Alexander Semin got off to a pretty hot start in the NHL. As a rookie during the 2006-07 season, the Russian forward scored 38 goals and totaled 73 points to go with 90 penalty minutes in 77 games and went on to score 239 goals and 517 points in 650 career NHL games.
However, Semin saw a major decline in his stats over his final 72 games of his NHL career to the point where he returned back home to play in the KHL midway through the 2015-16 season. Although he was a first round draft pick and an offensive threat during the early parts of his career, his reputation across the league took a hit for two different reasons; the first one being his poor fighting skills and the second being him refusing to report to the AHL and returning to Russia instead.
Now a member of HC Vityaz, Semin hasn’t backed away from the fighting aspect of the game and proved it in his team’s latest game where he dropped the gloves with former Atlanta Thrashers prospect Andrei Zubarev after a big hit.
There was a lot more grabbing and pushing in the tilt than there were punches thrown, but Semin probably didn’t want to become a viral sensation once again for his poor fighting skills. Either way, at least he held his own in the bout and didn’t end up on the bottom of it all.
The 34-year-old has eight goals and 13 assists for 21 points in 29 games this season, and has 29 goals and 65 points in 107 games since returning to the KHL.
(H/T Twitter/khl_eng)
