Penguins greats Evgeni Malkin, Kevin Stevens share more than a penalty minute record

There are a lot of ways to define the career of Evgeni Malkin.

The goals.

The points.

The championships.

The awards.

And the penalty minutes.

One of those things is clearly not like the others. But the superstar center has spent more time in the penalty box than any other player in the history of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Except one.

Kevin Stevens.

At the moment, they are tied for the franchise’s lead in career penalty minutes with 1,048.

There’s one major difference, however.

“I sat in that penalty box a lot more than he did,” Stevens joked. “I’ll tell you that much, even though he (will) beat me. I played 500-something games. It took him a thousand.”

To be precise, Stevens was far more efficient in reaching the mark in only 555 games. Malkin’s pursuit of the total has been a slow, steady march over 1,044 contests.

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“He’s a big powerful guy, but he handles the puck a lot better than I handled the puck,” said Stevens, a three-time All-Star who was one of the NHL’s premier power forwards in the early 1990s. “I was pretty much just a straight-ahead type of guy. Back when we played, it was a little bit different style of game that’s played now.

“My game was kind of get to the net and bang around in there. I got tangled up with all these big defensemen down there. He’s not considered that type of player. He’s more of a finesse type of (player). You look for him to stay on the ice a little bit more than I did. I got most of my penalty minutes down in front of that net getting tangled up with people. He’s more of a guy that likes to handle the puck and play that game. But he’s a physical guy. He plays that hard, two-way game, which is great.

“We got those penalty minutes a lot differently.”

Stevens’ figure was buttressed by plenty of misconducts and majors, while Malkin has largely gotten there with a trail of hooking and tripping minors.

To be certain, the NHL of 2023 is far less violent and bellicose than the era Stevens largely existed in.

For instance, Stevens led the 1991-92 Penguins in penalty minutes with 252.

Three decades later, defenseman Kris Letang paced the 2021-22 Penguins with a paltry 49.

“Yeah, it’s a different game,” said Stevens, a vital component of the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992. “(Malkin) never played on the fourth line. I came up playing on the fourth line, where if you get out there in the last two minutes of a game and you’re losing and you’ve got to play that team the next night, most likely, there was a five-on-five scrap. The tough guys (fought), and I just found a defenseman that didn’t know how to fight. I didn’t know how to fight.

“That was just part of the game. It’s changed so much. We don’t have that intimidation anymore. Back when I played, it was a big part of the game.”

At the same time, Malkin isn’t exactly a shrinking violet. As recently as April 10, he was assessed a double minor for high sticking after he cross-checked rough-and-tumble Nashville Predators defenseman Mark Borowiecki in the mouth, an outburst that landed him a four-game suspension.

“He’s not going to back down from anybody,” said Stevens, who currently serves as a scout for the Penguins in his hometown of Boston. “I think he would be fine back with our teams in the (early 1990s). He’s a big guy. He plays through (defenders). He’s not a guy that’s going to go into the forecheck and chase a guy down. He’s not that type of player. But he’ll definitely get his nose in there. He ain’t worried about any of that other stuff. He could have definitely played with us back then.”

One person who played with (or against, more accurately) with Stevens is current Penguins coach Mike Sullivan. His playing career largely overlapped Stevens’ during the 1990s into the early 2000s.

He sees one common trait between Stevens, affectionately known as “Artie,” and Malkin, colloquially referred to as “Geno.”

“It’s probably a similar attribute,” Sullivan said. “(Malkin is) a just real competitive guy. When the stakes get high and the games get emotionally charged, usually that’s when (Malkin) is at his best. He’s emotionally invested. He’s ultra-competitive. Those games, when they get emotionally charged, he usually amps up his game. He brings a certain competitiveness, a certain desire that I think lends to those types of games.

“He’s played in a lot of high-stakes games over the years. He’s played in a lot of emotionally charged environments. He’s gone into a lot of hostile environments, and it doesn’t faze him. He’s at his best, quite honestly, in those circumstances. He gets excited about those opportunities. He’s certainly not afraid to go into the heat of the battle.”

It’s part of the package that Malkin’s teammates adore about him.

“You see a lot of guys that are that passionate about the game,” said forward Bryan Rust, an occasional penalty killer. “Their (penalty minutes) might go up a little bit. It’s really no exception for him. He’s a guy that wants to win and is going to do everything to win. Sometimes, that crosses the line a little bit.

“He’s a guy that we’re definitely willing to kill penalties for.”

At some time in the near future, Malkin will hook a player in the offensive zone or cross-check a defenseman trying to clear the opposing crease. That will secure him a record Stevens has held for roughly two decades.

Stevens doesn’t exactly embrace the mark. But he does see one reason to take pride in it.

“It means I was able to play there for a long time more than anything,” said Stevens, who still holds most of the franchise’s scoring records for a left winger. “It’s not something that you sit there and you dream about having. It just kind of happened. I can’t really say I thought about any of that stuff. Just the penalty minutes piled up and hopefully, it helped me score goals.

“That was the biggest thing because I had to get pretty close to the net when I scored. I liked getting in around that blue (paint). I couldn’t get too far out and score. I pretty much knew my limitations. I had to get in there and bang around. That was just the nature of the beast back then.”

Artie is comfortable with Geno taking this record in his own way.

“Hopefully, Geno can get some more records,” Stevens said. “He’ll be there for a while. I don’t think he’s jumping up and down about this one. But he’ll get some other ones that he’ll be happier with.”