Knights in the NHL

Time for another Tuesday report on Clarkson alums competing in professional hockey.

A few updates before I get into the main part of this entry. My tentative plan is to rotate the news, so this week will focus on the NHL players. Next week will look at Clarkson players in the AHL and the week after that Clarkson players in other pro leagues like the ECHL and overseas. There will be a cycle so after that week I'll go back to NHL. I'll also try to provide statistics each week for the players involved.

One other note: I'm hoping to be able to provide video highlights of every NHL goal scored by a Clarkson alum (or other noteworthy NHL events) regardless of whether it's an NHL week on the blog.

Now, onto this week's report:

Capitals Happy Clark's Back

The Washington Capitals are a team some expect could win the Stanley Cup this season and if they do, it will be Clarkson's 1997-98 captain Chris Clark who will get to be the first player to hoist the trophy.

Clark is now the captain of the Capitals and the team is happy to have him back on the ice after he missed most of last season with injuries.

He only played in 32 games last year after dealing with a wrist injury. He played in game seven of a playoff series against the New York Rangers and was able to compete in all seven games of Washington's playoff series with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Here's a video report on Clark's return and his impact on the team, courtesy of NHL.com:

Zalewski's Debut

This may turn out to be a short callup to the San Jose Sharks for 2008 Clarkson grad Steve Zalewski.

But the rookie right wing had a solid opener Monday night against the Phoenix Coyotes in a game the Sharks wound up losing in a shootout after skating to a 0-0 tie.

Zalewski's time was limited. He played only seven shifts (by my count from watching the game online) and had a total of 5 minutes, 26 seconds of ice time. He had no shots and the only mistake he made was going offsides once.

He played on a line with Manny Malhotra and Jody Shelley.

Surprise Leading Scorer

It's early in the NHL season so the stats are a bit misleading, but the only Golden Knight alum who has scored a goal so far is Vancouver Canucks defenseman Willie Mitchell, who now has two goals and two assists.

I posted Mitchell's first goal of the season last week and here is No. 2:

The Stats

Here are the current NHL stats for Clarkson players. You may notice Randy Jones is not listed. Due to some salary cap concerns he is not on the Philadelphia Flyers roster right now, instead playing with their minor league team in Glens Falls. Jones is expected to be traded in the near future and be on an NHL roster after that transaction.

Player (Team) Games G A PTS +/- PIM

Chris Clark (Capitals) 6 0 1 1 -1 9

Steve Zalewski (Sharks) 1 0 0 0 0 0

Todd Marchant (Ducks) 5 0 0 0 0 2

Craig Conroy (Flames) 6 0 2 2 0 5

Todd White (Thrashers) 3 0 0 0 -3 6

Willie Mitchell (Canucks) 5 2 2 4 +2 5

*Erik Cole (Hurricanes) 2 0 0 0 -2 0

Kent Huskins (Sharks) 6 0 1 1 +2 4

*injured