SI.com column
July 27, 2006
by Michael Farber
I don’t necessarily want to start a tribute with bathroom material, but this story must be told:
A short time after Detroit Red Wings general manager Jim Devellano had trudged up to the podium to announce that he was pleased to select Steve Yzerman with the fourth pick in the 1983 entry draft, he was in a restroom at the Montreal Forum muttering imprecations about the hockey gods and the New York Islanders, who, one spot ahead of the Red Wings, had snatched an honest-to-goodness Detroiter, Pat LaFontaine, the perfect fit, a man-child seemingly capable of resuscitating his moribund hometown franchise. (Over the years Devellano has steadfastly denied that the Wings preferred LaFontaine to Yzerman, but I was in the room. I was, er, privy to his thinking.)
