About Rod Langway
Rodney Cory Langway (born May 3, 1957) is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman for 14 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals. He also played one season in the World Hockey Association (WHA) for the Birmingham Bulls. In his first season in the NHL, Langway won the Stanley Cup. He soon became known as a dominant shutdown defenseman, which started with the first of six straight NHL All-Star Game selections in 1980. A blockbuster trade in 1982 sent him to Washington, where he immediately became a franchise icon and earned the nickname "Secretary of Defense", which saw him play a key part in the team reaching the Stanley Cup playoffs in ten consecutive seasons after previously never reaching it in their history. He won the James Norris Memorial Trophy for his defensive play in 1982–83 and 1983–84 seasons. With his playing time declining at the start of the 1992–93 season, Langway left the team after 21 games and never played in the NHL again; he finished his career with 994 games played with 329 points. After his playing career ended, Langway spent time with teams in the American Hockey League (AHL) and East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) as a player-coach. Langway was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002. After not making the playoffs in their first eight seasons in the league, the Capitals competed in the postseason in every one of the 11 years that Langway was with the team. Langway won the Norris Trophy as the NHL's top defenseman in both 1983 and 1984. He won the 1979 Stanley Cup with the Canadiens. He earned two postseason All-Star first team selections and one Second Team selection as a defenseman—the first American NHL All-Star since Frank Brimsek in 1948.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.