Background and career
Alexei Valeryevich Yashin (Russian: Алексей Валерьевич Яшин; born 5 November 1973) is a Russian former professional ice hockey centre who played 12 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Ottawa Senators and New York Islanders, serving as captain of both teams. He also played nine seasons in the Russian Superleague (RSL) and Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) for Dynamo Moscow, CSKA Moscow, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, and SKA Saint Petersburg. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2020. He was named the most valuable player of the RSL in 2008 and has won two gold medals, one silver, and two bronze medals in international play.
Yashin began his professional career playing for Avtomobilist Sverdlovsk in the Soviet Union in the 1990–91 season before joining Dynamo Moscow of the Soviet Championship League for the 1991–92 season on a three-year contract. In 28 games with Dynamo, he scored seven goals and three assists for ten points. He was heralded as one of the top European prospects ahead of the National Hockey League (NHL)'s entry draft, ranked second among skaters by the NHL's Central Scouting Bureau. He returned to Dynamo for the 1992–93 season, recording ten goals and 22 points in 27 games.
Going into the 1992 NHL entry draft, the consensus was that the Tampa Bay Lightning, with the first overall selection, would select another player and that Roman Hamrlík would be available when the Ottawa Senators selected second. However, the Lightning selected Hamrlík, and the Senators turned to Yashin as their backup plan. Still under contract in Russia, it was only at the beginning of April 1993 did the Senators seek to get Yashin signed and travelled to Europe to negotiate with him. They reached a tentative agreement that month. However, in order to facilitate the signing, Ottawa was rumoured to have paid a $500,000 release fee to Dynamo Moscow in order to acquire the player. The deal was reportedly for five years and $2.2 million. Yashin arrived in Ottawa for the 1993–94 season, along with Ottawa's other highly touted first overall draft selection, Alexandre Daigle. He made his debut in the Senators season opener on 16 October, a 5–5 tie with the Quebec Nordiques and recorded his first NHL point, assisting on Bob Kudelski's second period goal. He marked his first NHL goal in his third game, a 5–4 loss to the Florida Panthers on 14 October. On 3 November, he recorded five points in a game, including his first hat trick, in a 7–5 victory over the Edmonton Oilers. The next night, he recorded four assists in a 7–6 overtime win over the Winnipeg Jets. Yashin soon eclipsed Daigle as the team's brightest young star and after Ottawa's representative to the NHL All-Star Game was traded to Florida, Yashin was selected as his replacement. He was the only rookie at the All-Star Game, but stood out, scoring two goals including the game winner for the Eastern Conference. On 24 February he recorded three assists in a 6–4 victory over the San Jose Sharks. He had another three-point night on 23 March, marking one goal (the game winner) and two assists in a 5–4 comeback win over the Detroit Red Wings. In April, he had a four-point night on 6 April with one goal and three assists in a 6–5 win over the Washington Capitals and the next night, a three-point game with one goal and three assists in a 5–4 loss to the Boston Bruins. In 83 games with Ottawa, he scored 30 goals and 79 points, finishing second in rookie scoring. During the season, he scored or assisted on almost a third of all of Ottawa's goals, earning him a nomination for the Calder Memorial Trophy. However, Yashin was not among the three finalists for the award, and his omission caused some shock among the Senators organization, as he had widely been tapped to be one of them. He finished fourth in voting.
Off the ice, Yashin's time in Ottawa was tumultuous. Senators' management initially viewed Daigle, who had been selected first overall in the 1993 NHL entry draft, as the franchise's cornerstone player. While they hesitated in offering Yashin a five-year, $4 million contract, they signed Daigle to one of the largest rookie contracts in history and touted him over Yashin for the Calder Memorial Trophy at the conclusion of the 1993–94 season. Yashin began making demands to re-negotiate his contract in June 1994, threatening to hold out, later demanding a trade. However, before he could complete his threat, the NHL locked out the players in a labour action, causing a delay to the start of the 1994–95 season. The lockout lasted until January 1995. Yashin became the first NHL player to swap leagues during the lockout, signing with the Las Vegas Thunder of the International Hockey League (IHL) in October. Yashin was criticized by the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) representative Steve Chiasson, claiming that signing in the IHL took away jobs from other hockey players. This was exemplified by Ottawa's newest first round draft pick from the 1994 NHL entry draft, Radek Bonk, who was also in a contract stalemate with the team, and was contracted to Las Vegas. Bonk, who had starred with Las Vegas the prior season, saw his ice time decline as he was replaced by Yashin on the power play and his production plummeted, with many Ottawa fans now seeing Bonk as a bust. After Yashin and Kevin Dineen signed with IHL teams during the lockout, the IHL commissioner, Bob Ufer, prevented any further signings of NHL players within the league. While with Las Vegas, Yashin underwent surgery for a hernia, missing three weeks. In 24 games with the Thunder, Yashin scored 15 goals and 35 points. Once the lockout ended in January 1995, Yashin was informed he was no longer eligible to play in the IHL. He continued to hold out and was suspended by Ottawa without pay until he returned to the team. He finally agreed to return to the Senators on 21 January after arriving at an agreement concerning bonuses with management. He recorded his first three-point game of the season on 2 February, tallying one goal and two assists in a 6–4 loss to the Boston Bruins. The game after he had been benched for indifferent play by his coach, Rick Bowness, Yashin recorded a hat trick in a 5–5 tie with the Washington Capitals on 23 February. After Daigle was moved to join Yashin's line alongside Rob Gaudreau, the three began scoring at a heightened pace, with Yashin adding three assists in a 11–4 thumping by the Quebec Nordiques on 26 March. The line registered eight points in the game and scored 75 percent of the team's goals, but their defensive capabilities were limited, as they were on the ice for three of the New Jersey Devils' goals in a 4–2 loss on 29 March. He finished the season with 21 goals and 44 points in 47 games. The contract dispute between Ottawa and Yashin began again in June 1995, when Yashin demanded a trade after the team refused to renegotiate his deal and what he considered the team's poor response after his father was injured in a car accident. Senators' owner Rod Bryden refused to give in to his demands and threatened to send Yashin to the Thunder Bay Senators of the Colonial Hockey League. Rumours of a possible move to the New York Islanders also began that offseason. A trade was nearly completed with the Detroit Red Wings where Yashin would have been exchanged for star centre Steve Yzerman. The Senators' director of player personnel John Ferguson made public remarks in support of keeping Yashin in August which were criticized by the team's general manager Randy Sexton, leading to Ferguson's departure a week later. He refused to honour his contract at the onset of the 1995–96 season, unless the terms were renegotiated to make him the team's highest-paid player. Some commentators sympathized with Yashin's position in the initial disputes, as Daigle had struggled to live up to his billing while Yashin's offensive numbers exceeded Daigle's in every season they played together. Yashin returned to Russia in October, where he joined CSKA Moscow ("Central Red Army") and played two games in contravention of international agreements. CSKA Moscow, the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia, and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) then had a nine-hour meeting that resulted in a public declaration that Yashin and CSKA Moscow had broken the agreements and that Yashin was ineligible to play with them, on threat of international sanctions. After appearing in a further two games CSKA Moscow bowed to international pressure after threats of expulsion from the Russian leagues and international bans for all of their players and Yashin was removed from the roster. In the four games in Russia, he scored two goals and four points. On 11 December Sexton was fired as general manager, and his replacement, Pierre Gauthier, stated his first job was to get Yashin back with the team. On 30 December, the Senators signed Yashin to a five-year deal, $13 million deal. Yashin made his 1995–96 season debut on 31 December in a 3–0 shutout loss to the Tampa Bay Lighting. He recorded a three-point night on 29 January 1996, marking a goal and two assists in a 4–2 victory over the St. Louis Blues. In the next match against St. Louis on 20 February, he netted a hat trick and five points in a 7–1 win, which also marked the first match of the Senators' new head coach, Jacques Martin. In 46 games, Yashin scored 15 goals and 39 points.
During the 1996 offseason, the Senators underwent a major overhaul and by the start of training camp, only 18 of the 50 players who had been on the roster to start the 1995–96 season remained. Yashin entered the 1996–97 season without a contract squabble for the first time in three years. In their first full season in the new arena, the Palladium, Yashin centered the first line with the 1996 Calder Trophy winner Daniel Alfredsson and Shawn McEachern. The Senators played well to start the season and on 19 and 24 October Yashin recorded two goals and an assist in wins over the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning. However, a quarter of the way through the season, Yashin went through a scoring slump and the Senators fell out of a playoff position in the standings. It was not until 26 December that Yashin recorded another three-point outing, scoring two goals and an assist in a 5–2 victory over the New York Rangers, after Sergei Zholtok replaced McEachern on the top line. He tallied a three-point night on 11 January 1997, participating in all three of Ottawa's goals in a 3–3 tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins, scoring once and assisting on the two others. On 3 and 18 February and 22 and 29 March, Yashin marked three-point nights in wins over the Vancouver Canucks, Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins, and Montreal Canadiens. The Senators made the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in 1997 in the final game of the season. Facing the Buffalo Sabres and Dominik Hašek, considered one of the best goaltenders in the league, the game remained tied at zero late in the third period when Yashin found Steve Duchesne who sent a shot past Hašek to score the game winning goal. Yashin recorded 35 goals and 76 points in 82 games during the regular season. The Senators faced the Sabres in the first round in a best-of-seven series, and Yashin recorded his first NHL playoff goal on 21 April in a 3–2 loss. The Senators pushed the Sabres to overtime in game seven, but ultimately lost. Yashin tallied the one goal and six points in the seven games. Yashin began the 1997–98 season with a new linemate, as Alfredsson was a contract holdout. Alfredsson was replaced by rookie Marián Hossa and Yashin marked two three-point games to start the season, one on 12 October in a 7–4 loss to the Los Angeles Kings and the other in a 6–2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on 22 October. On 10 January 1998, he recorded his fourth career hat trick, scoring all of the team's goals in a 3–3 tie with the Colorado Avalanche. He recorded three more three-point games the rest of the season, on 5 March against Colorado, 11 March against the Florida Panthers, and the Buffalo Sabres on 11 April. Yashin finished the regular season with 33 goals and 72 points in 82 games. In March 1998, Yashin initially pledged to give $1 million to the National Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa, then the NAC's largest ever donation. The Senators had earlier collaborated with the NAC to produce the 1998–99 season program titled "Symphony on Ice", which featured Senators head coach Jacques Martin on the front cover wearing a tuxedo and waving a conductor's baton, while NAC music director Pinchas Zukerman was shown in the Senators' locker room with a #00 Senators jersey. When the NAC learned that one of the conditions of this donation was for them to pay Yashin's parents $425,000 in consulting fees for "loosely defined" services, they balked and Yashin cancelled the donation in January 1999. The failed arrangement was a public relations disaster for Yashin and his family, and served to further damage Yashin's already strained relationship with the Ottawa public. The Senators qualified for the 1998 playoffs, and faced the New Jersey Devils in the first round. Yashin scored a key overtime goal that helped the Senators win their first ever playoff series, and along with Alfredsson and goaltender Damian Rhodes, was instrumental in knocking off the first place Devils. However, in the second round against the Washington Capitals, Yashin was shut down by Esa Tikkanen, who held him to one goal and two points in the series, as the Senators were eliminated. In 11 playoff games, he scored five goals and eight points. In the offseason, general manager Pierre Gauthier resigned his position and was replaced by Rick Dudley. Yashin was named team captain ahead of the 1998–99 season. He recorded three-point nights in wins on 26 November and 8 December. On 18 December, Yashin marked five points, taking part in all of the Senators' goals in a 5–1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. Yashin and teammate Ron Tugnutt were selected to represent Ottawa at the All-Star Game in January 1999, with Yashin playing for the World Team, marking the first time the Senators had more than one player attend the game. He followed his All-Star appearance up with three-point games on 30 January and 15 February. On 4 March, he recorded a hat trick and four points in a 5–0 shutout win over the Philadelphia Flyers. He marked another three-point game on 8 March, and then two more four-point games on 27 March and 3 April. He finished the season recording 44 goals and 94 points, tied for second in the league in goal scoring with Jaromír Jágr. At the conclusion of the season, Yashin was at the pinnacle of his career as the runner-up for the Hart Memorial Trophy for the NHL's most valuable player, and named an NHL Second Team All-Star. Yashin's regular season success did not carry over into the 1999 playoffs, and the Senators were swept in the first round by the Buffalo Sabres. Yashin, as the team's captain was expected to be among the team's best players, but went scoreless in the series. Dudley tried to protect his player by claiming that Yashin was only stopped by the league's best goaltender (Dominik Hašek), but fans and journalists had begun to label him as the "invisible man" for his lack of effort in the playoffs.
In the 1999 offseason, the Senators general manager, Rick Dudley, left the team to join the Tampa Bay Lightning organization and Marshall Johnston was hired as his replacement. That summer Yashin's relationship with the Senators reached a new low and he demanded a pay raise threatening not to honour the final year of his contract. When the Senators refused, Yashin demanded a trade on the advice of his agent, Mark Gandler. This was the third time that Yashin demanded a new contract during his five years with the team. Yashin, his agent, and the team, all negotiated through the media, throwing around accusations and ultimatums. Johnston refused to trade Yashin, instead stripping him of his captaincy and issuing it to Daniel Alfredsson. When Yashin still refused to report, the Senators suspended him for the remainder of the 1999–2000 season on 10 November, with the full support of the NHL. The team, through the NHL, sought punitive damages in court. Yashin was also sued by a fan of the Senators, with the lawsuit later being dismissed. After the season, an NHL arbitrator refused to grant Yashin the free agent status he claimed to have earned, instead tolling his contract for another season on the grounds that Yashin owed the Senators the final year of his contract if he ever returned to the NHL. Despite the Senators arbitration victory, the team's owner, Rod Bryden, sued Yashin for damages. The lawsuit was eventually dropped. Yashin returned to the Senators for the 2000–01 season. He was jeered by the crowd in nearly every NHL arena, especially in Ottawa, and had to fight Florida Panthers' defenceman Todd Simpson on 18 November, who went at Yashin to show him that other players were not happy with his actions. On 21 October 2000, Yashin recorded four assists in a 6–6 tie with the Atlanta Thrashers, and three assists in a 5–3 victory over Philadelphia on 2 December. He recorded his sixth career hat trick on 6 January 2001 in a 4–3 win over the Montreal Canadiens. He notched one more three-point game that season on 1 March in an 8–4 victory over the San Jose Sharks. He finished the season with 40 goals and 88 points in 82 games. The Senators made the playoffs after finishing second in the Eastern Conference and faced the Toronto Maple Leafs in their first-round match up. However, once again Yashin disappeared in the playoffs, recording only one assist as the Senators were swept in four games by the Maple Leafs.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
