Former Penguins forward Conor Sheary got his career back on track with the Capitals
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At one time, it might have been a bizarre sight.
Conor Sheary and Tom Wilson, locked arm in arm.
The two Washington Capitals forwards sat next to one another in the visiting dressing room at PPG Paints Arena after Saturday’s morning skate and, in jest, pretended to pose with their arms slung over each other’s shoulders for a photo as a reporter hovered nearby.
Sheary, listed as an alleged 5-foot-9 and 179 pounds, and Wilson, at a blunt 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, represent the opposite ends of the Capitals’ roster from the perspective of dimensions.
More than half a decade ago, that size discrepancy led to Sheary, then a member of the rival Pittsburgh Penguins, being shaken up after a knee-on-knee hit by Wilson in Game 3 of a second-round postseason series during the 2016 playoffs.
Today, Sheary is grateful to be a member of the Capitals and to be Wilson’s teammate.
“I’ve really enjoyed my time here,” Sheary said. “I’ll be grateful for the opportunities that I’ve always gotten here.”
Sheary, a key component of the Penguins’ Stanley Cup championship teams in 2016 and 2017, was traded to the Buffalo Sabres in the 2018 offseason in a transaction that primarily was geared toward finding salary cap relief. After parts of two poor seasons with the wretched Sabres, he was traded back to the Penguins by February 2020.
But a few weeks later, the pandemic shut down the NHL (to say nothing of every other walk of life, essentially), and Sheary’s second tenure in Pittsburgh came to a conclusion by that August as the Penguins were eliminated from the so-called “bubble” playoffs — staged in a quarantined zone within Toronto — in the qualifying round.
Without much momentum in his sagging career and plenty of uncertainty given the NHL’s economics because of covid-19, Sheary, then an unrestricted free agent, did not find a new gig until December 2020, a few weeks before the shortened 2020-21 season began in January 2021. The Capitals offered him a one-year deal for $735,000, a slight bump over the then-league minimum of $700,000.
“When I was traded to Buffalo, I was bummed to leave (Pittsburgh),” Sheary said. “I went there (with) a team that didn’t have much success and out of the playoffs both years. When I was there, it seemed like it was hard to create traction. You just get in your own head about certain things. I got an opportunity to come here. The coaching staff, management and my teammates have given me all great opportunities.”
Those opportunities have manifested themselves into steadier production after bouncing between Buffalo and Pittsburgh for the second time. In all three of his seasons with the Capitals, including the ongoing campaign, he has had at least 14 goals.
“He was looking for a place to come and get going again,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “Just through every day that he came to the rink in his business-like approach and his work in practice and his speed and competitiveness, he’s an easy guy to like in your lineup. He really hasn’t disappointed his whole time here.
“He’s been steady with his game, his work ethic. He’s helped this team be successful. He’s helped (his) line be successful out on the ice. He plays all positions on all different lines. He’s contributed in a lot of different ways. He’s been on the power play, he’s part of the penalty kill now. “You’re talking about a guy who does an awful lot of work for us and we’ve been really happy with the work that he’s done.”
That satisfaction was apparent early in Sheary’s tenure with Washington as he was given a two-year contract extension — the second such multi-year NHL contract he has ever received — in April 2021.
Considering his professional existence began with an AHL contract with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the significance of a multi-year NHL deal isn’t lost upon the 30-year-old Sheary, a pending unrestricted free agent this summer.
“I was undrafted,” said Sheary, a product of the University of Massachusetts. “I was kind out of a smaller school. It was tough to get noticed for a lot of my time there. To be able to come on an AHL deal and prove myself right away and get that NHL deal, it was something that I dreamed of. To play this long was never in my dreams, I don’t think.
“Never take a day for granted while you’re here.”