Associated Press article
September 19, 2004
Steve Yzerman’s reign as the longest serving captain in NHL history is not over yet.
The Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday re-signed Yzerman to a one-year contract, ensuring the veteran center his 19th year as team captain.
Financial terms were not disclosed for Yzerman, who made $5,849,823 last season.
Captain of the Red Wings since 1986-87, Yzerman recorded 18 goals and 33 assists in 75 games last season. He added three goals and two assists in 11 playoff contests before suffering an eye injury that kept him out of Detroit’s final postseason game against Calgary.
2004 Yzerman interview with Visit Detroit Magazine
Few men are as synonymous with a city as Steve Yzerman is with Detroit. He arrived in metro Detroit from Canada in 1983, joining a franchise long removed from glory, and has been the team’s captain since 1986. Since then, he has stood at the forefront as the team has come to represent the very finest metro Detroit has to offer. The Red Wings won their first Stanley Cup in 42 years when they claimed the championship in 1997, and went on to win it again in 1998 and 2002. (The Wings have celebrated at total of 10 Stanley Cup victories over the years.)
Like the city that is known world wide by a simple shorthand moniker, “The Motor City” (and sometimes “Hockeytown”), Yzerman, 38, is known around Detroit simply by his nickname, “Stevie.” Wanting to learn a bit more about this somewhat private but still fascinating captain of the Red Wings, we sat down with him to find out what he likes about both the area and playing for perhaps the most – respected team in hockey.
Visit Detroit: What would you tell a player who is considering joining the Red Wings?
Yzerman: I’d tell him the same thing I tell a new guy whenever he comes in: This is a great area to live. There are excellent schools, and it’s especially a great area to live if you have children who are into sports. The minor hockey community here is as good as anywhere. I always use the example of Chris Chelios – he and his family came here from Chicago, and his kids are very active in sports and they really enjoy it here.
Visit Detrot: Where did you go after the Wings won the Stanley Cup?
Yzerman: We’ve won twice at home and we’ve gone to different places. In ’97, we went to Big Daddy’s Parthenon in West Bloomfield and had a great time. The last time around, in 2002, we went to Sangria in Royal Oak.
Visit Detroit: How has Detroit changed for the better since you first moved to the area?
Yzerman: I don’t know that it’s dramatically changed. The Tigers have a new ballpark (Comerica Park), and the Lions are back downtown again in a new stadium (For Field), so we’re really starting to see downtown come back, and I’m hoping we’ll see it pick up even more. To me, the most amazing thing is how the suburbs keep growing, keep stretching out even farther.
Visit Detroit: Do you live in the metro area year round? What do you like about your community?
Yzerman: I have a home on a lake in Ontario, Canada, so I spend quite a bit of time there during summer. The rest of the year, I live in Bloomfield Hills. I love it because it’s real quiet, almost like a small town. It’s close to the golf course I like to play, which is nice. It’s just a very quiet area, and I can get anywhere I need to go in a short amount of time without any major traffic tie-ups, and the kids go to school right around the corner, so it’s great.
Visit Detroit: When you have visitors from out of town, where do you take them?
Yzerman: My wife takes them shopping at the Somerset Collection in Troy. Depending on what season it is, I try to take people to a sporting event – either a Pistons game at the Palace, a Lions game or a Tigers game. I’m really into sporting events, and I try to see as many as possible live.
Visit Detroit: Where is your favorite place to watch sports?
Yzerman: In Detroit, I really like all the new stadiums, and I still consider the Palace relatively new. They’ve all done a really nice job. I went to my first ever college game last year in East Lansing, to Spartan Stadium. That was a great experience. In the future I plan on spending a lot more time at college games – usually during the season, if we’ve had a Saturday off in the fall, I’ve been to lazy to go anywhere and I’ll just watch the games on TV. But I definitely want to go the Big House (Michigan Stadium) in Ann Arbor at some point; I’ve heard that’s a great place for atmosphere.
Visit Detroit: What do you think makes Detroit such a great sports town?
Yzerman: I think the people in Detroit are hardworking people who not only are fans of sports, but also play a lot of sports. Any sport here does well, - golf, college basketball, auto racing – all are supported well, and I think it’s because people are active and involved themselves.
Visit Detroit: Besides the Wings, do you have a favorite local team?
Yzerman: I like all sports. The majority of television that I watch is sporting events. Pretty much ever since I moved here, I like to see how the Tigers, Lions and Pistons are doing. I follow them regardless of winning and losing, just to see what’s happening.
Visit Detroit: What is your favorite restaurant?
Yzerman: I have at least four or five, and I can’t really say one more than the other. We go out to eat a lot, and there are a lot of great restaurants in the area. I like Andiamo’s on Telegraph at Maple (15 Mile) a lot for Italian.
Visit Detroit: Do you have a favorite coffee shop?
Yzerman: Not really. I spread them out – I have about four different routes I take down to Joe Louis Arena, and I’ve got a Starbucks mapped out on every one. There’s a place called Deli Unique on Woodward Avenue that I like to stop at for breakfast if I get up early enough before going down for practice. There’s a little place called Toast, on Woodward and Nine Mile, which I like a lot.
Visit Detroit: Where do you like to shop?
Yzerman: I don’t really do a whole lot of shopping. My wife goes to Somerset Collection, and she also likes the stores in downtown Birmingham.
Visit Detroit: You took home the Stanley Cup in the back seat of your Porsche after the ’97 championship. What else do you like to drive around the Motor City?
Yzerman: My favorite is my Yukon XL Denali.
Visit Detroit: You’re a big golfer – how would you rate the local courses?
Yzerman: I’m a member at Oakland Hills Country Club, and they’ve got a great course. It’s my favorite place to play. There are several places around the area, really too many to name. I think if you take the whole state, the courses here are as good as anywhere in the country.
Visit Detroit: What are some of your favorite moments from playing hockey?
Yzerman: I’m fortunate to have quite a few now. Winning the Stanley Cup in ’97 was fantastic, and then we won it again in ’98, and in 2002. Those three, and then being part of the Canadian Team at the Salt Lake Winter Games that won the Olympic gold medal.
Visit Detroit: How do you see the upcoming season shaping up?
Yzerman: I think we have a good chance. We’ve made some changes, and I feel we are a legitimate contender, something I’ve felt we’ve been every season for the past few years. There’s a chance our roster may still change a bit before the playoffs, so I wouldn’t make any big conclusions, no great assumptions. But with the addition of Derian Hatcher and with big Jiri Fischer coming back, I think we’ll have a much better defensive team.
Visit Detroit: Right now, you’re Steve Yzerman, longtime captain of the Detroit Red Wings. Could you ever picture yourself as Steve Yzerman, mayor of Detroit?
Yzerman: Hmm, I don’t know if I’ll be mayor of Detroit. I’m not quite sure what qualifications you need for that.
Visit Detroit: How about Steve Yzerman, Red Wings general manager, then?
Yzerman: I’d like to stay in the organization and work in management in some position. I enjoy the game of hockey outside of playing it, and I’d be happy to stay in it after I retire from playing. I’ve always said I don’t want to be a coach, but these days being a general manager is a 12 – month job, so I might lean in the coaching direction just so I’d get some time off to play golf.
The Oakland Press article
May 8, 2004
by Paula Pasche
While Steve Yzerman is dealing with a smashed cheekbone and a torn iris in his left eye, the Red Wings captain has a vision for the future.
First of all, he’s not done playing hockey.
“At this stage, I would say I’d like to play again. There’s just a lot of uncertainty,” Yzerman said following the team-photo session Friday. “There’s going to be changes with our team. I don’t know what’s going to happen with the CBA (collective bargaining agreement). That might be the biggest issue, not just myself but with others.”
The collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and the players’ association expires Sept. 15, and a lockout could mean the end of careers, especially for veteran players.
Yzerman doesn’t rule out that scenario. If the lockout goes longer than a year, he might never play again.
“It doesn’t help you, at 39, to take a whole year off and not do anything,” he said. “Assuming you take really good care of yourself, you can miss a year and play. Beyond a year, it’s time to look to do something else.”
MLive.com article
May 3, 2004
by Ansar Khan
After undergoing 4 1/2 hours of surgery Saturday night to repair multiple fractures to his orbital bone, Detroit Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman, who also suffered a scratched cornea during Saturday’s playoff game against Calgary, asked if he could join the team Sunday for its flight to Calgary.
The answer, obviously, was no. But the gesture was inspiring.
“That goes to show you what he’s all about,” teammate Darren McCarty said.
The Wings said Yzerman will be out indefinitely — it’s hard to imagine any scenario in which he could return in these playoffs — but the good news is he is expected to make a full recovery.
Associated Press article
April 24, 2004
by Larry Lage
Steve Yzerman pumped his fist and screamed with joy as his adoring fans went wild. All was well in Hockeytown thanks to “The Captain.” Yzerman scored twice 2:13 apart in the second period to give Detroit a three-goal lead, and the Red Wings defeated Calgary 5-2 Saturday in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinal.
“It’s amazing how much energy you have after scoring goals,” Yzerman said.
He would know.
Yzerman has a franchise-record 70 playoff goals and 181 points in his 20 seasons with the Red Wings. In regular-season games, he’s the sixth-leading scorer in NHL history.
One of the game’s greatest centers was moved to right wing Saturday and put on the “Grind Line” with center Kris Draper and left wing Kirk Maltby.
“They played together at some point in the season,” Detroit coach Dave Lewis said. “Draper and Maltby, with their speed, and Stevie, with his smarts and hands, they find a way to generate offense.”
NHL.com article
April 16, 2004
by Karl Samuelson
Steve Yzerman has lined up at center ice as team captain more often than any other player in NHL history. Only 21-years-old when he was made the captain of the Detroit Red Wings, Yzerman’s leadership tenure is as much about quality as quantity.
When Detroit needed a goal scorer, Yzerman scored at a torrid pace, notching 50 or more goals five times and twice reaching the 60-goal plateau. When the team needed a playmaker, he turned other players into marksmen. When it came time to win the Stanley Cup, Yzerman led the way with his unparalleled work ethic and ability to come through at the most critical moments of the game.
“The whole franchise was really on his shoulders when he got here (in 1983)” says Detroit General Manager Ken Holland. “Steve entered the League as a highly productive, offensive talent and made his mark with offensive statistics. There were some tough seasons here in Detroit, but he put the whole franchise on his back and carried it. Steve was the first (player) to totally change his game and went from being the offensive guy to being the best two-way centerman in the NHL. Once your leader changes his game for the good of the team, then everybody else follows suit.”
Detroit Free Press article
February 11, 2004
by Helene St. James
Now appearing for the Red Wings: It’s captain Metal Mouth.
Steve Yzerman showed up for Tuesday’s practice complete with braces after spending most of the previous day at the dentist, getting his grin back on track. Yzerman lost one lower front tooth, and four other teeth were knocked back when he was whacked in the mouth last Thursday during a 3-2 overtime victory at Colorado.
Yzerman was injured with 1.6 seconds left in regulation when defenseman Adam Foote attempted to use his stick to lift Yzerman’s stick and missed, hitting Yzerman. He needed stitches to close a cut across his upper lip, and spent the All-Star weekend break in pain because of the dislocated teeth.
“In general, I feel pretty good now,” Yzerman said.
“Having these braces on, actually it feels a lot better. It’s kind of stabilizing.”
ESPN.com sports ticker
Steve Yzerman has yet to play a game this season, but the veteran is still motivating the Red Wings.
The captain skated Tuesday morning, the first time he’s hit the ice since undergoing surgery on his right knee during the offseason, the Detroit Free Press reported Wednesday.
“Totally shocked and surprised me,” a smiling Wings coach Dave Lewis told the newspaper. “I actually told him he looked like he was moving a bit better than he did last year in the playoffs.”
Yzerman, playing it down, went out and skated by himself for about 15 minutes.
“I didn’t really do a whole lot,” Yzerman told the Press. “I didn’t even break a sweat, just skated, just put my equipment on basically. So there wasn’t really much of a test of anything.”
MLive.com
November 17, 2003
by Ansar Khan
When doctors took a saw to Steve Yzerman’s right knee some 15 months ago, realigning the bones in a rare surgical procedure for a professional athlete, it was believed to be the beginning of the end for the Detroit Red Wings captain.
Instead, it seems to have led to a rebirth because Yzerman doesn’t resemble a player on his last leg.
From his winning goal with 1.7 seconds to play in the season-opener against Los Angeles to his clutch third-period game-tying goal at Minnesota on Saturday, Yzerman has been perhaps the team’s most valuable player, certainly its best forward. Had he retired after last season, this club might be in dire straits right now. But a long summer apparently is just what he needed to re-energize.
“Maybe he’s got some of Igor Larionov’s red wine,” Wings coach Dave Lewis said, referring to the beverage the former Wing often cited as his fountain of youth. “(Yzerman) has such inner strength and inner focus, when he comes to the rink he comes to play. He has such a high standard that anything else is unacceptable.”
Detroit News column
by Jerry Green
They are hockey players , and they play under a code that they do not share with the athletes in other sports. They ignore a hangnail or a sliced face or a fractured leg or a ruptured knee, and keep going. It is not that the athletes in football and the other collision sports are wimps. It is that the hockey players have learned their sport on a frozen, hard surface wearing razor blades on their feet, with clubs in their hands. Playing with damaged body parts is ingrained in their minds — and hearts.
Steve Yzerman will be playing as captain of the Wings in April when the playoffs start. My estimate, without any medical background, is 95 percent. He will be playing despite the doom-saying surgeons who operated on his terribly torn knee and then said he had just a 50-50 chance.
They operated on his knee, but they didn’t touch his heart . He played powered by that heart last spring when he led the Red Wings to the Stanley Cup on a crippled knee that buckled and ached. “What’s inside is more important than what’s outside,” Wings Coach Dave Lewis said.
That is the code.
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