Ten players have suited up for exactly one game as a Columbus Blue Jacket.
Each has his own unique story.
This is Sean Selmser’s.
He was a 26-year-old with a penchant for pugilism when he was called up from Syracuse to take the spot of Alex Selivanov in the Blue Jackets’ lineup during the team’s opening season.
He played one game in union blue, suiting up in his hometown of Calgary, and then returned to the minors, never to return to the Jackets – or the NHL – again.
He achieved his lifetime dream in perhaps its most limited form, but the reality as his hockey career fades into the rear view mirror: At least he made it.
“I guess I should have set my goal a little bit higher,” he told 1st Ohio Battery with a chuckle. “I should have set a goal to have a 10-year career as opposed to making the NHL, but at the end of the day it’s a dream realized and I loved every minute of it.”
Selmser’s journey began as a 5-year-old growing up in Calgary when he began playing the sport because his older neighbor did. It in many ways culminated March 27, 2001, when he skated onto the ice at the Calgary Saddledome wearing a Blue Jackets sweater with No. 36 and his name stitched onto the back.
| Name | Date | NHL games |
|---|---|---|
| Ted Drury | Oct. 9, 2000 | 414 |
| Sean Selmser | March 27, 2011 | 1 |
| Peter Sarno | Jan. 8, 2006 | 7 |
| Darcy Campbell | March 30, 2007 | 1 |
| Mike York | Dec. 20, 2008 | 579 |
| David LeNeveu | April 3, 2011 | 22 |
| Andrew Joudrey | Feb. 1, 2012 | 1 |
| Shawn Hunwick | April 7, 2012 | 1 |
| Michael Paliotta | Feb. 27, 2016 | 2 |
| John Ramage | March 17, 2016 | 2 |
He’d worn plenty of jerseys – the Red Deer Rebels, the Hampton Roads Admirals, the Portland Pirates, the Manitoba Moose, the Fort Wayne Komets, the Hamilton Bulldogs, the Syracuse Crunch and even Team Canada – before that night, but none was likely as special as that sweater with the bug on the shoulder.
A seventh-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1993 draft, Selmser joined an organization rich in success. The squad of Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr, Kevin Stevens and Rick Tocchet had lifted the Stanley Cup in 1991 and 1992, and Selmser believed he’d have the chance to join those lofty names some day.
It didn’t quite work out that way. He went to camp his draft year of 1993 before returning to Red Deer to post 50 points and 201 penalty minutes in 71 games. But there was no camp the next season because of a lockout, then injuries cut Selmser’s final season of junior hockey to just 33 games.
He played for such notable names as John Brophy and Barry Trotz in the minors and also played 101 games over two years with the Canadian national team before finally settling in at the AHL level. He played for Hamilton in 1999-2000 and then signed with Syracuse a year later when the Crunch became the Blue Jackets’ top farm team in the franchise’s inaugural year.
“Being an expansion team in Columbus and a bunch of us there in Syracuse that were all brand new to the organization like everybody was, there was a thought there was a better chance (for a callup) because it was up for grabs for everybody,” he said.
Sean Selmser (Elite Prospects)
Finally, his chance came in late March. With Selivanov nursing an injury and the team already without Geoff Sanderson, Espen Knutsen and Robert Kron, the team needed a forward on emergency recall, and Selmser was the choice.
He got the call at 10:30 p.m. the night before the game.
“I was about to go to sleep actually,” he said. “I was basically flying home the next morning to play in my hometown the next night against Calgary, which was cool. My parents got to come and see me play. Everybody got to see me play, really – family, friends – with the exception of my wife. We couldn’t get her out of Syracuse in time.”
Of course, getting from one side of the continent to the other wasn’t easy. Selmser flew out first thing in the morning and, short on sleep, arrived in Calgary and went straight from the airport to the arena. He arrived at the Saddledome just before the team did at 5 p.m.
“I didn’t even really know where to go,” he said. “They told me to put my gear down, gave me a tour around, the guys showed up and off we went.”
Making the occasion extra special was the fact Selmser joined a team with a head coach who knew what was up. Dave King, likely knowing that the new guy hailed from Calgary, made sure he was in the starting lineup for the game.
“Dave King, I certainly do believe he understood it was my hometown and he gave me that opportunity to start the game,” Selmser said. “I remember just standing on the blue line for the national anthem and just trying to stay within myself because part of it was really surreal and part of it was exciting, and I just wanted to enjoy every minute of it.
“I wasn’t under any false pretenses I was going to be there for the next 10 years, so I wanted to enjoy every minute of it and I think I did for the most part.”
From Serge Aubin to Tyler Wright, 18 Blue Jackets took the ice that night in front of Ron Tugnutt, and Selmser was one of them.
By the 10:16 mark of the game, he was on the score sheet.
At that point, Selmser dropped the gloves with Chris Clark. The irony, of course, is real, with Clark now serving as the team’s development coach.
“I was getting on the score sheet one way or another,” Selmser said with a laugh. “I wasn’t going to go around there and slash and whack guys and do too much, but I did want to make sure I got myself an opportunity there. It was Chris Clark who ended up fighting, and he was a lot more of a gamer than I actually thought. I didn’t think he’d be willing to fight, but I kind of pushed him a little bit and he was willing to go.
“The stupid thing is I didn’t tie down (the jersey). I think it was the only game out of almost 1,000 professional games I didn’t tie down. He was trying to pull my jersey off, but the ref let it go.”
By the time the game was over, Selmser had filled up the stat sheet as best he could. Fred Brathwaite shut out the Blue Jackets and Calgary took a 3-0 win behind goals from Clark, Valeri Bure and Jarome Iginla, but Clark skated 17 shifts over 11:03, had two shots and left with five penalty minutes.
“I would have liked to have scored,” he said. “I had a couple of shots on net, and there was a 2-on-1 where I had a pretty wide-open net but the pass never came to me. I would like to believe I would have been able to be a goal scorer in the NHL, but it never came to me.”
Selmser went on to accompany the Blue Jackets to Los Angeles for a game two days later, but Selivanov skated in pregame warm-ups and decided he was good to go, relegating Selmser to the bench. Shortly thereafter, he was returned to Syracuse.
It proved to be his final stint in the NHL and his penultimate year stateside. After one more season with Hamilton of the AHL, he left for Europe, where his career had stops in Scotland, Austria and England before he finally called it quits after the 2011-12 season.
When it was all said and done, he played 342 games in Austria, finishing with 107 goals, 180 assists and 644 penalty minutes. In the AHL, it was 233 goals, 83 points and 433 penalty minutes. In international play, another 121 games; in the WHL, 176 junior contests.
But now, the man who continues to work in the game and coaches his kids, is often remembered for just the one game he played in the NHL with a union blue sweater.
“There’s a lot of people who I grew up with who remember my name from minor hockey more than anything else,” he said. “The conversation always goes, they’ll always ask if I played in the NHL, and the one thing I can always say is ‘Yeah, I did.’
“I never got rich playing hockey, at least monetarily, but I had a lot of experiences. It was a pretty cool lifestyle for a good portion of my life. I have no regrets with it, that’s for sure.”
