Evgeni Malkin is arguably one of the greatest hockey players to ever come out of Russia and a household name both in Pittsburgh and to hockey fans everywhere. The star forward and alternative captain for the Pittsburgh Penguins has had an exceptional amount of good fortune and success in his time with the Pens. The 32-year-old forward has three Stanley Cups, two Art Ross Trophies, a Hart Trophy, a Calder Trophy, a Ted Lindsay Award, he's also been the recipient of the Conn Smythe Trophy. He is a three-time First All-Star Team selection, a seven-time NHL All-Star and four-time Penguins team MVP. At 32 years old, he has more than established himself as an elite NHL superstar.

Unfortunately, since the start of the 19-20 season, Malkin hasn't seen the same fortune. In addition to suffering a lower-body injury just three days into the regular season after taking a rough spill into the boards against the Columbus Blue Jackets, he has also faced troubles in Russia regarding his name being tied to lost investments and cryptocurrency.

According to Rick Westhead of TSN, J.P. Barry, who is Malkin's agent, stated that the Pens star is hiring a lawyer to investigate how his name became associated with Mark.Space, a Russian based virtual reality start up, which has recently suffered financial losses.

Reports surfaced from the Russian website Sports.ru on Oct. 29th that Malkin invested in Mark.Space, to the tune of $4 million dollars. As the report would state, development delays would have the company inevitably use an initial coin offering or ICO, which uses cryptocurrency to crowdfund projects, to raise another $10 million dollars by attaching the Russian superstar's name attached to the project.

According to Sports.ru, that money has since been lost.

The Pens forward is now consulting with lawyers as to why his name was included in the report by Sports.ru and is seeking to hire someone to further investigate the reports claims.

Malkin's agent said that Malkin invested roughly $2 million dollars into a clothing company run by a long time friend, but was unaware of any involvement in the cryptocurrency industry. He was quoted regarding the incident as saying; "This is about two partners going at each other and (Malkin) now has to figure out what happened. A lawyer will have to go in and get all the documents and figure out what happened with the company."

Barry also noted that neither he, nor his client were contacted at any point by Sports.ru to comment on these incidents prior to the site publishing its report. It is unclear at this time exactly how much of the reports are based in fact, seeing as the site neglected to contact the source for information.

Malkin, less than thrilled given his current situation, both in the headlines and on the sidelines due to injury, shared a few words regarding this situation with Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now; "No, the internet - its garbage. I don't like the internet. ... Right now, its garbage for me. I know i'm a good guy. I don't know what to say about that, because its a little bit crazy for me, but i know it's nothing bad."

As it stands right now for Malkin's on ice situation, Monday he returned to practice with his teammates and is hopeful to take the ice Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers.