Team S in our look back at the Washington Capitals
All-Alphabet Franchise Teams is an intriguing one for its balance of grit and
skill, sometimes in the same player.
Regular Season (with Capitals): 7 seasons, 469 games, 197-211-408,
plus-65
Playoffs (with Capitals): 5 seasons, 51 games, 15-19-34,
minus-1
e·nig·ma (iˈnigmə) -- noun: a person or thing that is
mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand.
Some guys are hard to figure out. None more so, perhaps, than Alexander
Semin. It always seemed that when Semin
was around, if he wasn’t doing something incredible, something odd was
happening. First there was the price the
Caps paid to get him. Washington traded
a first and a second round pick in the 2002 entry draft, plus a sixth round
pick in the 2003 draft to the Dallas Stars for the 13th overall pick
in the 2002 draft. The Caps used that
pick to take Semin, an 18 year old winger with Traktor Chelyabinsk in Russia.
Then things got strange.
Semin’s progress post-draft went sort of sideways. He spent another year in Russia, skating for
Lada Togliatti, after which he came to North America. In 2003-2004 he appeared in 52 games for the Caps,
finishing with ten goals and 22 points in 52 games. The odd thing about that
was that there was no 53rd game.
After the Caps defeated the New York Rangers in the team’s last home
game of the season, Semin missed the flight to Pittsburgh for the season
finale. The next flight he was scheduled
to take was cancelled, and the flight after that did not depart Washington
until after the puck drop in Pittsburgh.
The team was not happy.
His season was not over; he went to the Capitals’ AHL
affiliate Portland where he played in four regular season and seven playoff
games for the Pirates. It might have
made for a nice segue into the next season, that of the 2004-2005 lockout. Semin could have resumed his development in
Portland while the league was dark.
It was a good idea, except Semin did not report, choosing to
play once more for Lada Togliatti in Russia.
The Caps suspended Semin for failure to report to Portland.
When the NHL returned to action in 2005-2006 the Caps did so
without Semin. This time it was a
question about his obligation for military service. Apparently, that service could be fulfilled
on a hockey rink. Semin skated 42 games,
split between Lada Togliatti and Khimik, while the mess was being sorted out in the courts in the U.S.
Finally. Finally,
Semin made it back to Washington in the 2006-2007 season, and he played as if
nothing ever happened. His 38 goals in
77 games was 13th in the league.
Of those finishing ahead of him, only teammate Alexander Ovechkin was
younger than the 22-year old Semin. It
was the first of a four-year period in which he was among the top ten-goal
scorers overall (tied for 10th with 138) and tied for fifth with
Sidney Crosby in goals per game (0.50).
On top of that, Semin received votes for the Selke Trophy as best
defensive forward in the 2008-2009 season.
OK, so he finished tied for 35th, but that was a higher
finish than Daniel Alfredsson, Eric Staal, and Patrick Sharp, among others.
That four-year run would end on the sourest of notes,
though. In the regular season Semin set
a career high in goals with 40 in 73 games, one of seven 40-goal scorers that season. He finished 13th in the league in
total points for a club that set an NHL record for a non-original six team in
total standings points (121).
The playoffs were another matter. In the opening round series against the
Montreal Canadiens he started off with a six shot effort in Game 1, but did not
score. Then it was five shots in Game 2,
no goals. Five more shots in Game 3, no
goals. By the time the seven-game series
was over, Semin recorded 44 shots – most of any player in the first round –
without a goal. It was not a record for futility, but he could see it from
where he was – tied for fourth all time in total post-season shots without a
goal. The Caps lost that series in seven games.
Semin, while still a productive offensive player, never recovered
from that. His goal total dropped to 28
in 65 games of the 2010-2011 season, then to 21 in 77 games of the 2011-2012
season. By that time Semin, who was
wrapping up his third straight one-year contract (this one paying $7 million), did
not appear to be player in whom the Caps wanted to invest an elite-level amount
of money. He signed a five-year/$35
million deal with the Carolina Hurricanes in October 2012.
Ninety players have appeared in at least 200 games for the
Caps in their history. Semin is sixth in goals per game, tenth in points per game. He was one of the most gifted talents ever to
skate for the club. The mystery is why
he didn’t produce even more. But hey,
we’ll always have this from 2009…
Alexander Semin, the best damned bongo player on Team S.
Regular Season (with Capitals): 6 seasons, 291 games, 23-35-58,
plus-3
Playoffs (with Capitals): 3 seasons, 24 games, 5-4-9, even
When David Steckel was drafted in the first round (30th
overall) by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2001 Entry draft, his stock was high
and climbing. The 25th-ranked North
American prospect in NHL Central Scouting’s mid-term evaluations, he jumped to
16th in the final rankings. He had just
completed a successful freshman year at Ohio State University, finishing third
(behind Western Michigan’s Jeff Campbell and teammate R.J. Umberger) in
freshman scoring in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (17-18-35 in 33
games).
Unfortunately, for those who might have projected him as a
scoring line forward, that would be his high-water scoring mark at Ohio
State. It made for a sluggish start to
his development toward an NHL career.
After four years with the Buckeyes, Steckel moved on to the Manchester
Monarchs, the Kings’ AHL affiliate, for the 2004-2005 season. After a lackluster season with the Monarchs
(7-10-17 in 63 games), the Kings and Steckel parted ways.
At the end of the summer of 2005 Steckel was signed by the
Capitals as a free agent and assigned to Hershey. His production improved greatly under then
head coach Bruce Boudreau, doubling his point production from the previous
season in Manchester (34 points) as the Bears won a Calder Cup. In 2006-2007 Steckel’s offense made another
big jump (30-31-61 in 71 games) as the Bears went to their second consecutive
Calder Cup final. What he was not getting was much of a chance in
Washington.
Steckel appeared in seven games in the 2005-2006 season for
the Caps and in five games the following season, failing to record a point in
any of the 12 games overall. Those two
seasons in Hershey did seem to prepare him well for what was to come. In 2007-2008 he made the big club for good,
appearing in 67 games and recording his first NHL points (5-7-12 in 67 games),
primarily as a defensive, bottom six forward.
It would be that role which Steckel played for the Caps,
adding his singular skill in taking faceoffs, over his three full seasons. He did not become more productive offensive
forward, never scoring more than eight goals nor finishing with more than 19
points.
His 2010-2011 season started with the same pace at which he
played his previous three seasons. In
the 2010 portion of the season Steckel was 4-4-7 in 33 games. Then, Steckel was the focal point in one of
the most consequential games – plays, in fact – of the season. On New Year’s Day, the Capitals and
Pittsburgh Penguins faced off in the Winter Classic at Heinz Field in
Pittsburgh. With less than a minute left
in the second period and the Caps holding a 2-1 lead, the Caps were trying to
move the puck out of their own zone.
When Karl Alzner tried to backhand the puck up the left side and out of
danger, the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby tried to block the clearing attempt. When he failed, he circled to turn up ice and
pursue the play. In doing so he crossed
into the path of Steckel, who was staring up ice to join the play. When they collided, Steckel’s shoulder caught
Crosby flush. The result was a
concussion, the effects of which would impact Crosby and the Penguins for the
remainder of that season and the next.
Whether Steckel intentionally hit Crosby (or failed to do enough to
avoid the collision) was a matter of some discussion,
but there could be no question about its importance as far as Crosby, the
Penguins, and their competition going forward were concerned.
It might have affected Steckel some, too, with all the
discussion back and forth about whether the hit was intentional or not. Never a big numbers player in the NHL, his
offense dried up almost completely. Over
his next 23 games he was 1-2-3.
Meanwhile, the Caps had bigger problems.
They still had their perennial problem of how to fill their second line
center role. With the trading deadline
approaching, much speculation in the media focused on how good a fit New
Jersey’s Jason Arnott would be in that role for the Capitals. With the Devils dropping out of the playoff
race, moving a veteran to free up salary cap space made sense.
The Capitals and Devils completed a trade on February 28th
with the Caps sending Steckel and a second round pick in the 2012 entry draft
to New Jersey for Arnott. Steckel
wrapped up the 2010-2011 season in New Jersey, then was traded by the Devils to
Toronto in October 2011. After a 76-game
season with the Maple Leafs in 2011-2012, he played just 13 for the Leafs in
2012-2013 before being traded to the Anaheim Ducks in March 2013. He found playing time increasingly scarce
with the Ducks spending most of the 2013-2014 season with the Norfolk Admirals
and the Iowa Wild of the AHL.
David Steckel was a largely anonymous sort of player who did
a lot of the little things that teams have to have done to win games. The four seasons in which he played in at
least 57 games was the winningest four-year stretch in Capitals history (195
wins), and Steckel was a part of that.
Enough to get him a jersey for Team S.
Regular Season (with Capitals): 5 seasons, 282 games, 91-120-211,
minus-54
Playoffs (with Capitals): none
In 1974-1975, Bob Sirois was a 20-year old property of the
Philadelphia Flyers, a former third round draft pick (53rd overall
in 1974) who had worked his way up from Rosemount National to Laval National,
to Montreal Red-White-Blue, to Montreal Juniors, all of the QMJHL before
getting his chance with a team that would win a Stanley Cup championship.
Except he played in just three games that season for the
Flyers, none of them in the playoffs. But
hey, there would be another chance, right?
The Flyers of the mid-1970’s were a powerhouse.
It did not work out that way, either for the Flyers (who
have not won a Stanley Cup since) or for Sirois. After dressing for only one game for the Flyers
in the 1975-1976 season he was traded to Washington in December 1975 for future
considerations that become John Paddock.
Well, at least he was going to a team who made history of their own in
the 1974-1975 season.
Sirois might not have joined a top-notch team, but he got
the chance to play. He scored 10 goals
in 43 games to finish the 1975-1976 season and 13 in 45 games in the 1977-1978
season, one in which he was one of only two Capitals to finish with a positive
plus-minus (plus-1; Bill Riley was a plus-4 in 43 games).
Sirois got more playing time in the seasons to follow – 72 games
in 1977-1978 (24 goals), and 73 games in 1978-1979 (29 goals). With those 53 goals he was second on the club
to Guy Charron (66) over those two seasons.
In the 1978-1979 season he was selected to play in the NHL all-star game,
but he suffered a leg injury late in the season, denying him the chance to join
Dennis Maruk and Tom Rowe as 30-goal scorers for that club.
Injuries derailed Sirois’ 1979-1980 season, limiting him to
49 games, and would force him into retirement.
After missing a season he tried to make a comeback with the Hershey
Bears in the AHL, but after just 13 games with the Bears, his career was over
at the age of 27.
Bob Sirois was one of an early crop of goal scorers for the Caps whose
records were largely buried under an avalanche of losses. Even with the injuries he suffered over his
five seasons with the Caps he was one of the most productive players in that
era of Capitals hockey. For that, Bob
Sirois plays on the right side on Team S.
Regular Season (with Capitals): 3 seasons, 131 games, 4-9-13,
plus-7
Playoffs (with Capitals): 3 seasons, 21 games, 0-3-3, minus-5
Born in Fort Frances, Ontario; raised in International Falls, MN; then off to
Cambridge, MA, and Harvard University for hockey and an education. Quite a road it was, and that was before he
arrived in the NHL. That would take a
bit longer. After he completed his
four-year tour at Harvard in 1983 he was signed as a free agent by the Calgary
Flames.
What Sheehy did after that was to establish himself as a
defenseman who played with a general sense of ill humor. Over his first four full seasons in the NHL, split
between Calgary and the Hartford Whalers from 1984-1985 through 1987-1988,
Sheehy ranked tenth in penalty minutes per game among players who appeared in
at least 200 games.
In July 1988 Sheehy and his brand of disagreeableness was
traded from Hartford to the Capitals with Mike Millar for Grant Jennings and Ed
Kastelic. He did not disappoint. In 72 games he scored just three goals and
recorded seven points, but he did have 179 penalty minutes. The next season, he outdid himself. He managed only one goal and six points in an
injury-shortened 59 game season, but he finished tied for ninth overall with
291 penalty minutes, a career high. He
was fifth among those ten defensemen in penalty minutes per game, a number fueled
by 15 fights. He was part of a group
that finished second in the league in fighting majors.
It was not just a team that could fight, and Sheehy was not
just a defenseman who could, well, fight.
The Caps advanced to the Wales Conference final, Sheehy leading the
league in penalty minutes in the post-season along the way (92 in 13
games). It might have made for a great
story, the Caps going deeper in the playoffs than ever before. Unfortunately, it was not the story that
would be the takeaway at the end of the season.
There would be another, unseemly one, in which Sheehy would beinvolved.
Sheehy’s career went downhill quickly after that. He missed the 1990-1001 season entirely as a
result of a broken ankle and back surgery.
He was then made available in the 1991 expansion/dispersal draft.
He was not selected. He was signed as a free agent by the
Calgary Flames in 1991 where he played one more season before his NHL career
came to an end. The Capitals portion of
Neil Sheehy’s career was short, but it did not lack for drama. In an era when hard-nosed (and hard-knuckled)
play was prized, he did his part. That
is why he plays on the blue line on Team S.
Regular Season (with Capitals): 8 seasons, 601 games, 98-331-429,
plus-88
Playoffs (with Capitals): 8 seasons, 67 games, 9-44-53, plus-7
Rod Langway might be the most consequential player in
Washington Capitals history. When all is
said and done, Alex Ovechkin might be, in time, the most productive player in
Capitals history. But for sheer
prolificacy, there is no player in franchise history who can hold a candle to
Scott Stevens. But we will get to that.
For Stevens and the Caps it started with the 1982 entry
draft in which Stevens was taken fifth overall, the third defenseman taken
behind Gord Kluzak and Gary Nyland.
Stevens was an immediate fixture in the Capitals lineup, providing a
blend of skill (second in goals and tied for fourth in points among rookie
defensemen) and grit (first by a mile in penalty minutes, 195 to Dan Mandich’s
169 among rookie defensemen) in his rookie season in 1982-1983. If there was a problem with the mix it might
have been that Stevens had a short fuse.
A very short one. His 14 fights
in the 1982-1983 season tied for fourth among all players.
As he moved on from his rookie season he did not lose his
orneriness, but he channeled it better.
After an early career marked by frequent fisticuffs (he averaged 11 a
year over his first five seasons), he dropped cut that total almost in half
over his next three seasons (an average of six per year).
Meanwhile, his offensive production improved
significantly. Over five seasons, from
1984-1985 through 1988-89 he had four 60-plus point years. Only four defensemen had more points than the
319 Stevens recorded over that span. He
also produced on special teams. With 32 power
play goals over that five-year span, he was tied for sixth among all
defensemen.
The combination of skills Stevens provided was a perfect
complement to the stay-at-home style of Rod Langway on the blue line and the
more offensive-oriented play of Larry Murphy.
All in all, Stevens played in eight seasons for the Caps, and his name
is all over the record book:
- Most points, defensemen: 2nd (429)
- Most assists, defenseman: 2nd (331)
- Most penalty minutes: 2nd (1,630)
- Most penalty minutes, defenseman: 1st (1,630)
- Most assists, defenseman (season): 1st (61)
- Most power play goals, defenseman (season): 2nd (16)
- Most points, defenseman (game): T-1st (5; December 6, 1987 vs. Los Angeles; Caps won 10-3)
- Most points, playoffs: 7th (53)
- Most points, playoffs, defenseman: 2nd (53)
- Most assists, playoffs: 2nd (44)
- Most assists, playoffs, defenseman: 1st (44)
- Most playoff games played, career: 9th (67)
- Most playoff games played, career, defenseman: 4th (67)
- Most penalty minutes, playoffs, career: 3rd (180)
- Most penalty minutes, playoffs, career, defenseman: 2nd (180)
It came to an end, though, after that eighth season with the
Caps in 1989-1990. Stevens was
implicated in the unfortunate incident outside a Georgetown bar described above
in the summary of Neil Sheehy’s career with the Caps. It was not that, though, that ended his
career in Washington. It was a contract.
More precisely, an offer sheet tendered by the St. Louis Blues to the
restricted free agent. The deal offered was for
four years and $5.145 million.
As any Caps fan knows, the Capitals did not match the offer
and lost the defenseman to the Blues in exchange for five first round draft
picks. This is where the idea of Stevens
being the most prolific player in Capitals history emerges. Those five first round draft picks, in
addition to whatever contributions they might have made themselves, begat several generations of Capitals players.
The line is still active.
Prospect forward Michael Latta came to the Capitals with Martin Erat when
they traded Filip Forsberg to the Nashville Predators (this is through the “Brendan
Witt” lineage among those five first round picks). Chris Brown and a fourth round draft pick in
2015 are with the Caps as a product of the trade of Erat to the Phoenix
Coyotes. And, another asset coming to
the Caps as part of the Erat-to-Phoenix trade – Rostislav Klesla – was traded
to Buffalo in a deal that brought goalie Jaroslav Halak to Washington with a
third round draft pick in 2015. Halak
was subsequently traded to the New York Islanders for a fourth round pick in
the 2014 draft that the Capitals packaged to trade up into the third
round. That pick became Nathan Walker.
Scott Stevens would go on to bigger and better things as a
member of the New Jersey Devils. Three
Stanley Cups, enshrinement in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Caps fans think, “it might have been us.” Still, the echoes of Stevens’ career in
Washington persist: Michael Latta, Chris Brown, Nathan Walker, and a player
yet to be determined from the 2015 draft. One cannot help but wonder, though, what might
have been. We will just have to settle
for Scott Stevens manning the blue line for Team S.
Regular Season (with Capitals): 2 seasons, 76 games, 22-31-15,
3.65, 1 shutout
Playoffs (with Capitals): none
Wayne Stephenson was a late bloomer, even if you consider
that goaltenders take a while to develop.
He was never drafted by an NHL team, his career starting off as a 19
year old in 1963 with the Winnipeg Braves of the Manitoba Junior Hockey
League. That was the start of a
wandering journey that included stops with the Edmonton Oil Kings, the Winnipeg
Nationals, the Canadian National Team (including his appearance in three games
of the 1968 Winter Olympics), and the Kansas City Blues before he got his shot
at the age of 27 with the St. Louis Blues.
Stephenson spent three seasons in St. Louis before he was
traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in September 1974 for a second round pick in
the 1975 amateur draft and the rights to Randy Andreachuk. In Philadelphia, Stephenson was stuck behind
Bernie Parent, who backstopped the Flyers to a Stanley Cup in 1974 and was
about to repeat the feat in 1975.
Stephenson, who was 7-2-1 for Philadelphia in limited work in the
regular season, did appear twice in the 1975 post season for the Flyers,
winning both games in route to the Cup.
The following season Parent was sidelined with a neck injury
in pre-season that would limit him to 11 games.
Stephenson filled the void admirably, going 40-10-13 with a 2.58 goals
against average and one shutout. He
split time with Parent in the post-season, each goalie posting a 4-4 record as
the Flyers’ two-year reign as NHL champions ended.
Stephenson played two more seasons in Philadelphia before he
was traded to Washington in August 1979 for a third round pick in the 1981
entry draft. He shouldered the heaviest
load between the pipes, appearing in 56 games for the Caps in the 1979-1980
season with a record of 18-24-10 and a 3.57 goals against average. At the time, his appearances, wins, and goals
against average were franchise records.
The 1980-1981 season was not kind to Stephenson, a
combination of injuries and newly arrived goalie Mike Palmateer shouldering
most of the load limited him to 20 appearances and a 4-7-5 record. It would be his last season in the NHL.
Wayne Stephenson passed away in 1965 from brain
cancer. While he was with the Caps, though, he was a feisty sort with the proper attitude for a goalie on a struggling team...
That’s got to get him the nod in goal for Team S.
That’s got to get him the nod in goal for Team S.
Team S. And ornery
bunch with just a touch of weirdness.
You could make a movie about these guys.
“S” for Slap Shot?