Chris Simon

Chris Simon (born January 30, 1972) is a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger whose last club was UHC Dynamo of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

Minor hockey
Simon grew up in Wawa, Ontario playing his minor hockey for the Wawa Flyers of the NOHA. As a Bantam, he played Jr.B. hockey for the S.S. Marie Thunderbirds of the NOJHL in 1987-88. He was selected in the 3rd round (42nd overall) of the 1988 OHL Priority Selection by the Ottawa 67's.

Simon was drafted in the 2nd round (25th overall) of the 1990 NHL Entry Draft by the Philadelphia Flyers, but was traded as part of the Eric Lindros deal to the Quebec Nordiques before playing any games for the Flyers. He has also played for the Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers where he split the season as a left wing and right wing, New York Islanders and Minnesota Wild.

In 1996, he won the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche. Each player on the winning team is given 24 hours alone with the Cup. Simon took it to his hometown of Wawa, Ontario. After showing it to the townspeople he and his maternal grandfather took the Cup on a fishing trip.

Simon was a member of the Washington Capitals when they went to the Stanley Cup finals in 1998. He had been enjoying great offensive success that season until a shoulder injury knocked him out for much of the playoff run. He underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in December 1998. He was the team's leading goal scorer in the 1999–2000 season with 29 goals in 75 games. He also made it to the Stanley Cup finals with the Calgary Flames in 2004, and played for the Flames for two seasons before being signed as a free agent in 2006 by the New York Islanders and was then traded to the Minnesota Wild for a 6th round draft pick.

Suspensions
Simon has been involved in numerous on-ice incidents and has been suspended eight times for his conduct for a grand total of 65 games.

On November 8, 1997, during a game against the Edmonton Oilers, Simon was suspended three games after calling Edmonton forward Mike Grier a "nigger". Simon flew to Toronto to apologize to Grier. Grier and Simon were later teammates for a brief time in 2002 with the Washington Capitals.

Simon was suspended for one game in a 2000 playoff series against Pittsburgh for cross checking Peter Popovic across the throat on April 13, 2000. He was given two-game suspensions once on April 5, 2001 for elbowing Anders Eriksson, and twice in 2004 for cross checking Tampa Bay's Ruslan Fedotenko and then jumping on and punching him, and for kneeing Dallas's Sergei Zubov.

Ryan Hollweg incident
On March 8, 2007, the Islanders faced the rival New York Rangers at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. At 13:25 of the third period, Rangers forward Ryan Hollweg checked Simon which Simon felt was from behind, knocking his face first into the boards. No penalty was assessed, and play continued. Simon then struck Hollweg in the face with his hockey stick as he skated by. Simon received a match penalty for attempt to injure, resulting in his ejection from the game. Hollweg suffered a cut to the chin that required two stitches. According to ESPN's Barry Melrose, Hollweg escaped serious injury because Simon's blow caught his shoulder pads before hitting his face.

Simon was automatically suspended indefinitely by the NHL due to his match penalty pending ruling by the league commissioner. On March 11, Simon's suspension was set at a minimum of 25 games, and it continued into the first five games of the 2007-08 season. The Nassau County district attorney considered filing criminal charges against Simon, but declined. Hollweg later told Newsday that he was not interested in pressing charges.

On March 10, Simon issued a statement in which he apologized to Hollweg and the league and said that there is "absolutely no place in hockey for what I did". He asserted that he did not remember much about the incident because he was "completely out of it" as a result of the concussion.

Jarkko Ruutu incident
On December 15, 2007, at 14:06 of the third period of a home game against Pittsburgh, Tim Jackman and Jarkko Ruutu had some words between the teams' benches during a stoppage of play. Simon skated in behind Ruutu and pulled Ruutu's leg back with his own. When Ruutu fell to his knees, Simon stepped on the back of Ruutu's right leg with his skate and then went to the bench. Simon was given a match penalty for attempt to injure and ejected from the game.

The following Monday, Simon agreed to go on indefinite paid leave from the team, saying there was "no excuse" for his actions and that he needed some time away from hockey. The next day, Simon was suspended for 30 games, the second-longest suspension for an on-ice incident in modern NHL history behind a one-year suspension handed down to Marty McSorley in 1999–2000. League disciplinarian Colin Campbell said that in his opinion, Simon had "repeatedly evidence(d) the lack of ability to control his actions," and also stressed that this was his eighth disciplinary hearing. Following the suspension, Simon returned to play one more game with the New York Islanders, visibly hesitant in limited ice time, before being traded to the Minnesota Wild.

When Chris Pronger was not initially disciplined by the NHL when he stepped on Ryan Kesler's leg in March 2008, Simon decried what he saw as unfair and unequal treatment. On March 15, 2008, the NHL suspended Pronger for 8 games.

Personal life
His father, John, is of Ojibwa descent from the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. As a teenager, he struggled with an addiction to alcohol but was helped to sobriety by former New York Islanders coach, Ted Nolan, in 1992.

Transactions

 * June 30, 1992- Traded by the Philadelphia Flyers, along with Peter Forsberg, Steve Duchesne, Kerry Huffman, Mike Ricci, Ron Hextall, Philadelphia's 1993 1st round draft choice, Philadelphia's 1994 1st round draft choice and $15 million, to the Quebec Nordiques in exchange for Eric Lindros.
 * June 21, 1995- Rights transferred to the Colorado Avalanche after the Quebec Nordiques relocated.
 * November 2, 1996- Traded by the Colorado Avalanche, along with Curtis Leschyshyn, to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Keith Jones and Washington's 1998 1st and 4th round draft choices.
 * November 1, 2002- Traded by the Washington Capitals, along with Andrei Nikolishin, to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Michael Nylander, Chicago's 2003 3rd round draft choice and future considerations.
 * July 25, 2003- Signed as a free agent with the New York Rangers.
 * March 6, 2004- Traded by the New York Rangers, along with New York's 2004 7th round draft choice, to the Calgary Flames in exchange for Jamie McLennan, Blair Betts and Greg Moore.
 * July 11, 2006- Signed as a free agent with the New York Islanders.
 * February 26, 2008 - Traded to the Minnesota Wild for a 6th round pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.
 * March 27, 2009 - Signed a one year extension with Vityaz Chekhov.
 * May 3, 2011 - released from UHC Dynamo Moscow

Awards

 * 1991-92: OHL Champion (Ottawa 67s)
 * 1995-96: NHL Stanley Cup Champion (Colorado Avalanche)
 * 2008-09: KHL Most Penalized Player (Vityaz Chekhov)
 * 2009-10: KHL All-Star Game
 * 2010-11: KHL All-Star Game