FHR President Vladislav Tretiak confirmed that his club team Pittsburgh Penguins gave their consent for Malkin to leave for the Worlds after having passed medical examinations. Malkin is expected to fly to Minsk on Saturday and may thus join the Russian national team on Sunday.

Pending formalities, the 27-year-old superstar could play for Russia already in Sunday night’s game against Germany or in Russia’s last preliminary-round game on Tuesday against host Belarus.

For Malkin, who has also played in three Olympic Winter Games, it will be the sixth World Championship participation. Malkin was on the gold-medal winning team in Helsinki 2012 when he was named Most Valuable Player. He was on the World Championship All-Star Team in 2007, 2010 and 2012.