Penguins’ Dubas: ‘I’m not going to do this day-to-day, year-by-year thing’ with Malkin

The Pittsburgh Penguins are just about 48 hours away from getting their 2026-27 regular season underway as they look to follow up last year’s surprisingly strong effort by earning a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs once again.

They’ll do so with their three aging franchise legends (Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang) still playing major roles for the team in their 21st season as teammates. Only Letang is under contract beyond this season.

During his media availability before the start of the season, Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas was asked by a member of the media where things stood between the team and Malkin’s camp in terms of the veteran remaining with the Penguins beyond this season.

“I’m not going to do this day-to-day, year-by-year thing with Geno again this year,” Dubas answered.

The sense heading into last season was that it would be the last one Malkin spent as a member of the Penguins. It was even reported as such by Josh Yohe of The Athletic, but the degree to which Malkin’s effectiveness on the ice rebounded forced a change in plans on both sides of the equation.

After spending two seasons producing well below a point-per-game pace, Malkin found another gear in 2025-26, notching 61 points on 19 goals and 42 assists in 56 regular season appearances, helping Pittsburgh go from the middle of the pack to third in the NHL in goals for last season.

After being eliminated in the first round by their rival Philadelphia Flyers, Malkin expressed a desire to play another year in the NHL, whether that was in the Steel City or somewhere else. On May 26, Dubas and Malkin put pen to paper on a one-year, $5.5 million contract to keep him with the Penguins for this season and prevent him from hitting the market as an unrestricted free agent.

Dubas’ curt response on Monday suggests he may not be keen to go through the process of another negotiation with Malkin’s camp at the end of this season.