Detroit Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk has announced his plan to leave the NHL after this season. According to the Detroit Free Press, Datsyuk has been yearning to go home to Russia since he played there during the 2012 NHL lockout.
The “Magic Man” is currently 37 and has played each of his 14 seasons in the league with Detroit. He has one more chance at the Stanley Cup before his career is over, as the Red Wings are in the playoffs again this year for the 25th consecutive season.
During that span, they have won six President’s Trophies (the most in the NHL) as the league’s best regular season team and won four Stanley Cups in six appearances. Needless to say, the Motor City has hosted some premier talent over the last two-plus decades.
While Datsyuk and his captain Henrik Zetterberg have been household names for over a decade, they’re just two of more than a dozen truly elite players who have worn the winged wheel during their historic postseason run.
In fact, after looking at the numbers, Datsyuk and Zetterberg aren’t even in the top five Red Wings players from the past 25 years.
Honorable mentions:
Henrik Zetterberg
The current captain of the Wings is an elite player in every sense of the word. It’s hard to believe that last year’s King Clancy award winner was selected 210th overall in the 1999 draft. He has accumulated 836 points across 918 NHL games and that alone qualifies his consideration for this list.
Pavel Datsyuk
Over the course of his career, the Russian has won four consecutive Lady Byng Memorial Trophies, three consecutive Frank J. Selke Trophies and two Stanley Cups. He has entertained fans since the start of the new millennium with his dazzling dekes, slick shootout moves and poise under pressure. The league will not be the same without him.
Dominik Hasek
Hasek was a machine in 2002 as he propelled the Red Wings to the Presidents’ Trophy and the Stanley Cup. Some may disagree, but he is the greatest goaltender of all time. He misses the cut for the top 5 because he only played with Detroit for a few seasons and was benched in the 2008 playoffs. He seemed rattled and scared then, two emotions he had never previously experienced in his career.
5) Brendan Shanahan
Despite the fact that he started and finished his career with the New Jersey Devils, Shanahan still sees himself as a Red Wing. In the early ‘90s, the Red Wings were good, but still missed that little something extra to put them over the edge. Shanahan’s power was precisely what the Wings lacked. He won three Stanley Cups with Detroit, including one in 1997, which snapped both a 42-year-long Cup drought and ignited a dynasty.
4) Chris Osgood
Chris Osgood has the second most wins by any Red Wing ever. While he is a polarizing figure among fans, he must be respected. He constantly battled injuries. He competed for the starting job with Hasek and Manny Legace. He led the Wings on a nine-game win streak in the 2008 postseason, en route to winning the Stanley Cup over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Funny enough, he wasn’t even supposed to be the starter that series. Head coach Mike Babcock put him in after Hasek struggled mightily at the start of the playoffs. Osgood’s competitive nature and his composure in high-pressure situations perfectly match Detroit’s mantra over the past 25 years.
3) Sergei Fedorov
Fedorov was often described as “three great players in one.” He had a laser of a shot and unbelievably soft hands. His passes were crisp and his vision was all encompassing. Steve Yzerman said that Fedorov was the best skater he had ever seen. Plus, he was so good defensively that coach Scotty Bowman was able to play him on defense whenever he needed to. In 1994, Fedorov was awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league’s MVP, the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the top defensive forward and the Lester B. Pearson Award, as “the league’s most outstanding player,” as voted on by the players.
2) Steve Yzerman
Steve Yzerman is the most important Red Wing of the past 25 years. During his tenure, he was not an ambassador nor a representative — he simply was the team. The seventh leading scorer in league history would be No. 1 on this list if he had been born 10 years later. However, he joined the Red Wings in 1983, way before the streak started, and was a key factor in what’s now the longest active post-season streak among the four major sports.
1) Nicklas Lidstrom
Nick Lidstrom is one of the top three defensemen in NHL history. The Swede won four Stanley Cups with Detroit — as many as Wayne Gretzky had with the Edmonton Oilers. Lidstrom participated in 10 All-Star games during his tenure. He won the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the league’s best defenseman an astounding seven times. Only Boston Bruins legend Bobby Orr has more, with eight. In 2002, Lidstrom won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the postseason — an award that is seldom given to defensemen. Since he played from 1991 to 2012, he is my choice for the most important Red Wing over their current postseason streak. It takes a truly remarkable player to never miss the playoffs over the course of 20 years, and that is precisely the type of player Lidstrom was.
