NHL Star Power Index: Evgeni Malkin hits historic milestone amid hot start, Sam Reinhart dominates early on

Welcome to the NHL Star Power Index: A weekly gauge of the players who are controlling substantial buzz around the league. When a player is included on this list it may not be a good thing — it means that they are capturing a large amount of the hockey world’s attention.

These players are in no particular order when it comes to the amount of buzz that they’re creating. We’ll revisit the Star Power Index every week throughout the regular season.

Evgeni Malkin continues to perform at an elite level even in the latter stage of his NHL career. In fact, the Pittsburgh Penguins star achieved a very significant milestone in Wednesday’s 6-5 overtime win against the Buffalo Sabres.

During the third period of Wednesday’s contest, Malkin scored his 500th career goal and was able to do so in dramatic fashion. 

Malkin received the puck from Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and his initial shot was stopped by the pad of Sabres goaltender Ukko Pekka-Luukkonen. The Penguins forward stayed with the play and despite falling down, still managed to deposit the rebound into the back of the net.

It was a night of milestones as Crosby became the 10th player in NHL history to record 1,600 points in his NHL career. Ironically enough, Malkin assisted on Crosby’s game-winning overtime goal to lift the Penguins to victory.

Malkin joined Mario Lemieux (690) and Crosby (593) as just the third player in team history to tally 500 goals. In addition, Malkin became just the eighth player in NHL history that was born outside of the United States or Canada to register 500 career goals.

Aside from the milestone, Malkin has been on fire to begin the 2024-25 season. The Penguins star has tallied 11 points (two goals & nine assists) in the first five games of the campaign, and achieved even more history. Malkin became the first Penguins player to rack up 11 points in the team’s first five games of a single season since Lemieux had four goals and seven assists in the first five games of the 2002-03 season.

Entering Friday, Malkin is tied for the NHL lead in points with New York Rangers star Artemi Panarin.

After being held off the score sheet in the season opener against the New York Rangers, Malkin has registered multiple points in each of the last four contests. Malkin’s best game was Wednesday’s performance against the Sabres in which he recorded four points (one goal & three assists)

The Penguins are going to need to depend on their franchise cornerstones in Malkin and Crosby if they want to make a playoff push this season. As a result, it’s a huge deal to see Malkin getting off to such a hot start.

Sam Reinhart was always an extremely productive player during his time with the Buffalo Sabres at the beginning of his career. Since arriving in South Florida, Reinhart has transformed into one of the most lethal goal scorers around the NHL.

The Florida Panthers star had a career year in 2023-24 in which he tallied 59 goals and was rewarded with a eight-year, $69 million contract extension over the summer. Reinhart has picked up right where he left off last season after he helped lead the Panthers to their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

Entering Friday, Reinhart is currently tied for third in the NHL in points (9) with four goals and five assists. The Panthers forward has registered multi-point performances in three of Florida’s six games thus far.

Reinhart’s most impressive showing came in a 4-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday. The 28-year old tallied a goal and two assists in that particular contest and it marked his first three-point performance of the young 2024-25 season.

Reinhart scored his fourth goal of the season in timely fashion to help lead the Panthers past the Blue Jackets. 

With just two seconds remaining in the second period, Reinhart dumped the puck behind the net to teammate Carter Verhaeghe, and made his way towards the front of the net. Reinhart was able to sneak the puck past Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins on a bang-bang goal when he got the puck back in front.

Reinhart continues to thrive as one of the Panthers top goal scorers. Florida is definitely going to need his scoring production over the next handful of games without Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk in the lineup.

The Calgary Flames have looked like one of the more impressive teams across the league in the opening two weeks of the 2024-25 season. Defenseman Rasmus Andersson has been a very big part of that success.

Andersson has become the leader of Calgary’s back end and tallied points in three of the team’s first four games. The 27-year old blue-liner’s best performance to date came in a 4-1 win against the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday when he racked up a goal and a pair of assists.

Andersson displayed his tremendous vision on the ice throughout Sunday’s game.

The Flames defenseman carried the puck into the offensive zone and proceeded to weave his way through the Oilers defense like he was Connor McDavid. Eventually, Andersson was able to make his way into the slot and ripped a shot past Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner to give the Flames a 2-1 lead at the time.

The veteran defenseman also provided secondary assists on goals from forwards Anthony Mantha and Justin Kirkland in the third period, which helped the Flames take a commanding advantage against the Oilers.

Entering Friday, Andersson’s six points are second behind only Cale Makar (8) among NHL defensemen. Andersson has continued to develop into a very strong offensive-minded blue-liner in recent years, but seeing his vision on full display early in the season has been impressive to watch.

It’s safe to say that Colorado Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev has had a large amount of struggles out of the box this season.

In four starts to start off the year, Georgiev has tallied a 0-3-0 record to go along with a 5.79 goals-against-average and a .800 save percentage. The Avalanche netminder has been pulled in two of those starts and has yielded at least four goals in three of those contests.

Georgiev began the season on a sour note as he surrendered five goals in just two periods against the Vegas Golden Knights. He ended up not taking the ice for the final period in a game that the Avalanche ended up losing 8-4.

The story remained the same in the team’s next game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Oct. 12 when he surrendered three goals in just over a period of action. Georgiev was pulled just 1:56 into the second period after Blue Jackets forward Adam Fantilli found the back of the net in what ultimately was a 6-4 loss.

Most recently, Georgiev let up four goals in a 5-3 loss to the Boston Bruins on Wednesday. 

Georgiev’s rough start has resulted in the Avalanche having a 0-4-0 record to begin the regular season. In fact, Colorado is one of only three winless teams across the league up to this point. 

Obviously, there’s still a long season ahead, and there’s plenty of time for Georgiev to right the ship. However, after tallying a 3.02 goals-against-average in 62 starts last season, it’s a little concerning for an Avalanche team that is expected to contend for a Stanley Cup in 2024-25.