Malkin compared to another one this generation's top players and gives his honest opinion on who's better

Both players have 3 Stanley Cups, a Calder Trophy, Conn Smythe Trophy, Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award while Malkin has the edge in Art Ross Trophies (2-1). Points-wise, however, Kane is slightly ahead with 1,237 points in 1180 games compared to Malkin's 1,090 points in 1,063 games. Even when you break down their career point totals to points-per-game, they are very close. Kane is only averaging .02 more points-per-game than Malkin over their careers. Kane is closing in on becoming the highest scoring American player of all time, trailing Brett Hull by just 154 points, while Malkin is only trailing Alexander Ovechkin for highest scoring Russian of all time. Make no mistake about it, these are two of the very best players of this era and both have cases for being considering all-time greats.

For a player that has always thrived in the spotlight and always wanted it, for Malkin to say that Kane has had the better career is somewhat surprising. With Malkin, 36, and Kane, 34, their careers will be coming to an end, conceivably within the next 4 years, but as the saying goes, "greatness recognizes greatness" and it's great to see Malkin so humbly tipping his hat to another one of this era's superstars the way that he did. There's obviously a ton of respect between these two legends.