The Florida Panthers may be the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, but their title defense is being tested to the limits thanks to a myriad of injuries to key players.
That being said, they've been linked to longtime Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin, a former Conn Smythe Trophy winner and future Hall of Famer who is also a pending unrestricted free agent.
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice helped to further fuel speculation that Florida could be interested in acquiring Malkin from the Penguins by gushing over his work ethic.
“I was amazed by how hard he worked,” Maurice admitted about Malkin, via reporter Rob Darragh on X. “How hard he worked in practice, he drove hard to be a great performer. He wanted to win, he wanted to score goals, and he wanted to drive.”
Maurice and the Penguins are preparing to face the Penguins on Thursday evening at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET.
Maurice has already coached Malkin in the KHL during the first half of the 2012-13 campaign, during which the NHL was in the midst of a lockout that concluded in January 2013. If the Penguins find themselves out of the playoff race by the time the NHL Trade Deadline rolls around in March, the Panthers could very well be interested in inquiring about him.
The Panthers are dealing with multiple injuries to important players
The Panthers are considerably shorthanded to begin their second-straight Stanley Cup defense.
Not only did the Panthers confirm that Matthew Tkachuk would miss the first several months of the season after undergoing offseason surgery (he played with a torn adductor and sports hernia during the 2025 postseason), but they also lost team captain Aleksander Barkov for potentially the entire campaign after he suffered an ACL and MCL injury.
As if that weren't enough, they're now going to be without defenseman Dmitry Kulikov for the next several months after he was forced to undergo surgery to repair a labrum tear.
So far this season, the Panthers are off to an inconsistent start with a record of 4-4-0 through the first eight games.
