Justin Brazeau has reaped the rewards of playing with Malkin

The 2025-26 NHL season may still be in its relatively early stages, but a few players are exceeding expectations for a little longer than many expected. 

While some rookies have outscored expectations in their first year in the league, it’s the hot starts for veterans that have turned heads with larger-than-regular scoring outputs. Among those standouts is Pittsburgh Penguins winger Justin Brazeau.

At 27 years old, he has six goals and six assists for 12 points through the first 12 games of the season and has greatly benefited from playing with a center as skilled as Evgeni Malkin. 

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton dove into his hot start and how it compares to other hot starts from Ottawa Senators forward Shane Pinto and the Utah Mammoth’s Nick Schmaltz. 

Yaremchuk: Shane Pinto, Justin Brazeau and Nick Schmaltz were the three players who we looked at and said, ‘This hot start may be fooling you a little bit,’ and I think also, just like some teams, they’ll cool off at some point. Shane Pinto —I think he might be a 70-plus-point guy. Maybe this hot start isn’t all that much of a trick. But with Justin Brazeau, it’s pretty easy to see that. If he manages to hit 25 goals this year, I’d be stunned.

Hutton: With Brazeau for me, it’s Evgeni Malkin. Honestly, I don’t want to take away from Brazeau because he’s doing a good job, but Malkin looks rejuvenated this year and looks very good. I think Sidney Crosby and him, with just that passion those guys have to play and help Pittsburgh, I think Brazeau is reaping the benefits of that and playing with a healthy and rejuvenated Malkin.

You can catch the whole segment and the rest of the episode right here…