It’s no secret how important Pittsburgh Penguins star Evgeni Malkin is to his team. The future Hall of Famer is one of the best players of his generation. And he continues to play at a high level even in the latter stages of his career.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have placed forward Evgeni Malkin on injured reserve and recalled forward Jesse Puljujarvi from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League. Those transactions have not yet been announced by the team but they were reflected on the NHL media Web site Monday afternoon.

Although it initially looked as though Penguins star Evgeni Malkin had avoided the worst of it, we now know that Malkin has in fact been injured and will miss the remainder of today's early game against the Seattle Kraken. The Penguins made the announcement official, stating that Malkin has suffered a lower body injury and won't be returning.