Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin is scheduled to have a disciplinary hearing with the NHL on Friday at an unspecified time.
The league announced the hearing via social media shortly before noon Friday.
Malkin is facing supplemental discipline for slashing Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin and striking his helmet during a 5-1 win by the Sabres at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday.
The incident happened 38 seconds into the second period.
After both players became entangled to the left of the Sabres’ net, Dahlin cross checked Malkin a handful of times, prompting Malkin to swing his stick downward, making contact with the right side of Dahlin’s helmet, then his right shoulder.
Malkin separated for a moment, then dropped his gloves, attempting to fight Dahlin before Dahlin bowed away, holding his face.
Malkin was assessed a game misconduct as well as major and minor penalties for slashing. In total, he accrued 17 minutes in penalties for the outburst.
Dahlin, who was assessed a minor penalty for cross checking, did not appear to suffer a substantial injury and completed the game.
Malkin is no stranger to supplemental discipline, a factor the NHL considers when weighing punitive measures.
He has been suspended twice in his career and fined on four occasions.
In April of 2022, he was suspended for four games for cross checking Nashville Predators defenseman Mark Borowiecki in the face. Borowiecki was bloodied and appeared to loose teeth due to the incident.
Before Tuesday, Malkin's last absence from the lineup was due to the four-game suspension he earned by performing amateur dentistry on Predators defenseman Mark Borowiecki in April of 2022:pic.twitter.com/5vmRKsuxcV
— Seth Rorabaugh (@SethRorabaugh) January 8, 2025
The NHL detailed its decision with that suspension by stating, “there simply is no justification for a player to forcefully and intentionally cross check another player in this manner.”
And in February of 2019, he was suspended one game for swing his stick at the head of Philadelphia Flyers forward Michael Raffl. That incident led to a match penalty, which incurs an automatic suspension pending review by the league.
Raffl was not injured on the incident.
In explaining the 2019 suspension, the NHL labeled Malkin’s actions as an “intentional stick swing, with force, for the purposes of retaliation.”
This season, Malkin is the Penguins’ second-leading scorer with 47 points (13 goals, 34 assists) in 46 games while averaging 17:29 of ice time per contest.
