Savage, former NHL forward for Capitals, Nordiques, dies at 53

Reginald Savage's NHL career was brief, but historic.

The forward from Montreal scored his first NHL goal on a penalty shot against Minnesota North Stars goalie Jon Casey at 17:30 of the second period in a 5-4 Minnesota win at Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland, on Nov. 18, 1992.

The stick Savage used is in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Former teammates, however, said they'll always remember him more for a personality that lit up a locker room.

"If you find pictures of Reggie, there's nothing but smiles, I mean a million-dollar smile," said Alan May, a Capitals TV analyst who was Savage's teammate in 1991-92. "Everything about him was incredibly likeable."

Savage died on Dec. 24 in Florida at the age of 53 after battling cancer, family members said on Thursday.

"Up until the last minute, he worked hard to stay alive," his sister, Sonia Savage, said. "He didn't want to quit. He kept trying and trying. He had pain but he always said, 'We'll be okay, we'll be okay.' But he didn't make it."

Washington selected Savage in the first round (No. 15) of the 1988 NHL Draft. He was a gifted scorer whose 139 points (82 goals, 57 assists) in 42 games in 1986-87 helped guide Richelieu
to the Air Canada Cup (now the Telus Cup), Canada's Under-18 national championship.

He had 19 points (10 goals, nine assists) in nine games and was named the tournament's most valuable player.

Savage had 329 points (177 goals, 152 assists) in 185 games with Victoriaville of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

He was Canada's second-leading scorer at the 1989 IIHF World Junior Championship with nine points (four goals, five assists) in seven games on a team that included future NHL players Rod Brind'Amour, Mike Ricci, Martin Gelinas and Eric Desjardins.

"As a minor hockey player, he was one of the best in the world," said John Paris Jr., who coached Savage in Richelieu and with Atlanta of the International Hockey League in 1995-96. "He was an elite player. The only thing you can really say about Reggie was that he loved the game. He was passionate about it."

Sonia Savage said her brother was all hockey, all the time growing up.

"It was his life," she said. "He trained every day, ate what he had to eat. He'd never go out. He never took anything. He only wanted to be a hockey player. He did all the sacrifices he had to do."

But Savage's road to the NHL wasn't a smooth one. He experienced racism on the ice and from fans in the stands in Quebec, Paris said.

"My father always told him, 'It's not because you're Black, it's because you're good,'" Sonia Savage said. "Sometimes, he would need security to get out of the arena. There was a lot of stuff that happened to him that we didn't know about it because he never complained. Reggie, he did what he had to do."

Savage's NHL career was short. He played 17 games for the Capitals from 1990-93 and 17 for the Quebec Nordiques in 1993-94. He had 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in 34 NHL games.

"He was a really good hockey player," May said. "Why he never played long-term? I don't know. What happens is sometimes guys are in the wrong places at the wrong times. We had Dino Ciccarelli, an absolute weapon Hall of Famer, and we had Peter Bondra. Reggie, he's the kind of guy that needs to play in the top six."

Savage is among 11 Black players in Capitals history who are honored in a permanent display that was placed in Capital One Arena in February 2022.

Savage enjoyed a long professional career playing in the IHL, American Hockey League, ECHL, United Hockey League and in Italy and Switzerland until 2004-05. He scored 442 points in 481 AHL games, including scoring 30 or more goals six times in 10 seasons.

"For me, for my son, for my family, he's an example, a role model," his sister said. "Yes, we were, and we are very proud of him."