A Flame From the Past: Steve Bégin

Do you remember Steve Bégin?

Every once in a while, we take a look at a player who once played for the Calgary Flames in a series called “A Flame From the Past”. This player has to have played a significant number of games for the Flames. I’ll put every Flames’ season into a Wheel of Names, and this time, it landed on the 2013-14 season. In this article, we’ll take a look at Steve Bégin.

Born in Trois-Rivières, Québec, which should really be called “Une rivière”, Bégin began his junior career with the Val-d’Or Foreurs in the Québec Maritimes Junior Hockey League in 1995-96. In his rookie season, which was also his draft year, Bégin scored 13 goals and 36 points in 64 points, amassing an incredible 218 penalty minutes. After a goal and four points in 13 post-season games, the Flames selected the winger 40th overall in the 1996 draft.

In his second junior year, Bégin scored 13 goals and 46 points in 58 games, with 207 penalty minutes. He added three assists in 10 QMJHL playoff games, before joining the American Hockey League’s Saint John Flames for their playoff push, picking up two assists in four games. 

Bégin’s opened the 1997-98 season with the Flames, picking up 23 penalty minutes in five games. However, he returned to the Foreurs in October and scored 18 goals and 35 points in 35 games. During the post-season, Bégin scored two goals and 14 points as the Foreurs won the Gilles-Courteau Trophy, falling short of the Memorial Cup.

His entirety of the 1998-98 season was spent with the Flames’ AHL team, scoring 11 goals and 20 points in 73 games. The 1999-2000 season saw Bégin play 13 National Hockey League games, scoring his first career goal and picking up an assist. In the minors, the winger scored 13 goals and 25 points in 47 games. 

Like the two years before, Bégin’s 2000-01 season was almost exclusively spent in the AHL, scoring 14 goals and 28 points in 58 games. He helped the baby Flames win the Calder Cup, as he potted 10 goals and 17 points in 19 games. Additionally, he won the AHL’s Jack A. Butterfield Trophy, the MVP of the post-season.

After that, Bégin became an NHL regular. In 2001-02, the winger scored seven goals and 12 points in 51 games. He followed that up with three goals and four points in 50 games in 2002-03, his final season in Calgary for 10 years.

Early in the 2003 off-season, Bégin was traded to the Buffalo Sabres in the deal that brought in our very own Rhett Warrener. Bégin never played for the Sabres, as his home province Montréal Canadiens claimed him off waivers. In his first season, Bégin scored 10 goals and 15 points, but returned to the AHL the following season due to the 2004-05 lockout.

The 2005-06 season was Bégin’s best, as he scored a career-high 11 goals and 23 points in 76 games. It was the first time he had played more than 55 games, and the final time he’d reach the double-digit goal mark. He regressed the following season, scoring five goals and 10 points in 52 games.

In Bégin’s final two seasons as a Canadien, he scored three goals and eight points in 44 points in 2007-08 and then six goals and 10 points in 42 games before before being traded to the Dallas Stars. With the Stars, Bégin added another goal and an assist in 20 games to give him seven goals and 12 points in 62 games.

After the 2008-09 season, Bégin signed with Boston Bruins, scoring five goals and 14 points in 77 games, the most games he played in a single season. Unfortunately, he joined the Bruins just one year before they won it all. Most of his 2010-11 season was spent with the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL, but he did appear in two games for their parent company, the Nashville Predators.

Bégin didn’t play during the 2011-12 season due to hip surgery, but he returned to where it all began for the 2012-13 season, the Flames. In 36 games during the lockout season, the Trois-Rivières native scored four goals and eight points in 36 games, his final action. After another injury, Bégin retired in early 2014.