St. Louis Blues
The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team in St. Louis, Missouri, they are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League. The Blues play their home games at the 19,150-seat Enterprise Center in downtown St. Louis. Enterprise Center is the second home arena of the Blues, with the team first playing at St. Louis Arena from 1967 to 1994; the team is named after the famous W. C. Handy song "Saint Louis Blues"; the franchise was founded in 1967 as an expansion team during the league's 1967 NHL Expansion, which expanded the NHL from 6 teams to 12. The Blues are the oldest active NHL team never to have won the Stanley Cup, although they played in the Stanley Cup Finals three times, in 1968, 1969 and 1970; the Blues share a rivalry with the Chicago Blackhawks, contesting the same division since 1970. The team has two minor league affiliates: the San Antonio Rampage of the American Hockey League and the Tulsa Oilers of the ECHL; the Blues were one of the six teams added to the NHL in the 1967 expansion, along with the Minnesota North Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, California Seals.
St. Louis was the last of the six expansion teams to gain entry into the League; the Black Hawks' owners, James D. Norris and Arthur Wirtz owned the decrepit St. Louis Arena, they sought to unload the arena, which had not been well-maintained since the 1940s, thus pressed the NHL to give the franchise to St. Louis, which had not submitted a formal expansion bid. NHL president Clarence Campbell said during the 1967 expansion meetings, "We want a team in St. Louis because of the city's geographical location and the fact that it has an adequate building."The team's first owners were insurance tycoon Sid Salomon Jr. his son, Sid Salomon III, Robert L. Wolfson, who were granted the franchise in 1966. Sid Salomon III convinced his wary father to make a bid for the team. Former St. Louis Cardinals great Stan Musial and Musial's business partner Julius "Biggie" Garagnani were members of the 16-man investment group that made the initial formal application for the franchise. Garagnani would never see the Blues franchise take the ice, as he died from a heart attack on June 19, 1967, less than three months before the Blues played their first preseason game.
Upon acquiring the franchise in 1966, Salomon spent several million dollars on extensive renovations for the 38-year-old arena, which increased the number of seats from 12,000 to 15,000. The Blues were coached by Lynn Patrick, who resigned in late November after recording a 4–13–2 record, he was replaced by assistant coach Scotty Bowman, who thereafter led the team to a winning record for the rest of the season. Although the League's rules kept star players with the original six teams, the Blues managed to stand out in the inferior Western Division. Capitalizing on a playoff format that required an expansion team to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, the Blues reached the Stanley Cup Finals in each of their first three seasons, though they were swept first by the Montreal Canadiens in 1968 and 1969 by the Boston Bruins in 1970. While the first Blues teams included aging and fading veterans like Doug Harvey, Don McKenney and Dickie Moore, the goaltending tandem of veterans Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante proved more durable, winning a Vezina Trophy in 1969 behind a sterling defense that featured players like skilled defensive forward Jim Roberts, team captain Al Arbour and hardrock brothers Bob and Barclay Plager.
Phil Goyette won the Lady Byng Trophy for the Blues in 1970 and New York Rangers castoff Red Berenson became the expansion team's first major star at center. The arena became one of the loudest buildings in the NHL, a reputation it maintained throughout its tenure as the Blues' home. During that time, Salomon gained a reputation throughout the NHL as the top players' owner, he gave his players cars, signed them to deferred contracts and treated them to vacations in Florida. The players, used to being treated like mere commodities, felt the only way they could pay him back was to give their best on the ice every night; the Blues' successes in the late 1960s, did not continue into the 1970s, as the Stanley Cup playoff format changed and the Chicago Black Hawks were moved into the Western Division. The Blues lost Bowman, who joined the Montreal Canadiens following a power-sharing dispute with Sid Salomon III, as well as Hall, Plante and Berenson, who were all lost to retirement or trade; the Berenson trade, did bring then-Detroit Red Wings star center Garry Unger, who scored 30 goals in eight consecutive seasons while breaking the NHL's consecutive games played record.
Defensively, the Blues were less than stellar and saw Chicago and the Philadelphia Flyers overtake the Division. After missing the playoffs for the first time in 1973–74, the Blues ended up in the Smythe Division after a League realignment; this division was weak, in 1976–77, the Blues won it while finishing five games below.500, though this would be their last playoff appearance in the decade. In the meantime, the franchise was on the brink of financial collapse; this was due to the pressures of the World Hockey Association, but the result of financial decisions made when the Salomons first acquired the franchise. Deferred contracts came due. At one point, the Salomons cut the team's staff down to three employees. One of them was Emile Francis, who served as team president, general manager and head coach, who convinced then-chairman R. Hal Dean of the St. Louis
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, by total population the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term'Ukrainians' to all its citizens; the people of Ukraine have been known as "Rusyns" and "Cossacks", among others. According to most dictionary definitions, a descriptive name for the "inhabitants of Ukraine" is Ukrainian or Ukrainian people; the ethnonym Ukrainians became accepted only in the 20th century after their territory obtained distinctive statehood in 1917. From the 14th to the 16th centuries, the Western portions of the European part of what is now known as Russia, the territories of northern Ukraine and Belarus were known as Rus', continuing the tradition of Kievan Rus'. People of these territories were called Rus or Rusyns; the Ukrainian language appeared in the 14th – 16th centuries, but at that time, it was known as Ruthenian, like its brothers. In the 16th – 17th centuries, with the establishment of the Zaporizhian Sich, the notion of Ukraine as a separate country with a separate ethnic identity came into being.
However, the ethnonym Ukrainians and the linguonym Ukrainian were used only and the people of Ukraine continued to call themselves and their language Ruthenian. After the decline of the Zaporizhian Sich and the establishment of Imperial Russian hegemony in Ukraine, Ukrainians became more known by the Russian regional name, Little Russians, with the majority of Ukrainian élites espousing Little Russian identity; this official name did not spread among the peasantry which constituted the majority of the population. Ukrainian peasants still referred to their country as Ukraine and to themselves and their language as Ruthenians/Ruthenian. With the publication of Ivan Kotliarevsky's Eneyida in 1798, which established the modern Ukrainian language, with the subsequent Romantic revival of national traditions and culture, the ethnonym Ukrainians and the notion of a Ukrainian language came into more prominence at the beginning of the 19th century and replaced the words "Rusyns" and "Ruthenian". In areas outside the control of the Russian/Soviet state until the mid-20th century, Ukrainians were known by their pre-existing names for much longer.
The appellation Ukrainians came into common usage in Central Ukraine and did not take hold in Galicia and Bukovyna until the latter part of the 19th century, in Transcarpathia until the 1930s, in the Prešov Region until the late 1940s. The modern name ukrayintsi derives from Ukrayina, a name first documented in 1187. Several scientific theories attempt to explain the etymology of the term. According to the traditional theory, it derives from the Proto-Slavic root *kraj-, which has two meanings, one meaning the homeland as in "nash rodnoi kraj", the other "edge, border", had the sense of "periphery", "borderland" or "frontier region" etc. According to some new alternative Ukrainian historians such as Hryhoriy Pivtorak, Vitaly Sklyarenko and other scholars, translate the term "u-kraine" as "in-land", "home-land" or "our-country"; the name in this context derives from the word "u-kraina" in the sense of "domestic region", "domestic land" or "country". In the last three centuries the population of Ukraine experienced periods of Polonization and Russification, but preserved a common culture and a sense of common identity.
Most ethnic Ukrainians live in Ukraine. The largest population of Ukrainians outside of Ukraine lives in Russia where about 1.9 million Russian citizens identify as Ukrainian, while millions of others have some Ukrainian ancestry. The inhabitants of the Kuban, for example, have vacillated among three identities: Ukrainian, "Cossack". 800,000 people of Ukrainian ancestry live in the Russian Far East in an area known as "Green Ukraine". According to some previous assumptions, an estimated number of 2.4 million people of Ukrainian origin live in North America. Large numbers of Ukrainians live in Brazil, Moldova, Italy, Uzbekistan, the Czech Republic and Romania. There are large Ukrainian communities in such countries as Latvia, France, Paraguay, the UK, Slovakia, Austria and the former Yugoslavia; the Ukrainian diaspora is present in more than one hundred and twenty countries of the world. The number of Ukrainians in Poland amounted to some 51,000 people in 2011. Since 2014, the country has experienced a large increase in immigration from Ukraine.
More recent data put the number of Ukrainian workers at 1.2 – 1.3 million in 2016. In the last decades of the 19th century, many Ukrainians were forced by the Tsarist autocracy to move to the Asian regions of Russia, while many of their counterpart Slavs under Austro-Hungarian rule emigrated to the New World seeking work and better economic opportunities. Today
Western Hockey League
The Western Hockey League is a major junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League as the highest level of junior hockey in Canada. Teams play for the Ed Chynoweth Cup, with the winner moving on to play for the Memorial Cup, Canada's national junior championship. WHL teams have won the Memorial Cup 19 times since the league became eligible to compete for the trophy. Many players have been drafted from WHL teams, have found success at various levels of professional hockey, including the National Hockey League; the league was founded in 1966, as the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League, with seven western Canadian teams in Saskatchewan and Alberta. From 1967, the league was renamed the Western Canada Hockey League, before the admission of American based teams in the league and renaming as the Western Hockey League commencing in 1978, up to present day; the league was the brainchild of Bill Hunter, who intended to build a western league capable of competing with the top leagues in Ontario and Quebec.
Considered an "outlaw league" by the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, the WCHL was sanctioned as the top junior league in Western Canada when junior hockey was reorganized in 1970. Today, the WHL comprises 22 teams, divided into two conferences of two divisions; the Eastern Conference comprises 12 teams from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, while the Western Conference comprises ten teams from British Columbia, the US states of Washington and Oregon. Despite winning the 1966 Memorial Cup, the Edmonton Oil Kings' owner, Bill Hunter, was growing concerned about the state of junior hockey in western Canada; each of the West's four provinces had its own junior league, Hunter felt that this put them at a disadvantage when competing nationally against the powerful leagues in Ontario and Quebec. Desiring stronger competition, Hunter's Oil Kings competed in the Alberta Senior Hockey League rather than the Alberta Junior Hockey League; the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association informed the Oil Kings that they were required to play in a junior hockey league for the 1966–67 season or would be held ineligible to compete for the Memorial Cup.
This led Hunter to form a new league with five former members of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, the Estevan Bruins, Regina Pats, Saskatoon Blades, Moose Jaw Canucks, Weyburn Red Wings, to leave the SJHL and join the Oil Kings and the Calgary Buffaloes in a new league known as the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League. Despite concerns that this new league would see the demise of the Alberta and Saskatchewan leagues, the governing bodies in both provinces sanctioned the new league; the CAHA did not, declaring the CMJHL to be an "outlaw league" and suspending all teams and players from participation in CAHA sanctioned events. The new league accused the CAHA of overstepping its boundaries and with the support of the players and their families, chose to play the season regardless; the new league deliberately avoided including the term "Western" in its moniker, as some of its founders wanted to keep open the possibility of inviting top Eastern junior clubs to join in a national elite junior league in case negotiations with the CAHA reached a complete impasse.
The CMJHL renamed itself the Western Canada Hockey League in 1967, adding four new teams to total 11 as the league stretched east into Manitoba. Concerns over the WCHL's relationship with the CAHA led the Pats and Red Wings to withdraw before the 1968–69 season, returning to the SJHL; when the CAHA reorganized junior hockey in 1971, it named the WCHL one of three Tier I Major-Junior leagues, along with the Ontario Hockey Association's Tier I division and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The first decade of the WCHL saw constant expansion and franchise movement as the league spread throughout the West; the Flin Flon Bombers became the league's first powerhouse team, led by future NHL stars Bobby Clarke and Reggie Leach. The Brandon Wheat Kings and Swift Current Broncos joined in 1967, the Medicine Hat Tigers in 1970; the WCHL became a western league in 1971 when Estevan moved to B. C. to become the New Westminster Bruins, joined by expansion franchises the Victoria Cougars and Vancouver Nats.
In the mid 1970s, the New Westminster Bruins became the WCHL's first true dynasty, capturing four consecutive championships between 1975 and 1978. The Bruins won back-to-back Memorial Cups in 1977 and 1978. In 1976, the Oil Kings succumbed to the competing Edmonton Oilers of the World Hockey Association and relocated to Portland to become the Winter Hawks, the WCHL's first American franchise. With the addition of American teams in Seattle and Billings a year the WCHL shortened its name to the Western Hockey League; the 1980s were marked by several brawls that involved police intervention, one of the most bizarre trades in hockey history, the tragic deaths of four players in a bus crash. Early in the 1980–81 WHL season, Medicine Hat Tigers GM/Coach Pat Ginnell traded blows with a linesman during a bench clearing brawl against the Lethbridge Broncos. Ginnell was found guilty of assault, fined $360, suspended for 36 games by the WHL. In March 1982 a violent brawl between the Regina Pats and Calgary Wranglers saw the two teams collectively fined $2250 and players suspended for 73 games combined.
Pats coach Bill LaForge would end up in a courtroom that season when he got into an altercation with a fan. LaForge was acquitted when the judge noted that it was hard to convict a man for assault when faced with "an obnoxious person trying to get into the coach's area." LaForge resigned following the sea
Paul MacLean (ice hockey)
Paul A. MacLean is former player, he most served as an assistant coach for the Anaheim Ducks until his departure from the team on June 1, 2017. He played 11 seasons in the National Hockey League with the St. Louis Blues, Detroit Red Wings and the original Winnipeg Jets, he is the former head coach of the NHL's Ottawa Senators, winning the 2013 Jack Adams Award as the NHL's Coach of the Year. Born in Grostenquin, while his father was serving with the Canadian Armed Forces, MacLean moved to Canada at the age of two and grew up in Antigonish, Nova Scotia; as a youth, he played in the 1971 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a minor ice hockey team from Borden. Once, during a QMJHL game in which he was playing for the Hull Olympiques, a deal was made to send MacLean to the Quebec Remparts, but the trade was called off before the game ended, after he had scored five goals. In the 1978–79 season, MacLean led the Dalhousie University Tigers to the AUHC championship with 12 goals, 17 assists and 71 penalty minutes in 18 games.
MacLean was drafted by the NHL's St. Louis Blues, he represented Team Canada internationally at the 1980 Winter Olympics, held in Lake Placid, New York. The experience helped MacLean to excel when he did crack the NHL — he scored 36 goals in his rookie season after being traded to the Winnipeg Jets, he continued to enjoy success in Winnipeg on a line with Dale Hawerchuk, tallying three 30-goal seasons and three 40-goal seasons before being dealt to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for Brent Ashton. MacLean was a member of the Campbell Conference All-Star Team in the 1985 NHL All-Star Game. After another 30-goal season for Detroit, he was traded back to St. Louis together with Adam Oates in exchange for Tony McKegney and Bernie Federko. In 1990–91, MacLean suffered a rib injury and retired after ten seasons with 324 goals and 349 assists for 673 points, his best season statistically was the 1984 -- 85 season, where he scored 101 points. MacLean has the distinction of being the highest-scoring NHL player born with 673 points.
The second-highest scoring French-born player is Antoine Roussel. Before becoming an NHL coach, MacLean served as the head coach of the Peoria Rivermen of the International Hockey League from 1993 to 1996. For the 1996–97 season, he served as an assistant coach with the Phoenix Coyotes. From 1997 through 2000, MacLean returned to the IHL to serve as the head coach of the Kansas City Blades. From 2000 to 2002, he served as the head coach of the Quad City Mallards of the United Hockey League. In 2001, MacLean led the Mallards to the Colonial Cup Championship; the Mallards had a record of 112–27–9 in MacLean's two seasons behind the bench. MacLean was hired as an assistant coach for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim under Head Coach Mike Babcock. Babcock would bring MacLean with him to the Detroit Red Wings when he was hired to coach the Red Wings. In the 2007–08 NHL season, MacLean won a Stanley Cup as assistant coach of the Red Wings. On June 14, 2011, the Ottawa Senators announced that MacLean had been hired for their head coaching job, his first head coaching job at the NHL level.
On October 11, MacLean won his first NHL game as a head coach as the Senators defeated the Minnesota Wild 4–3 in a shootout. On April 30, 2012, MacLean was named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award for NHL Coach of the Year alongside John Tortorella of the New York Rangers and Ken Hitchcock of the St. Louis Blues. On May 17, 2013, MacLean was again nominated for the Jack Adams Award, his second in a row, alongside Bruce Boudreau of the Anaheim Ducks and Joel Quenneville of the Chicago Blackhawks. On June 14, 2013, MacLean was announced as the winner of the 2013 Jack Adams Award. On July 4, 2013, the Senators announced that MacLean had been signed to a three-year contract extension with the team. On December 8, 2014, MacLean was fired from his position as head coach of the Senators as the team appeared poised to miss the playoffs, he was succeeded by Dave Cameron. On June 30, 2015, MacLean was named the assistant coach of the Anaheim Ducks, working under head coach Bruce Boudreau. On June 1, 2017, MacLean's contract with the Ducks expired, was not renewed.
MacLean and his wife Sharon have three children -- Erin. A. J. played professional hockey from 2004 to 2013, including a two year stint as captain and player-coach of the Dundee Stars of the EIHL. He is an assistant coach with the Toronto Marlies of the AHL. David is a professional scout for the Arizona Coyotes. Paul's brother Jerome lives in Ottawa, he has a summer home in Nova Scotia. MacLean was born at RCAF Station Grostenquin in Grostenquin, France, to Canadian parents while his father was stationed there. Howard Cornfield, the former owner and general manager of the Quad City Mallards, said he hired MacLean on the spot after interviewing him in 2000. "He has a look to him and he looks you in the eye," said Cornfield. "It's hard to explain. He looked you in the eye and you knew he was being honest, he was speaking from the heart. He had incredible intensity and you walked away saying,'This guy is serious.' When he came in and told me,'I'm going to win you a championship,' you walked away knowing that this guy was going to do it."
Biographical information and career statistics from Eliteprospects.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or Legends of Hockey, or The Internet Hockey Database
Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "The Great One", he has been called "the greatest hockey player ever" by many sportswriters and the league itself. Gretzky is the leading scorer in NHL history, with more assists than any other player, he garnered more assists than any other player scored total points, is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season – a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, Gretzky tallied over 100 points in 14 of them consecutive. At the time of his retirement in 1999 and persisting through 2017, he holds 61 NHL records: 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, six All-Star records. Born and raised in Brantford, Canada, Gretzky honed his skills at a backyard rink and played minor hockey at a level far above his peers. Despite his unimpressive stature and speed, Gretzky's intelligence and reading of the game were unrivaled.
He was adept at dodging checks from opposing players, anticipated where the puck was going to be and executed the right move at the right time. Gretzky became known for setting up behind his opponent's net, an area, nicknamed "Gretzky's office". In 1978, Gretzky signed with the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association, where he played before being traded to the Edmonton Oilers; when the WHA folded, the Oilers joined the NHL, where he established many scoring records and led his team to four Stanley Cup championships. Gretzky's trade to the Los Angeles Kings on August 9, 1988, had an immediate impact on the team's performance leading them to the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, he is credited with popularizing hockey in California. Gretzky played for the St. Louis Blues before finishing his career with the New York Rangers. Gretzky captured nine Hart Trophies as the most valuable player, 10 Art Ross Trophies for most points in a season, two Conn Smythe Trophies as playoff MVP and five Lester B. Pearson Awards for most outstanding player as judged by his peers.
He won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship and performance five times, spoke out against fighting in hockey. After his retirement in 1999, Gretzky was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, making him the most recent player to have the waiting period waived; the NHL retired his jersey number 99 league-wide, making him the only player to receive such an honour. Gretzky was one of six players voted to the International Ice Hockey Federation's Centennial All-Star Team. Gretzky became executive director for the Canadian national men's hockey team during the 2002 Winter Olympics, in which the team won a gold medal. In 2000, he became part-owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, following the 2004–05 NHL lockout, he became the team's head coach. In 2004, Gretzky was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. In September 2009, following the Phoenix Coyotes' bankruptcy, Gretzky resigned as head coach and relinquished his ownership share. In October 2016, he became vice-chairman of Oilers Entertainment Group.
Wayne Gretzky was born on January 26, 1961 in Brantford, the son of Phyllis Leone and Walter Gretzky. The couple had married in 1960, lived in an apartment in Brantford, where Walter worked for Bell Telephone Canada; the family moved into a house on Varadi Avenue in Brantford seven months after Wayne was born, chosen because its yard was flat enough to make an ice rink on every winter. Wayne was joined by a sister and brothers Keith and Brent; the family would visit the farm of Wayne's grandparents and Mary, watch Hockey Night in Canada together. By age two, Wayne was trying to score goals against Mary using a souvenir stick; the farm was. Walter taught Wayne, Brent and their friends hockey on a rink he made in the back yard of the family home, nicknamed the "Wally Coliseum". Drills included skating around Javex bleach bottles and tin cans, flipping pucks over scattered hockey sticks to be able to pick up the puck again in full flight. Additionally, Walter gave the advice to "skate where the puck's going, not where it's been".
Wayne was a classic prodigy. The team Gretzky played on at age six was otherwise composed of 10-year-olds, his first coach, Dick Martin, remarked. According to Martin, "Wayne was so good that you could have a boy of your own, a tremendous hockey player, he'd get overlooked because of what the Gretzky kid was doing." The sweaters for 10-year-olds were far too large for Gretzky, who coped by tucking the sweater into his pants on the right side. Gretzky continued doing this throughout his NHL career. By age 10, Gretzky had scored an astonishing 378 goals and 139 assists in just one season with the Brantford Nadrofsky Steelers, his play attracted media attention beyond his hometown of Brantford, including a profile by John Iaboni in the Toronto Telegram in October 1971. In the 1974 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament, Gretzky scored 26 points playing for Brantford. By age 13, he had scored over 1,000 goals, his play attracted considerable negative attention from other players' parents, including those of his teammates, he was booed.
According to Walter, the "capper" was being booed on "Brantford Day" at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens in February 1975. When Gretzky was 14, his family arranged for him to move to and play hockey in Toronto
Steve Yzerman
Stephen Gregory Yzerman is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who spent his entire National Hockey League playing career with the Detroit Red Wings and is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. After his retirement as a player, he served in the front office of the Red Wings, as general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning, while being executive director for Team Canada in two Olympics. Prior to the 1986–87 season, at age 21, Yzerman was named captain of the Red Wings and continuously served for the next two decades, retiring as the longest-serving captain of any team in North American major league sports history. Once voted to be the most popular athlete in Detroit sports history, locals simply refer to Yzerman as "The Captain". Yzerman led the Wings to 3 Stanley Cup championships. Yzerman won numerous awards during his career, including the Lester B. Pearson Award in the 1988–89 season, the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1998, the Selke Trophy as the league's best defensive forward in 2000 and the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for perseverance in 2003.
He was a ten-time NHL All-Star, a First Team All-Star in 2000 and a member of the All-Rookie Team in 1984. On July 3, 2006, Yzerman retired from professional hockey, finishing his career ranked as the seventh all-time leading scorer in NHL history, having scored a career-high 155 points in 1988–89, bettered only by Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. Yzerman's #19 jersey was retired on January 2, 2007, during a pre-game ceremony at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. On November 4, 2008, he was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, he became an honoured member of the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009, his first year of eligibility, inducted alongside 2001–02 Red Wing teammates Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille. In 2017, Yzerman was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players" in history, he is a Detroit sports icon considered to be one of the greatest players of all-time. On September 25, 2006, Yzerman was named as a vice-president and alternate governor of the Detroit Red Wings, winning a fourth Stanley Cup championship as the vice-president of operations in 2007–08.
In May 2010, he left the Red Wings organization to become general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning, serving in that capacity until September 2018. Yzerman has represented his country in several international tournaments as a member of Canada's national hockey team. In 2002, Yzerman won an Olympic gold medal, making him one of few players to win an Olympic gold medal and the Stanley Cup in the same year. Yzerman was the general manager of Team Canada for the 2007 IIHF World Championship. Yzerman was appointed executive director of Team Canada on October 7, 2008, for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Team Canada went on to win the gold medal by defeating the United States. Yzerman was again appointed executive director of Team Canada on March 5, 2012, for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Canada went on to win their second-straight gold medal after defeating Sweden. Yzerman was born in Cranbrook, British Columbia; as a youth, he played in the 1977 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a minor ice hockey team from Nepean, Ontario.
He played for his hometown Nepean Raiders Junior A hockey team. After one season with the Raiders, the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League drafted him, he played centre for the Petes from 1981 to 1983; the 1983 NHL Entry Draft was the first for Mike and Marian Ilitch, who had purchased the Detroit Red Wings in the summer of 1982. Jim Devellano, the Red Wings' general manager at the time, wanted to draft Pat LaFontaine, who had grown up outside Detroit and played his junior hockey in the area. However, when the New York Islanders selected LaFontaine third overall, Devellano "settled" on Yzerman, drafting him fourth; the Red Wings were prepared to send Yzerman back to Peterborough for one more year, but "after one season, you knew he was a tremendous hockey player", said Ken Holland, the current Red Wings general manager, a minor league goaltender for the Wings during Yzerman's rookie training camp. Yzerman tallied 39 goals and 87 points in his rookie season and finished second in Calder Memorial Trophy voting.
That season, Yzerman became the first 18-year-old to play in an NHL All-Star Game since the current format was adopted in 1969. This stood as an NHL record for 27 years. Following the departure of Red Wings captain Danny Gare after the 1985–86 season, Red Wings head coach Jacques Demers named Yzerman captain of the team on October 7, 1986, making him the youngest captain in the team's history. Demers said he "wanted a guy with the Red Wings crest tattooed on his chest"; the next season, Yzerman led the Wings to their first division title in 23 years. During the 1988–89 season, Yzerman recorded 155 points, finishing third in regular season scoring behind Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky and winning the Lester B. Pearson Award, was a finalist for the Hart Memorial Trophy; when Scotty Bowman took over as Detroit head coach in 1993, Yzerman chafed under Bowman's stern coaching style. Bowman, for his part, felt. Relations between the two became so strained that at one point, the Red Wings considered
Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. They are members of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League and are one of the Original Six teams of the league. Founded in 1926, the team was known as the Detroit Cougars from until 1930. For the 1930–31 and 1931–32 seasons the team was called the Detroit Falcons, in 1932 changed their name to the Red Wings; as of 2019, the Red Wings have won the most Stanley Cup championships of any NHL franchise based in the United States and are third overall in total Stanley Cup championships, behind the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs. The Wings played their home games at Joe Louis Arena from 1979 until 2017, after playing for 52 years in Olympia Stadium, they moved into the new Little Caesars Arena beginning with the 2017–18 season. The Red Wings are one of the most popular and successful franchises in the NHL. Between the 1931–32 and 1965–66 seasons, the Red Wings missed the playoffs only four times.
Between the 1966–67 and 1982–83 seasons, the Red Wings made the playoffs only two times. However, from 1983–84 to 2015–16, they made the playoffs 30 times in 32 seasons, including 25-straight from 1990–91 to 2015–16, at the time the longest streak of postseason appearances in all of North American professional sports. Since 1983–84, the Red Wings have tallied six regular season first-place finishes and have won the Stanley Cup four times. Following the 1926 Stanley Cup playoffs, during which the Western Hockey League was reported to be on the verge of folding, the NHL held a meeting on April 17 to consider applications for expansion franchises, at which it was reported that five different groups sought a team for Detroit. During a subsequent meeting on May 15, the league approved a franchise to the Townsend-Seyburn group of Detroit and named Charles A. Hughes as governor. Frank and Lester Patrick, the owners of the WHL, made a deal to sell the league's players to the NHL and cease league operations.
The new Detroit franchise purchased the players of the WHL's Victoria Cougars, who had won the Stanley Cup in 1925 and had made the Finals the previous winter, to play for the team. The new Detroit franchise adopted the Cougars' nickname in honor of the folded franchise. Since no arena in Detroit was ready at the time, the Cougars played their first season at the Border Cities Arena in Windsor, Ontario. For the 1927–28 season, the Cougars moved into the new Detroit Olympia, which would be their home rink until December 15, 1979; this was the first season behind the bench for Jack Adams, who would be the face of the franchise for the next 36 years as either coach or general manager. The Cougars made the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in 1929 with Carson Cooper leading the team in scoring; the Cougars were outscored 7–2 in the two-game series with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In 1930, the Cougars were renamed the Falcons, but their woes continued, as they finished near the bottom of the standings though they made the playoffs again in 1932.
In 1932, the NHL let grain merchant James E. Norris, who had made two previous unsuccessful bids to buy an NHL team, purchase the Falcons. Norris' first act was to choose a new name for the team—the Red Wings. Earlier in the century, Norris had been a member of the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, a sporting club with cycling roots; the MAAA's teams were known by their club emblem and these Winged Wheelers were the first winners of the Stanley Cup in 1893. Norris decided that a version of their logo was perfect for a team playing in the Motor City and on October 5, 1932, the club was renamed the Red Wings. Norris placed coach Jack Adams on a one-year probation for the 1932–33 NHL season. Adams managed to pass his probationary period by leading the renamed franchise to its first-ever playoff series victory, over the Montreal Maroons; the team lost in the semi-finals to the New York Rangers. In 1934, the Red Wings made the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time, with John Sorrell scoring 21 goals over 47 games and Larry Aurie leading the team in scoring.
However, the Chicago Black Hawks defeated the Red Wings in the Finals, winning the best-of-five series in four games to claim their first title. Two seasons the Red Wings won their first Stanley Cup in 1936, defeating Toronto in four games. Detroit repeated as Stanley Cup champions in 1937. In 1938, the Red Wings and the Montreal Canadiens became the first NHL teams to play in Europe, playing in Paris and London; the Wings played nine games against the Canadiens and went 3–5–1. They did not play in Europe again until the pre-season and start of the 2009–10 NHL season, in Sweden, against the St. Louis Blues; the Red Wings made the Stanley Cup Finals in three consecutive years during the early 1940s. In 1941, they were swept by the Boston Bruins, in 1942, they lost a seven-game series to Toronto after winning the first three games. However, in 1943, with Mud Bruneteau and Syd Howe scoring 23 and 20 goals Detroit won their third Stanley Cup by sweeping the Bruins. Through the rest of the decade, the team made the playoffs every year, reached the Finals three more times.
In 1946, one of the greatest players in hockey history came into the NHL with the Red Wings. Gordie Howe, a right winger from Floral, only scored seven goals and 15 assists in his first season and would not reach his prime for a few more years, it was the last season as head coach for Adams, who stepped down after the season to concentrat
