Kevin Stevens, who joined Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr in leading the Pittsburgh Penguins to two Stanley Cup titles in the early 1990s, was charged in federal court Thursday with conspiring to sell oxycodone, a highly addictive opioid painkiller. The Boston Globe reports that Stevens, 51, and another man, Christopher Alonardo, will be held until a detention hearing on Tuesday.
At 6 feet 3 and 230 pounds, Stevens was known for his scoring prowess and physical presence. He had 54 goals and 254 penalty minutes in 1991-92, becoming one of only four NHL players to accumulate at least 50 goals and 200 penalty minutes in a single season (Keith Tkachuk, Brendan Shanahan and Gary Roberts are the others). The Boston-area native also was durable: During the Penguins’ back-to-back Stanley Cup runs from 1990 to 1992, he was the only Pittsburgh player to see the ice in every regular season and playoff game.
But that durability was challenged in May 1993 during a game against the New York Islanders, when Stevens went in for a hit on Rich Pilon, instead making contact with his visor and then hitting his face on the ice. He shattered most of the bones in his face; doctors repaired them with metal plates.
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Stevens played in 83 games the next season and scored 41 goals, but his production declined thereafter. He bounced around the league, first to the Bruins, then to the Kings and the Rangers, with whom he was playing in January 2000 when he was arrested east of St. Louis and charged with felony cocaine possession after police found him smoking crack with a prostitute at a hotel. He also combated alcoholism throughout his playing days.
“One day at a time,” Stevens told the Globe in May 2001, one year after his arrest. “I think how that sounds and, you know, I laugh a little bit. But that’s where it is for me right now. I’m sober, and I know I’ll do my best today, and I’ll do my best tomorrow. And if you ask me, ‘Kevin, are you going to be sober 30 years from now?’ I mean, 30 years . . . just saying that makes me want to throw up. That’s a whole other lifetime.”
Stevens’s attorney told the Globe that his client remains wracked by “injuries, pain, and other challenges,” but that he expects to contest the charges.
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