Alexander Semin

Infobox Ice Hockey Player


team=Washington Capitals
former_teams =
league = NHL
position = Left wing
shoots = Right
height_ft = 6
height_in = 2
weight_lb = 205
nickname =
nationality = Russia
birth_date = birth date and age|1984|3|3
birth_place = Krasnoyarsk, USSR
draft = 13th overall
draft_year = 2002
draft_team = Washington Capitals
career_start = 2002

Alexander Valerievich Semin (( _ru. Александр Валерьевич Сёмин), born March 3, 1984 in Krasnoyarsk, USSR) is a Russian professional ice hockey player with Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League.

Playing career

In 2001-02, he played for one year with the Traktor Chelyabinsk hockey school. He split the season between their juniors team and their regular team, and during the season he scored 21 goals and had 8 assists between the two clubs.

The Capitals selected Semin with their second pick, 13th overall (they selected Steve Eminger with their first pick, 12th overall) in the 2002 Entry draft; he decided to remain in Russia during the subsequent season. In 2002-03, he scored 10 goals and made 7 assists in 47 games with Lada Togliatti.

In the 2003-04 NHL season, Semin made his NHL debut. He scored 10 goals and assisted on 12 others during his stay in the NHL in 2003-04. However, he missed his team's flight to Pittsburgh when the Capitals closed out their season against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Semin then reported to Maine to play for the American Hockey League Portland Pirates, where he collected 15 points in four regular season and seven playoff games.

During the 2004-05 NHL lockout, Semin played 50 games for Lada Togliatti, scoring 19 goals, assisting on 11 goals, and compiling a Plus/minus rating of +15.

Semin began the 2005-06 season with Lada, but financial difficulties with the team resulted in a deal that brought him to Khimik (Chemist), a Russian Superleague team in Mytischi, just outside of Moscow. [http://www.tltnews.ru/art/fullnews.php?id=2228] While with Lada, Semin played 16 games, accumulating 5 goals, 4 assists, and 52 penalty minutes.

Semin scored the first goal with the Capitals 2006-07 season against the New York Rangers on October 5, 2006. In his next game against Carolina he recorded a hat trick for the Capitals.

On March 18, 2007 Semin tallied the second natural hat trick of his career against the Tampa Bay Lightning, scoring three goals on three successive shots in a span of 7:04 in the second period.

Semin resides in the Bellevue Forest neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia with his parents, lifelong friend Russell Friesen, his dog Sergei and Friesen's dog Max.

Military duty controversy

There was some confusion about Semin's obligations to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which requires all Russian men to serve two years. However, the Armed Forces allow would-be soldiers who are hockey players to play for professional hockey teams in Russia during their period of service; they are not allowed to play for teams based in other countries. Nikolai Zherdev and some other young Russian players returned to their NHL clubs following the lockout, circumventing any additional military duty they had to serve in Russia.Cite web|url=http://www.russianprospects.com/public/article.php?article_id=151&PHPSESSID=cc99ceb05abdcbfc5849df07e175c166|title=Nikolai Zherdev: Russian Media's Whipping Boy|accessdate=2007-02-01|publisher=RussianProspects.com|year=2003|author=Yatsenko, Alexei]

In particular, it was arranged for Semin to play his second year with Lada during the 2005-06 NHL season. Lada is located in the military district into which Semin was drafted, and they were the only team with whom Semin could fulfill his military obligation.Cite web|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/10/AR2005081001760.html|title=Zubrus, Semin May Miss Start of Camp, If Not More|accessdate=2007-02-01|publisher=WashingtonPost.com|year=2005|author=El-Bashir, Tarik] He had completed his first year of military service by playing for Lada during the year-long NHL lockout; the Capitals suspended him for that whole season for not reporting to their American Hockey League affiliate, then the Hershey Bears, since many of their other young players were reporting there. (Alexander Ovechkin, meanwhile, had decided to play for HC Dynamo Moscow. The Capitals did not have Ovechkin report to Portland during the lockout because they thought he was already prepared to play regularly in the NHL.)

The Capitals started training camp for the 2005-06 season with neither Semin nor Czech forward Petr Sykora. Sykora did arrive near the end of training camp; Semin was still in Russia at the start of the season, taking care of "paperwork" for the Russian Army. The 2005-06 season was the second of three years in Semin's contract with the Capitals.

From a financial standpoint, Semin earned the equivalent of $2 million tax-free with a free car and condominium by playing for Lada in 2005-06, contrasted with the $950,000 for which he was under contract with the Capitals. This became a major problem for Lada early in the 2005-06 season, when Lada suddenly ran into financial difficulties and had to let go of several members of their front office almost immediately to cut down on costs. They have also already stated that they would cut their payroll by at least 50 percent; Semin is the highest-paid player on the team.

The news about Lada initially offered the Capitals some hope that Semin would join the team during the 2005-06 season, but a Capitals official stated that the team is not sure that they would want Semin to rejoin their team no matter what the circumstances, because of his playing for Lada rather than the Capitals.Cite web|url=http://www.thefourthperiod.com/news/was051012.html|title=Semin could still play with Caps|accessdate=2007-02-01|publisher=TheFourthPeriod.com|year=2005]

On October 26, 2005, Capitals general manager George McPhee announced that the Capitals have filed a complaint against Semin and his agent, Mark Gandler. McPhee stated, "We have done everything we could to avoid this step, but we felt we had no choice but to now seek a legal remedy. This filing seeks to compel Alexander Semin's agent and the Russian hockey team Lada Togliatti to return Alex to the Washington Capitals.... We look forward to the resolution of this process so that we can welcome Alex back to the Capitals this season."Cite web|url=http://www.washingtoncaps.com/news/news.asp?story_id=3520|title=George McPhee Statement on Alexander Semin |accessdate=2007-02-01|publisher=WashingtonCaps.com|year=2005] Likewise, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said, "This is a situation where a valid, legally-binding contract is not being honored, and that's not right." [http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/News/2005/11/04/1293171-ap.html] U.S. District Court Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr., issued a temporary restraining order on November 4, 2005, ordering Gandler and his International Sports Advisors Company to stop representing Semin in contracts with teams other than the Capitals. However, due to Lada Togliatti's financial challenges, Lada released Semin; he signed with Mytischi Khimik on November 22.

Return to the NHL

On December 5, 2005, Kennedy denied the Capitals' request for preliminary injunctions against Semin and Gandler. Alexander Berkovich, Semin's lawyer, stated that Semin intended to play for Khimik for the remainder of the 2005-06 season, and that Semin's military obligations would be fulfilled by fall 2006. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/05/AR2005120501938.html]

On April 11, 2006, Semin agreed to a two-year contract with the Capitals that will begin in the 2006-07 NHL season, resolving the conflict between the two parties. [http://www.washingtoncaps.com/news/news.asp?story_id=4009] Semin played the whole season for the Capitals, aside from missing five games to an injury early in the season. He finished the season 13th in the NHL with 38 goals [http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/statistics?stat=nhlscoring&sort=goals&season=2007&league=nhl] , which gave the Capitals three 30-goal scorers for the season; Alexander Ovechkin and Chris Clark were the others. Three of Semin's goals were in the form of a natural hat trick that he scored in a 7-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Later in the season, Capitals coach Glen Hanlon started Ovechkin and Semin together on the power play and occasionally on the team's first even-strength scoring line. Much of the Capitals' offense in the 2006-07 season came from Ovechkin and Semin, who became known as "The Other Alex" [http://ted.aol.com/index.php?ID=440] and was named one of the NHL's up-and-coming stars [http://www.rototimes.com/article.php?article_id=3356]

Semin, who does not typically fight, had 90 penalty minutes during the 2006-07 season, mainly from minor penalties. He was tied for the league lead with eight high-sticking calls on the season, and his 13 hooking penalties were tenth-most in the league. [http://www.hockey-recap.com/penalties.html] In a late-season game against Tampa Bay, Semin was called for throwing the puck across the ice. His penalty led to Tampa Bay defenseman Dan Boyle's game-winning goal, and Hanlon benched Semin for much of the third period of the game. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/31/AR2007033101420.html]

On April 18, several weeks after the Capitals' season ended, Semin missed his first workout for the Russian national team because his flight back to Moscow made him arrive at the team's practice facility 3 1/2 hours late; the team dismissed him. [http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=204661&hubname=nhl]

Career statistics

International play

Played for Russia in :

*2005 World Championships
*2006 World Championships
*2008 World Championships

International statistics

Notes and references

External links

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* [http://www.russianprospects.com/public/profile.php?player_id=171&PHPSESSID=fd8242b9104c42ee98500e909e22c32a Entry at RussianPropects.com]
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