Background and career
Vincent Lecavalier (born April 21, 1980) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre currently working as a special advisor of hockey operations for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected first overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 1998 NHL entry draft and was a member of their 2004 Stanley Cup championship team. Lecavalier played seventeen seasons in the NHL between 1998 and 2016 and served as captain of the Lightning on two occasions (2000–2001 and 2008–2013) prior to being bought out following the 2012–13 season and signing a 5-year, $22.5 million deal with the Philadelphia Flyers. He finished his NHL career with the Los Angeles Kings.
As a youth, Lecavalier played in the 1994 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a minor ice hockey team from the North Shore of Montreal.
Lecavalier played two years of junior hockey for the Rimouski Océanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). During his tenure, he quickly established himself as one of the NHL's top prospects. In his first season with the Océanic, he won the Michel Bergeron Trophy as the QMJHL's top rookie forward, and the RDS Cup as the top rookie overall.
Lecavalier was drafted first overall by Tampa Bay in the 1998 NHL entry draft, during which new Lightning owner Art Williams proclaimed that Lecavalier would be "the Michael Jordan of hockey". On March 1, 2000, following his sophomore season, he was named captain, becoming the youngest captain in NHL history at 19 years and 314 days (since surpassed by Sidney Crosby in May 2007, Gabriel Landeskog in September 2012, and Connor McDavid in October 2016). Previously, Steve Yzerman had held that honour, having been named captain of the Detroit Red Wings at 21 years, 5 months. On January 14, 2001, in a 3–0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, Lecavalier suffered a broken foot after getting in the way of a slap shot, causing him to miss the next 14 games. He eventually finished the 2000–01 season playing in 68 games with 23 goals and 28 assists for 51 points. Lecavalier did not fulfill expectations and was later stripped of the captaincy before the 2001–02 season when Lightning management decided he was too young even as a high calibre player. Around that time, he clashed frequently with head coach John Tortorella. Tortorella has since noted that Lecavalier matured since losing the team captaincy. During the 2003–04 season, while Martin St. Louis led in regular season scoring and Brad Richards led in the playoffs, Lecavalier played a key role in the team's Stanley Cup victory, assisting on the Cup-clinching goal by Ruslan Fedotenko in the deciding seventh game of the Stanley Cup Final against the Calgary Flames. He was named MVP of the Canadian National Team in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, which Canada won. During the lock-out which cancelled the 2004–05 NHL season, Lecavalier, along with Lightning teammates Nikolai Khabibulin and Brad Richards, played for Ak Bars Kazan in the Russian Superleague. Lecavalier scored 15 points as Kazan finished 4th in the league and lost in the first round of the playoffs. Lecavalier was chosen to play for Team Canada at the 2006 Olympics, but returned to Tampa without a medal. Lecavalier broke the all-time Tampa Bay Lightning record for most points in a season by scoring his 95th point on March 16, 2007, against the Buffalo Sabres. The record was previously held by Martin St. Louis, who had 94 points during the 2003–04 NHL season. His record of 108 points was since surpassed by future Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov, who recorded Art Ross trophy-winning 144 points (44 goals, 100 assists) during the Lightning's Presidents Trophy-winning 2023–24 season and holds the record at this point. On March 30, 2007, in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes, Lecavalier became the first Lightning player to record 50 goals in a season. He finished the season with 52 goals, edging Ottawa's Dany Heatley, who scored 50 goals, to earn the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy as the NHL's top goal scorer for the 2006–07 season.
During the 2007–08 season, Lecavalier recorded eight straight multipoint games, being the first to do so since Jaromír Jágr in 1996. The scoring streak put him first in the NHL scoring race, until he was surpassed by Ottawa Senators' captain, Daniel Alfredsson, who scored seven points in the final game before the All-Star break. He was named captain of the Eastern Conference at the 2008 NHL All Star Game. On April 3, 2008, Lecavalier suffered a dislocated shoulder in a 4–1 loss to the Washington Capitals as a result of a fall from a check from Capitals forward Matt Cooke, resulting in Lecavalier missing the final game of the season against the Atlanta Thrashers, where the team would lose 4–1 and undergoing surgery. He finished the season with 40 goals and 52 assists for 92 points in the first 81 games while the Lightning finished last in the NHL overall. At the awards show, Lecavalier was named the winner of both the King Clancy Memorial Trophy and the NHL Foundation Player Award for his tremendous charity work in the community. On July 12, 2008, Lecavalier agreed to an eleven-year, $85 million contract extension with the Lightning. His new contract began after the 2008–09 season, and ran through the 2019–20 season. He was renamed captain of the Tampa Bay Lightning on September 18, 2008. In mid-January 2009, rumours were swirling around a possible trade which would send Lecavalier to the Montreal Canadiens, his hometown, but Brian Lawton later stated that Lecavalier would rather stay in Tampa Bay for the rest of his career. Lecavalier confirmed in his own words his preference of playing in Tampa Bay over his native Montreal. On January 24, at the NHL's superskills competition, Lecavalier received the loudest ovation from the Montreal crowd when he was being introduced. After playing the first 77 games of the season and recording 29 goals and 38 assists for 67 points, Lecavalier underwent season-ending wrist surgery on April 3, 2009, causing him to miss the final five games of the season. On November 11, 2010, Lecavalier sustained a broken hand in a 6–3 loss to the Washington Capitals as he got tangled up along the boards with Capitals’ defenseman Karl Alzner, resulting in him undergoing surgery and missing the next 15 games. Lecavalier ended the 2010–11 season with 25 goals and 29 assists for 54 points in 65 games as the Lightning made a heavy resurgence as a team having finished the season as the fifth seed in the East and qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 2007 as a result. In the 2011 playoffs, Lecavalier and the Lighting recovered from a 3–1 series deficit in the first round against the fourth-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins and defeated them in seven games and would go on to sweep the top-seeded Washington Capitals in the second round before falling in the third round to the third-seeded and eventual Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins in seven games, one win short from clinching a spot the Stanley Cup Final. Lecavalier finished the playoffs with six goals and 13 assists for 19 points in all 18 games.
On February 18, 2012, Lecavalier sustained a broken hand in a 2–1 win against the Washington Capitals. While he managed to finish the game, he would ultimately miss the next 18 games due to the injury. He ultimately ended the 2011–12 season with 22 goals and 27 assists for 49 points in 64 games as the Lightning as a team struggled, missing the playoffs by eight points. On January 21, 2013, Lecavalier played in his 1000th NHL game in a 4–3 loss to the New York Islanders, becoming the 280th NHL player to reach that milestone. The team honoured him on January 25, their next home game, a 6–4 win against the Ottawa Senators, with several gifts including an engraved silver stick. On February 2, in a 3–2 loss to the New York Rangers, Lecavalier suffered a bruised foot as he was hit by a puck from a slapshot by teammate Sami Salo. This didn’t require him to miss anytime due to it but he eventually would suffer a broken foot on March 12, in a 3–2 win over the Florida Panthers as a result of a collision with Panthers defenseman Erik Gudbranson, causing him to miss nine games. He finished the lockout-shortened 2012–13 campaign with 32 points (10 goals and 22 assists) in 39 games as the Lightning as a team once again continued to struggle as they finished second-to-last in the Eastern Conference and the NHL overall. In June 2013, the New York Post reported that the Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs had discussed a trade which would have sent Lecavalier to Toronto; the Maple Leafs would receive an asset in exchange for buying out Lecavalier's contract and he would then be free to re-sign with Tampa as an unrestricted free agent at a lower salary cap hit. Though the Maple Leafs denied the report, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly promptly sent out a memo to all 30 league teams, warning them to avoid transactions deemed a circumvention of the collective bargaining agreement. The CBA prevents teams from re-signing players they've bought out for a minimum of one year. One day later, the Lightning announced that it was buying out Lecavalier's contract, allowing their longest serving player to become an unrestricted free agent. The buyout would pay Lecavalier a total of $32.67 million and rid the Lightning of his $7.727 million salary cap hit.
