Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Guy Charron
Coming in at number 16 on our countdown of the best Washington Capitals players in franchise history is a forward who put up impressive numbers when the Caps were bad. Guy Charron was undersized and was told he was too small to play in hockey. Charron seemed to make it a point to prove everyone who told him that wrong every single time he stepped on the ice.
Charron played for the Caps for the final five seasons of his relatively short NHL career of 12 seasons. He played for the Caps from 1976 to 1981 while they were still suffering the rigors of being an expansion team. Like Labre, Charron played an extremely important role in helping the Caps go from an expansion team to a playoff team. Labre was the defensive stalwart while Charron was the closest thing the Caps had to an offensive stalwart.
Charron scored 118 goals and had 156 assists for a total of 274 points in 320 games with the Capitals. His plus-minus was -73, but keep in mind that he didn’t play for the Caps when they were good. He played for them while they were still climbing out of the basement and shedding their expansion team label.
Charron deserved a better fate than playing for the Caps when they were bad.
Next: #15