Having made a pre-assist pass to Rasta, Malkin brought the number of assists in the NHL regular championships to 700. Thus, Gino became the first Russian hockey player in the best hockey league of the planet who managed to reach this mark, and 57th among all players in the history of the NHL. Among those 56 players who are still higher than Malkin in the number of assists, only 22 hockey players managed to get to the anniversary cutoff faster than Evgeny, and only one of the active ones. They are, remarkably, Malkin's teammate Sidney Crosby. The Canadian scored his 700th assist in the NHL in the 856th game in the regular season of the league, while Evgeny played his 976th meeting.
