Evgeni Malkin has been named the Penguins' most valuable player for the 2019-20 regular season, the Penguins announced on Sunday.
The award is voted on annually by the Penguins' players themselves.
This is Malkin's fifth time in his 14 seasons that he has won the team's MVP award. Since the 2004-05 lockout, the award has only gone to Malkin, Sidney Crosby (eight times), and Marc-Andre Fleury (two times). Only Mario Lemieux (12 times) has won the award more than Crosby or Malkin.
Malkin led the team in scoring by an 18-point margin in the regular season, finishing with 74 points in 55 games. His 25 goals finished two shy of Bryan Rust for the team lead, and he led in assists with 49. He stepped up in Crosby's absence from a core muscle injury, leading the team with 11 goals and 27 assists in 26 games in that span.
Malkin's rate of offensive production at five-on-five was among the best of his career. His rate of 1.19 goals per 60 minutes played at five-on-five is the fourth-highest of his career. His rate of 2.23 assists per 60 minutes was the highest of his career, and his rate of 3.43 total points per 60 minutes was the second-highest of his career, just narrowly missing 2011-12's rate of 3.47.
This was Malkin's best season of his career in the faceoff circle, winning 50.34 percent of all draws, the first time in his career he's won more faceoffs than he's lost.
While defense is never going to be the strongest part of Malkin's game, he had the best rate of takeaways in his career with 4.25 per 60 minutes of five-on-five.
