Alexander Semin

Alexander Semin (born Alexander Valerevich Semin on March 3, 1984) is a Russian professional ice hockey player with the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League (NHL). He had previously played for the Washington Capitals.

Early Playing Career
Semin was trained in the Traktor Chelyabinsk hockey school and made his professional debut in Russia's second-tier Russian Major League in 2001–02.

After scoring 13 goals and eight assists with Chelyabinsk that season, the Washington Capitals selected Alexander with their second pick, 13th overall (they selected Steve Eminger with their first pick, 12th overall) in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.

Remaining in Russia for the subsequent season, he joined Lada Togliatti of the first-tier Russian Superleague (RSL) in 2002–03 and scored 10 goals and seven assists in 47 games.

Alexander made his NHL debut in the 2003–04 season, scoring 10 goals and 12 assists in 52 games. However, he missed his team's flight to Pittsburgh when the Capitals closed out their season against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Then, Alexander reported to Maine to play for the American Hockey League's Portland Pirates where he collected 15 points in four regular season and seven playoff games.

Military Duty Controversy
During the 2004-05 NHL lockout, Alexander returned to Russia and played 50 games for Lada Togliatti, scoring 19 goals, assisting on 11 goals and compiling a plus/minus rating of +15.

The Capitals suspended Alexander for that whole season for not reporting to their then-AHL affiliate, the Portland Pirates, preferring the club's younger players to play the locked-out season with their farm team. (Meanwhile, Alexander Ovechkin, the Capitals' 2004 first-round pick, remained with his Russian club, Dynamo Moscow, because the Capitals felt that he would have been ready to play in the NHL.)

Due to confusion about Alexander's obligations to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which requires all Russian men to serve two years, he was not allowed to return to the Capitals when NHL resumed the following season in 2005–06.

Russian Armed Forces allow conscripted soldiers who are hockey players to play for professional teams in Russia during their period of service, but they are not allowed to play for teams based in other countries.

Other young Russian players such as Nikolai Zherdev and Alexander Ovechkin were allowed to return to their NHL clubs following the lockout, circumventing any additional military duty they had to serve in Russia.

While Alexander's 2004–05 season with Lada was considered his first year of military service, it was arranged for him to continue with Lada for his second year of service in 2005–06.

Lada is located in the military district into which Alexander was drafted, and they were the only team with whom Semin could fulfill his military obligation. He was signed to a tax-free $2 million contract, along with a car and a condo.

News about Lada's struggling financial situation early in the season initially offered the Capitals some hope that Alexander would join the team after all. It was reported that the Russian team was expected to cut its payroll in half while Alexander was Lada's highest paid player.

On October 26, 2005, Capitals general manager George McPhee announced that the Capitals had filed a complaint against Alexander 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."

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."

On November 4, 2005, U.S. District Court Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr. issued a temporary restraining order, ordering Gandler and his International Sports Advisors Company to stop representing Alexander in contracts with teams other than the Capitals.

Due to Lada Togliatti's financial challenges, Lada released Alexander, but he instead signed with Russian squad Mytischi Khimik on November 22nd.

On December 5, 2005, Kennedy denied the Capitals request for preliminary injunctions against Alexander and Gandler.

His lawyer Alexander Berkovich stated that Alexander's intended to play for Khimik for the remainder of the 2005–06 season, and that his military obligations would be fulfilled by the fall of 2006. He completed the campaign with nine points in 15 games with Lada and 10 points in 26 games with Khimik.

Returning to the NHL\Washington Capitals
With Alexander's military obligations fulfilled, he agreed to a two-year contract with the Capitals on April 11, 2006, resolving the conflict between the two parties.

Playing in his first game for the Capitals in two years, Alexander scored the team's first goal of the 2006–07 season against the New York Rangers on October 5, 2006. In his next game against the Carolina Hurricanes, he recorded a hat trick.

On March 18, 2007, Alexander 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.

Late in the season, Capitals coach Glen Hanlon started him and Alexander Ovechkin together on the powerplay and occasionally on the team's first scoring line. Ovechkin and Semin finished as the team's top two scorers and he soon became known as "The Other Alex."

Alexander completed the season with 38 goals (13th in league scoring) and 73 points in 77 games, missing five games to an injury early in the season. He was one of three 30-goal scorers for the Capitals for the season, along with Ovechkin and captain Chris Clark.

After a successful NHL comeback in 2006–07, Alexander struggled in comparison during the 2007–08 season, scoring 42 points while being sidelined for 19 games.

Along with Ovechkin and second-year forward Nicklas Backstrom, he helped form a highly offensive core with the Capitals in 2008–09.

On March 3, 2009 (on Alexander's 25th birthday), he scored his 100th career goal, against the Carolina Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward.

Alexander spent much of the first couple months of the season as the league's top point-scorer, but tailed off as he began to experience injury troubles. Regardless, he finished with a career-high 79 points in just 62 games, third in Capitals scoring behind Ovechkin and Backstrom.

In the 2009 playoffs, Alexander added 14 points in 14 games, including a three-point effort (two goals and an assist) on April 20, 2009, leading the Capitals to a crucial playoff win against the New York Rangers in Game 3 of the opening round.

Midway through the 2009–10 NHL season, Alexander signed a one-year, $6 million contract extension with the Capitals.

In Washington's 2010 quarter-final match-up against the Montreal Canadiens, Alexander received large amounts of criticism due to his poor play, as he did not score any goals despite firing 44 shots on Canadiens goaltender Jaroslav Halak and finished the series with just 2 assists in 7 games as Montreal upset Washington 4-3 in the series, with the Capitals blowing a 3-1 lead.

On January 27, 2011, Alexander signed another one-year extension with the Washington Capitals, worth $6.7 million. On July 1, 2012, he became an unrestricted free agent.

On April 5, 2012, Alexander became the 5th all time leading goal scorer of the Capitals with his 197th goal.

Carolina Hurricanes
On July 26, 2012, the Carolina Hurricanes signed Alexander to a one-year contract worth $7 million.

On September 25, 2012, it was announced that for the time of NHL lockout Alexander would sign with Sokol Krasnoyarsk from VHL (Russian second-tier hockey division) He would wear jersey #28. Despite the fact he had offers from KHL clubs, he chose to play for a club from his hometown for free.

After playing four games with Sokol, he signed a contract with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), the top-level league based in Russia.

The president of Torpedo, Oleg Kondrashov, praised Alexander for joining Sokol at first, saying that "The player’s decision to pay tribute to the team that brought him up does credit to him," though he also added, "But a player of such high level should play in KHL."

On February 11, 2013, Alexander scored his 200th career goal, helping his team to a 6 - 4 victory over the New York Islanders.

On March 25, 2013 the Carolina Hurricanes signed Alexander to a five-year contract extension worth $35 million.

Awards & Achievements

 * 2008: Named the NHL's First Star of the Month for October