Hamrlik gives Capitals experience on blueline
New Capitals defenseman Roman Hamrlik assumes the role of experienced veteran on a blueline that remains one of the NHL’s youngest.
Hamrlik said at his introductory press conference at Kettler Iceplex on Tuesday that it seems like just a year ago he was in the opposite role, an 18-year-old kid from Czechoslovakia — now the Czech Republic — who was chosen No. 1 overall in the 1992 NHL draft by the expansion Tampa Bay Lightning. He played 67 games that difficult first year in Tampa Bay, the start of an 18-year career that also has taken him to New York, Edmonton, Calgary and Montreal. Time moves quickly, though, and it is now running out on Hamrlik.
“At my age, I’m not getting younger anymore, and this team has a chance to win a [Stanley] Cup,” Hamrlik said. “I think I still have a few years left to play some good hockey, and this is an opportunity to play for a good team that can hopefully do some damage in the playoffs.”
That led to Hamrlik’s two-year, $7?million contract with Washington. He signed on July 1, joining forwards Joel Ward, Jeff Halpern and goalie Tomas Vokoun, who saw the Caps as a preferred destination. Halpern, 35, has never played on a team that has won a postseason series. Vokoun, 35, has played in just 11 playoff games. Ward, 30 and a relatively late bloomer, reached the postseason with Nashville the past two years but only made it to the second round.
Hamrlik’s teams have reached the playoffs 13 times. But only in 2009-10 did he play in a conference final — the year Montreal stunned the top-seeded Caps in the first round. Otherwise, the defenseman has gone out in the first round 10 times. Hamrlik and his fellow free agents — including Vokoun, his countryman who never made the postseason with the Florida Panthers — see a chance to play meaningful games late into the spring.
“I’ve been on winning teams before but nothing like Washington,” Vokoun said. “I always see those guys when they walking out of the rink the last few years. They know they’re going to win, and they know they’re a good team. [We were] going to the games trying to fight as hard as you can hoping you’re going to win.”
With the status of injured Tom Poti, 34, still up in the air, Hamrlik is by far the most experienced Washington defenseman. John Erskine is 31 and likely slated as the No. 7 defenseman next season. Otherwise, Dennis Wideman, 28; Mike Green, 25; Jeff Schultz, 25; Karl Alzner, 22; and John Carlson, 21, were all in fourth grade or younger when Hamrlik made his NHL debut.
“When you’re young you just play. You don’t think about it,” Hamrlik said. “Four or five years ago when I signed with Calgary and then Montreal you reach that age when you figure out [how] to win as a team.”
