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Chris Simon
ChrisSimon
Position Left wing
Shoots Left
Height
Weight
6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
232 lb (105 kg)
KHL Team
F. Teams
free agent
Quebec Nordiques
Colorado Avalanche
Washington Capitals
Chicago Blackhawks
New York Rangers
Calgary Flames
New York Islanders
Minnesota Wild
Vityaz Chekhov
UHC Dynamo
Nationality Flag of Canada Canadian
Born (1972-01-30)January 30, 1972,
Wawa, ON, CAN
NHL Draft 25th overall, 1990
Philadelphia Flyers
Pro Career 1992 – present

Chris Simon (born January 30, 1972) is a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger whose last club was UHC Dynamo of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

Playing career[]

Minor hockey[]

Simon grew up in Wawa, Ontario playing his minor hockey for the Wawa Flyers of the NOHA. As a Bantam, he played Jr.B. hockey for the S.S. Marie Thunderbirds of the NOJHL in 1987-88. He was selected in the 3rd round (42nd overall) of the 1988 OHL Priority Selection by the Ottawa 67's.

Simon was drafted in the 2nd round (25th overall) of the 1990 NHL Entry Draft by the Philadelphia Flyers, but was traded as part of the Eric Lindros deal to the Quebec Nordiques before playing any games for the Flyers. He has also played for the Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers where he split the season as a left wing and right wing, New York Islanders and Minnesota Wild.

In 1996, he won the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche. Each player on the winning team is given 24 hours alone with the Cup. Simon took it to his hometown of Wawa, Ontario. After showing it to the townspeople he and his maternal grandfather took the Cup on a fishing trip.

Simon was a member of the Washington Capitals when they went to the Stanley Cup finals in 1998. He had been enjoying great offensive success that season until a shoulder injury knocked him out for much of the playoff run. He underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in December 1998. He was the team's leading goal scorer in the 1999–2000 season with 29 goals in 75 games. He also made it to the Stanley Cup finals with the Calgary Flames in 2004, and played for the Flames for two seasons before being signed as a free agent in 2006 by the New York Islanders and was then traded to the Minnesota Wild for a 6th round draft pick.

Suspensions[]

Simon has been involved in numerous on-ice incidents and has been suspended eight times for his conduct for a grand total of 65 games.[1][2]

On November 8, 1997, during a game against the Edmonton Oilers, Simon was suspended three games after calling Edmonton forward Mike Grier a "nigger".[3] Simon flew to Toronto to apologize to Grier.[4] Grier and Simon were later teammates for a brief time in 2002 with the Washington Capitals.

Simon was suspended for one game in a 2000 playoff series against Pittsburgh for cross checking Peter Popovic across the throat on April 13, 2000. He was given two-game suspensions once on April 5, 2001 for elbowing Anders Eriksson, and twice in 2004 for cross checking Tampa Bay's Ruslan Fedotenko and then jumping on and punching him, and for kneeing Dallas's Sergei Zubov.[2]

Ryan Hollweg incident[]

On March 8, 2007, the Islanders faced the rival New York Rangers at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. At 13:25 of the third period,[5] Rangers forward Ryan Hollweg checked Simon which Simon felt was from behind, knocking his face first into the boards. No penalty was assessed, and play continued. Simon then struck Hollweg in the face with his hockey stick as he skated by. Simon received a match penalty for attempt to injure, resulting in his ejection from the game. Hollweg suffered a cut to the chin that required two stitches. According to ESPN's Barry Melrose, Hollweg escaped serious injury because Simon's blow caught his shoulder pads before hitting his face.

Simon was automatically suspended indefinitely by the NHL due to his match penalty pending ruling by the league commissioner. On March 11, Simon's suspension was set at a minimum of 25 games,[6] and it continued into the first five games of the 2007-08 season. The Nassau County district attorney considered filing criminal charges against Simon, but declined. Hollweg later told Newsday that he was not interested in pressing charges.

On March 10, Simon issued a statement in which he apologized to Hollweg and the league and said that there is "absolutely no place in hockey for what I did". He asserted that he did not remember much about the incident because he was "completely out of it" as a result of the concussion.[7]

Jarkko Ruutu incident[]

On December 15, 2007, at 14:06 of the third period of a home game against Pittsburgh, Tim Jackman and Jarkko Ruutu had some words between the teams' benches during a stoppage of play. Simon skated in behind Ruutu and pulled Ruutu's leg back with his own. When Ruutu fell to his knees, Simon stepped on the back of Ruutu's right leg with his skate and then went to the bench. Simon was given a match penalty for attempt to injure and ejected from the game.

The following Monday, Simon agreed to go on indefinite paid leave from the team, saying there was "no excuse" for his actions and that he needed some time away from hockey.[8] The next day, Simon was suspended for 30 games, the second-longest suspension for an on-ice incident in modern NHL history behind a one-year suspension handed down to Marty McSorley in 1999–2000. League disciplinarian Colin Campbell said that in his opinion, Simon had "repeatedly evidence(d) the lack of ability to control his actions," and also stressed that this was his eighth disciplinary hearing.[9] Following the suspension, Simon returned to play one more game with the New York Islanders, visibly hesitant in limited ice time, before being traded to the Minnesota Wild.

When Chris Pronger was not initially disciplined by the NHL when he stepped on Ryan Kesler's leg in March 2008, Simon decried what he saw as unfair and unequal treatment.[10] On March 15, 2008, the NHL suspended Pronger for 8 games.

Personal life[]

His father, John, is of Ojibwa descent from the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. As a teenager, he struggled with an addiction to alcohol but was helped to sobriety by former New York Islanders coach, Ted Nolan, in 1992.

Transactions[]

Awards[]

  • 1991-92: OHL Champion (Ottawa 67s)
  • 1995-96: NHL Stanley Cup Champion (Colorado Avalanche)
  • 2008-09: KHL Most Penalized Player (Vityaz Chekhov)
  • 2009-10: KHL All-Star Game
  • 2010-11: KHL All-Star Game

Career statistics[]

Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1988–89 Ottawa 67's OHL 36 4 2 6 31
1989–90 Ottawa 67's OHL 57 36 38 74 146 3 2 1 3 4
1990–91 Ottawa 67's OHL 20 16 6 22 69 17 5 9 14 59
1991–92 Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds OHL 31 19 25 44 143 11 5 8 13 49
1992–93 Halifax Citadels AHL 36 12 6 18 131
1992–93 Quebec Nordiques NHL 16 1 1 2 67 5 0 0 0 26
1993–94 Quebec Nordiques NHL 37 4 4 8 132
1994–95 Quebec Nordiques NHL 29 3 9 12 106 6 1 1 2 19
1995–96 Colorado Avalanche NHL 64 16 18 34 250 12 1 2 3 11
1996–97 Washington Capitals NHL 42 9 13 22 165
1997–98 Washington Capitals NHL 28 7 10 17 38 18 1 0 1 26
1998–99 Washington Capitals NHL 23 3 7 10 48
1999–00 Washington Capitals NHL 75 29 20 49 146 4 2 0 2 24
2000–01 Washington Capitals NHL 60 10 10 20 109 6 1 0 1 4
2001–02 Washington Capitals NHL 82 14 17 31 137
2002–03 Washington Capitals NHL 10 0 2 2 23
2002–03 Chicago Blackhawks NHL 61 12 6 18 125
2003–04 New York Rangers NHL 65 14 9 23 225
2003–04 Calgary Flames NHL 13 3 2 5 25 16 5 2 7 74
2005–06 Calgary Flames NHL 72 8 14 22 94 6 0 1 1 7
2006–07 New York Islanders NHL 67 10 17 27 75
2007–08 New York Islanders NHL 28 1 2 3 43
2007–08 Minnesota Wild NHL 10 0 0 0 16 2 0 0 0 0
2008–09 Vityaz Chekhov KHL 40 8 20 28 263
2009–10 Vityaz Chekhov KHL 30 13 12 25 110
2010–11 Vityaz Chekhov KHL 43 16 12 28 130
2010–11 UHC Dynamo KHL 3 0 1 1 0 6 2 0 2 18
NHL totals 782 144 161 305 1824 75 10 7 17 191
KHL totals 116 37 44 81 503 6 2 0 2 18

Sources[]

Notes[]

  1. No doubt Simon will be suspended
  2. 2.0 2.1 Simon suspended for hitting player with stick
  3. Ross, Sherry. "The Icebreaker O'Ree Gets NHL Due 40 Years after Debut", 15 February 1998. Retrieved on 11 December 2010. 
  4. "Simon Extends Apology For Slur", 12 November 1997. Retrieved on 10 April 2011. 
  5. NHL.com. NHL On-line Report - New York Rangers at New York Islanders, March 8, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
  6. TSN.ca. Simon suspended for season and playoffs. Archived from the original on 2007-03-13. Retrieved on 2007-03-11.
  7. Simon releases statement about hit on Hollweg.. ESPN.com (2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
  8. Facing another suspension, Simon benched by Islanders. Retrieved on 2008-02-11.
  9. Islanders Simon suspended for 30 games (2007-12-19). Retrieved on 2010-11-07.
  10. "Simon stompin' mad on Pronger call", Associated Press, Toronto Star, 2008-03-15. 
  11. "Dynamo Moscow release Satan, Strbak, and Chris Simon | Sports.ru in English".

External links[]


This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Chris Simon. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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