Washington Capitals: Top 10 toughest players of all-time
The Washington Capitals have had their share of toughest players that would suit up. These guys were never afraid to fight, play through big hits, make the big hit, or play through pain. These guys are fearless in what they do and we should be grateful they are on our side.
Some of these choices were easy from watching the Caps in my generation. I also looked at physical players that made impacts for the Caps before my time to cater to each and every fan reading this article. Of course as always with top 10 lists, we always miss one or two.
#10 Donald Brashear
The President has secret service protecting him. Yet he’s just the second most important person in Washington besides Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin has reached the point in his career where he can protect himself but back when he was a young buck, the Caps signed Donald Brashear and gave him the task of protecting their young star. If anyone was to mess with Ovi, they would have to go through the Donald.
Brashear’s first season in Washington was in 2006-07 where he racked up 156 penalty minutes. The next year the penalty minutes dropped to 119 while his final season in Washington they went up to 121.
#9 Scott Stevens
Scott Stevens brought his physicality to the game of hockey ever since being an 18 year old rookie with the Washington Capitals in 1982-83. Hitting was a huge part of Stevens’ game. That 1982 season saw Brian Engblom as his defensive parting partner. He called Stevens “a man child” who “had a tremendous instinct right from the very first day.”
Engblom elaborated more to Tom Gulitti of NHL.com:
“Somebody would be coming down on me 1-on-1 and all the sudden this force of nature would come from the left and, ‘Boom!’ There’d be this giant collision. He almost took me out a couple times. I’d go, ‘What the [heck] was that?’ It was Scott laying people out all over the place.”
Stevens’ accolades while with the Caps included making the NHL’s All Rookie Team in 1983. He made the NHL’s First All Star Team in 1988. He also played in the NHL All Star Game representing the Caps in 1985 and 1989. He is an NHL Hall of Famer who won the Stanley Cup three times while playing for the New Jersey Devils.
He had the most penalty minutes during his time with the Caps in 1988-89 when he racked up 225 minutes in the box. He spent a total of eight seasons with the Capitals.
#8 Craig Berube
Craig Berube was nicknamed by Caps fans as “The Chief”. Before helping coach the St. Louis Blues to the 2019 Stanley Cup, Berube was an important part of a Capitals lineup that made it to their first ever appearance in the Stanley Cup Final.
Berube’s first season with the Caps was in 1993-94 where he had seven goals and seven assists for 14 points in 84 games including a whooping 305 penalty minutes. He added 189 penalty minutes along with six goals and nine assists for 15 points in the 1997-98 season while playing in all 21 playoff games that spring.
Berube was never afraid to stand up for his teammates. He wasn’t drafted but in 1986 he signed on with the Philadelphia Flyers. Alan May recalled fondly his playing days with Berbue in an article by J.J. Regan of NBC Sports Washington:
“Chief came up when the Flyers were still a version of the Broad Street Bullies and that went a long way. That Philadelphia thing of being a tough teammate and sticking up for your teammates all the time and for all the right reasons. It’s not about you, it’s about your team. That’s in him. That’s part of his DNA as a coach and as a competitor.”
#7 Alan May
Alan May is a fan favorite among Washington Capitals fans for his gritty and hard nosed style of play. Opponents were afraid of him and for good reason. Currently Alan May is a pregame and postgame show host at NBC Sports Washington. Before the glitz and glamor of TV, whoever messed with Alan May on the ice was in for a miserable time.
The Caps acquired May via a trade in the summer of 1989 from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for a fifth round draft pick. May had a career high seven goals and 10 assists for 17 points in 1989-90 while racking up 339 penalty minutes.
May’s offensive numbers dipped the next season to just four goals and six assists for 10 points but he had more minutes in the sin bin with 364 penalty minutes. His third season was better offensively with six goals and nine assists for 15 points with less time in the penalty box with 221 penalty minutes.
In 1992-93, May scored six goals and added 10 assists for 16 points and racked up 268 penalty minutes. The 1993-94 season would be May’s final season with the Caps before he was traded midseason to the Dallas Stars.
If the pregame and postgame shows return to Capital One Arena be sure to stop by the broadcast and say hi to Alan May. He’s definitely a good chat.
#6 Joe Reekie
Joe Reekie is a defenseman who always did the dirty work yet hardly got recognition. But he expressed once during his playing career how he’s not intimidated by anyone. He spoke to Dave Feete of LCS Hockey:
“As a defensive defenseman, I’m not going to get a lot of points in a year,. But you know, I just can’t get scored against. I take a lot of pride in [defense], just like a goal scorer does scoring goals, and I do whatever it takes not to let one in. It eats me alive when I get scored against.”
Reekie played in 515 career games with the Washington Capitals ranking third in franchise history in plus/minus rating at plus 86. He totaled 688 penalty minutes which is the fifth most all time among Capitals defenseman.
Joe Pelletier of WashingtonCapitalsLegends.com described him as this:
“From 1994 to 2002 Reekie served as a top four defender. He was often used against the other team’s top players because of his strength and seemingly flawless defensive positioning. He was smart and tough, although that brought inevitable injuries that slowed him. Regardless, he always played with a subtle savvy that I always admired, as well as with a tough and physical, yet clean, presence.”
#5 Olaf Kolzig
Yes believe it or not a goaltender has made it onto this list and for good reason. Playing goalie in the NHL is the worlds toughest position with all the pressure that comes with it and the toughest of them all to suit up for the Washington Capitals was Olaf Kolzig.
Kolzig helped lead the Caps to their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals in 1998 with a Conn Smythe or Vezina, however you want to look at it, type of performance. He had a .941 save percentage and a 1.95 goals against average that spring along with four shutouts.
Michael Farber of Sports Illustrated wrote that Kolzig had a temper and used to be “that wild thing” in net. By controlling himself, he mastered others and in turn became an elite goaltender.
But that didn’t mean Kolzig wasn’t afraid to unleash the fury. One time he confronted Pittsburgh Penguins enforcer Francois Leroux in a 1996 playoff meeting. In a 1998 brawl with the Boston Bruins, he had to be restrained by his best friend Byron Dafoe as he kept Kolzig from squaring off with Ken Belanger.
There is a reason why fans and teammates alike all call Olaf Kolzig Godzilla.
#4 Matt Hendricks
Matt Hendricks was one of my favorite Washington Capitals to watch in the early 2010’s. He only spent three seasons in D.C. but left quite an impression among teammates, media and fans.
Hendricks did all the dirty work: forechecking, shot blocking, and penalty killing. He even did these while playing through an injury. He described one injury he suffered from the 2011-12 season that he played through to Mike Vogel of WashingtonCaps.com:
“We were in groups. There’s a group taking some shots at one end, and we were out by the blueline working on our face-offs. [Alex Ovechkin] took a shot and missed the net a little high. It hit the glass and came out. We all know how hard he shoots; it ended up catching me in the ear. It wasn’t direct, but from what he says it was picking up speed on the glass. It hit me and it was kind of surprising. It felt like somebody came up and hit me in the head with a baseball bat. It stunned me. I realized I was bleeding and pain was setting in. I knew it wasn’t good. I was pretty upset. I was thinking of all the worst possible injuries I could have had and I was hoping that it wasn’t going to be that bad. The immediate thing I did was to go to a mirror to see how bad it was. It was pretty funny once the guys started coming off the ice. Their comments weren’t too comforting. They made it sound like it was a lot worse than it really was.”
The very next day Hendricks played in Washington’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. In that game, Hendricks took a hit from Penguins defender Zbynek Michalek and still played in the most ice time of his career.
Oh yeah and he fought a lot too.
#3 Rod Langway
Rod Langway was one of the best defensive defenseman to suit up for the Washington Capitals. He was a tough defender. He joined the Capitals in 1982-83 and made an immediate impact. He won the Norris Trophy that season for the league’s best defensemen. He would win it again in 1983-84.
Langway holds the Capitals franchise mark for plus/minus rating with plus 117. No other player is even in triple digits for plus/minus. He is one of only four Capitals players to have their sweater retired.
Joe Pelletier of WashingtonCapitalsLegends.com wrote more about the two Norris Trophies:
“This is an amazing accomplishment when you consider how rare it is for a defensive d-man to win the award since the arrival of Bobby Orr in the late 1960s. Since Orr revolutionized the role of a defenseman from defender to attacker, the trophy almost always went to the best offensive defenseman. For Langway to capture the Norris trophy twice based on his defensive excellence and not his offensive elements is the best tribute to how good he was. And to make it even more impressive, Langway beat out superstars Ray Bourque, Denis Potvin and Paul Coffey. Coffey in particular dared to come close to Orr’s offensive exploits, yet the NHL recognized Langway’s great play over that. Langway was also the first American player to win the award.”
#2 Dale Hunter
I’ll start off by providing this excerpt of Dale Hunter from Mike Vogel of WashingtonCaps.com:
“Throughout the years, win or lose, regardless of personnel, one thing has remained fairly constant about the Capitals. If you’re the opposing team and you’re going up against the Caps, you know you’re in for a struggle from the opening faceoff to the final horn. That’s how Dale Hunter played it every night—1,407 times over 19 seasons.”
Hunter suffered a severe leg and ankle injury during the 1986-87 season in what would be his final season with the Quebec Nordiques. Quebec shipped him to the Caps that summer. Despite still being in a lot of pain from the previous season, Hunter only missed one game in his first season with the Caps. He recorded 59 points and 240 penalty minutes.
Hunter ranked second in NHL history with 3,565 penalty minutes according to NHL.com. He is also the only player with 3,000 career penalty minutes to go along with 1,000 points.
Steve Konowalchuk spoke highly of Hunter to Vogel:
“When I think of him, I think of him always being involved in the game, being tough and being there and sticking up for you all the time. You always felt safe and ready to go to battle playing together.”
#1 Tom Wilson
If you asked me to write this five years ago, maybe Tom Wilson wouldn’t make it number one. Maybe not even two years ago. But now with everything that’s been going on, from the fines, to the suspensions, and lack thereof, there is no player everyone across the league loves talking about or loves to hate more than Tom Wilson. Wilson lives rent free in many opponents heads.
Last season Tom Wilson led the NHL with 96 penalty minutes. Yet if you look at his career numbers, 96 penalty minutes was ironically the second lowest penalty minutes of his career. So if he’s in the box much less, why is he still a hot topic among non Caps fans for his “horrifying acts of violence”?
Tom Wilson wasn’t afraid to lay out the big hits yet he was still fourth on the team last season in that category with 105. In his career, Wilson has 1,702 hits along with 1,123 penalty minutes.
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His offensive production has also started to increase over the last couple seasons. Like many of the core, Wilson enters a big season and will look to bring his A game on opening night against a New York Rangers team that added a bunch of enforcers to try to take him down.