The Athletic’s Rob Rossi got a really good story about Evgeni Malkin’s mental state and mindset as he retreated to Russia this summer seeking to re-establish his fitness and re-find his game. It’s a terrific, tremendous article that you should read.
One of the juiciest nuggets was the Malkin / Phil Kessel relationship, that according to Rossi escalated to a “one of them has to go” situation.
This is really terrific on Evgeni Malkin, and @Real_RobRossi might be the only guy in hockey media that could have written it, given his history with Geno.