The eighteenth instalment of our 25 Montreal Canadiens in 25 days focuses on Alexander Semin.
He’s got a silky hands, a laser of a shot and excellent vision, but Semin’s skill has never been in question, it’s his work ethic that’s left much to be desired at different junctures of his career.
The former first-round draft choice of the Washington Capitals was highly touted before making his way to North America. Having already played his first pro season in Russia and appeared in a World Junior Championship and a World Senior Championship for the national team, stepping into the NHL in his first year of eligibility was a given for Semin.
He had 10 goals and 12 assists in 52 games with Washington in 2003-04, but when a lockout threatened the 2004-05 NHL season Semin quickly packed his bags and left for Russia.
And it’s in Russia where Semin remained when NHL hockey resumed in the fall of 2005. There were concerns he may not return, but after the Capitals guaranteed him a scoring role on their 2006-07 roster he surprised a lot of people by coming back.
It was a good decision on Semin’s part. He scored 38 goals and 35 assists in 77 games with the Capitals that year, helping him fight the perception he was lazy and entitled.
Unfortunately, the 2007-08 season saw Semin feed the notion that he had become complacent in his security with the Capitals. His production dipped to 26 goals and 16 assists in 63 games, and he posted an ugly minus-18.
As his character was once again questioned, Semin responded by nearly doubling his production in 62 games (79 points) in 2008-09. He followed it up with 40 goals and 84 points in 73 games, finishing the 2009-10 season at plus-36.
And so it was confounding when Semin dipped back to 54 points in 2010-11. He had four goals and two assists in nine Stanley Cup playoff games that season, but that didn’t stop forward Matt Bradley, who left the Capitals later that year to sign with the Florida Panthers, from sounding off on Semin’s lack of heart.
“He just doesn’t care,” said Bradley in a radio interview in August of 2011. “When you’ve got a guy like that you need him to be your best player, or one of your best players, and when he doesn’t show up you almost get the sense that he wants to be back in Russia.”
Ouch.
It would appear the Capitals agreed with Bradley’s assessment, and after another 54-point season and a weak four-point playoff performance, they allowed Semin to bolt to unrestricted free agency.
He took a one-year deal with the Carolina Hurricanes to prove the naysayers wrong again. It was mission accomplished when he popped 44 points in 44 games during the lockout-abridged 2012-13 season.
The Hurricanes then committed five years and $35 million to Semin, but he predictably fell flat in 2013-14 with 42 points in 61 games.
Semin’s career-worst 19 points in 57 games with Carolina in 2014-15 saw them buy out the remaining three years of his contract.
Will Semin follow his career pattern and bounce back, this time with the Canadiens? The Habs are taking a very low-risk gamble that he will.
Who: Alexander Semin l No. 13 l Second/first line, right wing (shoots right) l 6-foot-2 l 211 lbs l Age: 31
Acquired: Signed as UFA
Contract status: 1 year, $1.1M AAV (expires 2016)
2014-15 Stats: 57 GP | 6 G | 13 A | 19 P | 15:55 TOI | 55.9 CF%
Career stats: 635 GP | 238 G | 275 A | 513 P | 17:55 TOI | 54.2 CF%
The book on 2014-15: It was ugly.
Semin was made a healthy scratch on several occasions, and to say he was disinterested would be putting it mildly.
For a harsher assessment, here’s Hurricanes president Don Wadell, who told the Raleigh News and Observer on Wednesday, September 16 that Semin had to go.
“Alexander Semin was a very top-end player in the league when the game was played at a slower pace,” said Wadell. “It’s now played at such a high level if you can’t skate it’s hard to compete. Alex lost a step and he tried to play on the outside too much because he didn’t have the speed.
And then he didn’t buy into the culture that our coach [Bill Peters] was trying to get in the locker room. …In simple terms, we paid him $14 million to go away.”
At least there was this:
Off-season updates:
After the Hurricanes bought him out, Semin made it clear to all suitors that he wasn’t bolting for Russia.
On July 24, the Canadiens signed Semin to a one-year, $1.1 million contract.
2015-16 outlook:
It’s been five years since Semin cracked the 30-goal mark, so to think he’ll bounce back to that level in Montreal is unrealistic.
But Semin is only one season removed from scoring 22 goals, and if he can manage that many it’ll help the Canadiens climb out of the bottom one-third of the league in goals for–where they placed last season.
Semin’s already making waves at Montreal’s training camp where he’s been placed on a line with Alex Galchenyuk and Lars Eller, and a prominent power play role should help him get back to respectability.
On a good Montreal team laden with depth, Semin will be exposed if he truly has lost a step as Wadell suggested.
But if he was just sleeping on the talent that’s made him a very dangerous player at times, general manager Marc Bergevin will come off looking like a genius for bringing Semin to Montreal.
