Washington Capitals Top Ten Centers In Team History

Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

The Washington Capitals have been in existence for 40 seasons. Since the 1974-1975 season, there have been some great and entertaining players who have worn a Washington Capitals sweater.

To honor them, we’ve decided to make a top 10 list for every position. After taking a look at the goaltenders, centers will be the second part of our series of the best players in Washington Capitals history by position.

To be eligible for selection, players have to meet our qualifications. Here are the criteria that helped decide which Washington Capitals centers were eligible and where they will fit on this list.

• At least 200 games played with the Washington Capitals
• Only games with the Washington Capitals count as far as stats. We’ll use goals, assists, points, and +/- to determine each player’s worth.
• Post-career honors and awards (such as a Hockey Hall of Fame induction or retired jersey number) count

Using those qualifications and criteria, 23 Washington Capitals centers qualified for the list. We’ll cut the list down to just 10. To make this list, we had to look not just the stats compiled by each player.

Things such as time with the Washington Capitals and memories of that player will come into play. In some cases, two or more players are very similar as far as stats are concerned. That’s when things like sentimental value and favoritism come into play.

It’s always fun to try to guess which players will make the list and where they will be placed on the list. We all have our personal favorites. This is our personal top ten.

Let’s start off by mentioning some of the honorable mentions. These five centers just missed the cut for our list.

• Matt Hendricks will always be loved by Washington Capitals fans. He almost got included in the top ten solely because of how much fans love him. He won fans over with his hard-nosed style of play, his brutal fights, and his incredible shootout move that made him known as “The Paralyzer” around these parts. In honor of Hendricks, here he is making Tim Thomas very angry.

• Guy Charron was a very good player for the Caps. Sadly, he spent a majority of his Caps tenure on some awful teams. He never got to see the playoffs with the Caps.
• Ryan Walter helped lead the Washington Capitals to their first ever postseason appearance by getting traded for Rod Langway. He might have only spent four years in red, but he was very productive, and he helped pave the way for the Caps. Sad that he never got to play in the playoffs for the Washington Capitals.
• Joe Juneau was a fan favorite back in the 90’s as he helped lead the Washington Capitals to their only Stanley Cup appearance.

Without further ado, here are our top ten Washington Capitals centers in franchise history. We hope you all enjoy it!

Next: Number Ten: DC Born And Raised