Capitals Player Profile: Chris Conner
Chris Conner – NHL.com
Chris Conner was signed by the Capitals during “Free Agent Frenzy” on July 1st, 2014. He inked a one year $550,000/$250,000 NHL/AHL deal. Conner has previously played for the Penguins, Coyotes, Red Wings and the Stars. He was an undrafted free agent signee of the Dallas Stars on July 13th, 2006. Conners played college hockey in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association for the Michigan Tech Huskies from 2002-2006.
POSITION: Right Wing. Shoots left-handed.
HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 5’8″/190 pounds.
PLAYING CAREER: Conners has spent most of his professional career jumping up and down from the AHL to the NHL. He started with the Dallas Stars where he played from 2006-2009. During his time in the Stars organization, Conners played in 71 NHL games tallying seven goals, 14 assists for 21 points. He played 128 AHL games with the Iowa Stars during that same period. From 2009-2011 he played 68 regular seasons games with the Pittsburgh Penguins and one game in the playoffs on the Penguins run to winning the Stanley Cup. As a Penguin he recorded nine goals, 10 assists for 19 points. During that time period he played in 70 AHL games with the Wilkes-Barre Penguins. Conners then went on to play one season with the Detroit Red Wings, then the Arizona (previously Phoenix) Coyotes the following season. In 2013-2014 he returned to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
PLAYING STYLE: Chris Conners isn’t ever going to be a star player. He has scored a majority of his goals off teammates playmaking. Passes to send him on a one-on-one or a break away. Most notably, Conners scores his goals in front of the net cleaning up loose pucks. He’s what hockey analysts would call a garbage goal scorer and thats no diss. Every team needs a garbage goal scorer. A garbage goal scorer has great hockey sense of where to be in front of the net and they know how to put a loose puck in the back of the net. Conners is a great addition to a team when injuries start to build up, which has become commonplace in today’s NHL. He performs well filling in until regular players can get healthy, and that is extremely important to NHL teams.
