Before Alex Ovechkin, Peter Bondra and Mike Gartner filled the net for the Washington Capitals, there was Dennis Maruk. His prolific shot scored 182 in five seasons.
For five seasons, Washington Capitals center Dennis Maruk terrorized goalies across the National Hockey League.
For the Caps, he was their first bona fide superstar. Along with Bob Carpenter, Mike Gartner and legendary captain Rod Langway, Washington made the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in 1983.
Outside a few optimists, no one cared the three-time defending Cup champion New York Islanders won the best-of-five in four. The Caps finally played in the postseason and Maruk’s production was a huge factor.
Drafted by the old California Golden Seals in the second round of the 1975 NHL Draft, he made the immediate jump to the top. In finishing third for the Calder behind Bryan Trottier and Chico Resch, Maruk flashed his potential by scoring 30 and assisting 32 for 62 points in 80 games.
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As the Golden Seals floundered that was good enough for second on the team. When the franchise was forced to move to Cleveland, Maruk lit the lamp in Ohio 64 times in the two years the Barons graced the NHL.
Financial problems sunk both Cleveland and the Minnesota North Stars. In hockey’s last shotgun marriage, the new North Stars protected him in the dispersal draft. Then shortly into the 1978-79 season, they traded Maruk to Washington for a first-round pick. Minny chose Tom McCarthy who played nine years in the NHL.
Maruk got the break of his life.
Not in the win-loss column at first. In his first four seasons at the Capital Centre, Washington never sniffed a winning record. Their best effort came in 1980-81 when they finished fifth in the Patrick Division, four points behind the New York Rangers.
Coming off an injury the year before, Maruk scored 50 in Washington’s drive for the playoffs. The next year, he slapped 60 past goalkeepers. A phenomenal tally that drew no recognition. That year, Wayne Gretzky scored 92 and Mike Bossy tapped in 64. Maruk’s 136 points were fourth overall as Quebec’s Peter Stastny tallied 139 for third.
Maruk scored on 22.4 percent of his shots that season and served 136 penalty minutes. Somehow, his plus-minus was minus-seven. In a reconfigured Patrick Division, the Caps missed the playoffs by ten points behind those pesky Pittsburgh Penguins.
After the 1983 season, Washington sent Maruk back to Minnesota for draft-pick winger Stephen Leach. Although Leach was okay on offense and physical, he never matched Maruk’s ability to score at will.
In his five years with the Washington Capitals, Dennis Maruk became a scoring machine. Over 343 games, he scored 182 while assisting on 249 for 431 points. Although his No. 21 jersey will never get retired, his place in Caps history is secure.