted, star from Russia.

Malkin’s impact wasn’t realized immediately because of a lack of labor peace and international diplomacy.

First, the NHL’s lockout canceled the 2004-05 season. Then, by the time the “new” NHL was ready to debut in 2005-06, Malkin was not permitted to break his contract with his team in Russia, Metallurg Magnitogorsk.

During the late summer of 2006, a caper worthy of Robert Ludlum saw Malkin sneak out of Russia to finally join the Penguins.

A preseason injury in September of 2006 delayed Malkin’s debut.

Once he finally took the ice for a game of consequence, it quickly became apparent the wait was worth it as he scored a goal in his first six career games, becoming the first player to do that since the NHL’s first season of 1917-18.

Malkin won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league’s top rookie in 2007, then helped the team play for the Stanley Cup in 2008.

In his third season, Malkin claimed the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s top scorer, then won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP while leading the Penguins to the franchise’s third Stanley Cup title.

Injuries limited him to 112 out of 168 games over the next two seasons before he roared back with his signature 2011-12 campaign, winning the Hart Memorial Trophy as regular-season MVP and the Art Ross Trophy.

Since then, Malkin’s individual accolades haven’t been as plentiful, but he’s matured into one of the greatest players in NHL history, regardless of what a band of historians might have decreed upon the NHL’s centennial celebration in 2017.

A member of the Penguins’ Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and ’17 as well, Malkin, who wears No. 71 in tribute to Soviet star Valeri Kharlamov’s No. 17, is definitely on the back nine of his career as he approaches his 34th birthday next month. But having recommitted himself by adjusting how he trains in his mid-30s, Malkin still is capable of being the most dominant player on the ice when he wants to be.

Even if it wasn’t planned as such.

• Malkin is the third player in franchise history to wear No. 71, preceded by the aforementioned Slegr, who was part of some playoff teams in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as well as forward Konstantin Koltsov, a first-round pick in 2003 who was part of some really bad teams in the mid-2000s that allowed the Penguins to draft Malkin.

• Bill Maas was a physical but agile defensive tackle for Pitt in the early 1980s. The brother-in-law of another Pitt star, quarterback Dan Marino, Maas was a three-year starter at Pitt and earned All-American honors in 1982. His safety of West Virginia quarterback Jeff Hostetler helped secure a 16-13 home win in that season’s Backyard Brawl. In 1984, Maas was a first-round pick (No. 5 overall) of the Kansas City Chiefs and became a two-time Pro Bowler.

• Charlie Bradshaw was a six-year starter at right tackle for the Steelers in the 1960s and was a Pro Bowl selection in 1963 and ’64. Despite his success, the 6-foot-6, 255-pound Bradshaw routinely was booed by Pittsburgh fans who sought a prominent scapegoat to blame for the franchise’s futility. Bradshaw might have been one of the smartest Pittsburgh athletes ever, considering he earned a law degree during his playing career and served as head of the NFLPA.

Check out the entire ’Burgh’s Best to Wear It series here.