Left Wing

Detroit Red Wings (1996 - 2006)

When Brendan Shanahan was traded to the Red Wings on October 9, 2006, he was already establish as the preeminent power forward in the NHL. A rough and tumble player with the knack for scoring goals, Shanahan was exactly what the Wings needed and the fans clamored for, a hardnosed goal scorer who didn’t back down from any challenge. Shanahan’s arrival in Detroit was delayed because the trade was still being worked out when he boarded the Red Wings plane in Hartford to fly to Detroit. He wanted to play in the Red Wings home opener that night against Edmonton, but there was the possibility the trade could fall apart and he would be headed back to Hartford.  Eventually, the trade was approved, the plane landed and Shanahan rushed to Joe Louis Arena to play his first game as a Red Wing.  The Wings players refused to take the ice for their pregame skate until Shanahan arrived, dressed and could participate in the pregame skate.  When the Wings finally took the ice after a brief delay, the crowd erupted with delight seeing Shanahan in his number 14 Red Wings jersey.  Shanahan set the tone early for his Wings career by fighting Edmonton’s Greg de Vries. It was his first shift as a Red Wing. Many believe the trade for Shanahan put Detroit over the top to capture their first Stanley Cup in 42 years. Though it’s certainly true the impact of the Shanahan trade established the Wings as the clear frontrunners to win the Cup, it also had a significant influence on Shanahan. He finally found a hockey home. Even though he was an established star, in his nine-year career he had already been a member of three teams. But Detroit felt different. From the way the players welcomed him in the dressing room to the Wings waiting for him to arrive so he could be a part of the team’s pregame skate, he felt this was where he was meant to play. Shanahan also felt privileged to play on a team with so many talented players, but most of all he appreciated the way the players embraced the team concept. From their selfless play to their team dinners and their funny but cutthroat nature in the dressing room - the Red Wing were a true team with an unmatched loyalty to one another. In his nine years as a Red Wing, Detroit won three Stanley Cups and Shanahan was consistently among the team leaders in several categories during the regular season and playoffs. Despite being one of the toughest players in the NHL, Shanahan is a deep thinker with a sense of purpose. When the Wings won their first Cup in 1997, he spent part of his day with the Cup taking it to a Toronto cemetery where his father Donal, a former firefighter, is buried. Donal had developed Alzheimer’s when Shanahan was 14 or 15 years old and though he was still alive when Shanahan made it to the NHL, he is sure his father really wasn’t aware he was an NHL player. Donal Shanahan died in 1990, Shanahan’s third year in the league. So, on sunny Saturday afternoon in August of 1997, Shanahan put the Stanley Cup in his car and drove to the cemetery. He took the Cup and placed it on his dad’s grave and sat down with the Cup and thought about his dad and growing up with him. He said a few prayers, talked to his dad for a while and put the Cup in his car and left. It was show-and-tell time for Shanahan and it was his dad’s time to see the Cup up close one-on-one. Shanahan told his father, “Hey, Dad, look what we did!” That’s pure Breandan Shanahan, always making the big play at the most appropriate moment.

Detroit Career totals: 1996-2006

GP-716 G-309 A-324 PTS-633 PIM-1037 GWG-63

Center

Detroit Red Wings (1983 - 2006)

There is a story that has circulated for years within Detroit’s hockey press corps about Steve Yzerman’s first Red Wings training camp. An 18-year-old Yzerman told the media he was hoping to pick up some pointers from the veterans, which he could share with his teammates back in Peterborough, once he was returned to his junior team. He also said if he was fortunate enough, he would have at least a 5-year NHL career. Supposedly, after hearing this, the Detroit media stood silent for a moment until they all told Yzerman he was Detroit’s best player on the ice and he wasn’t going anywhere. Whether there are a few embellishments in this story or not, it rings with truth, because it reveals a couple of Yzerman’s traits he exhibited throughout his 22-year Red Wings career. Steve Yzerman’s humility and insistence on downplaying all of his accomplishment is Yzerman in a nutshell. In short, if you’re not a team player, you’re not an Yzerman player. Perhaps that’s what former Wings coach Jaques Demers saw in Yzerman when he named the 21-year-old Red Wings captain in 1986, at the time, the youngest captain in NHL history. Yzerman is still the NHL’s longest serving captain wearing the “C” for 19 seasons, 20 if you count the 2004-05 lockout season. Never a big talker, when Yzerman did address the Red Wings, which wasn’t very often, his words were to the point and impactful.  The team always responded to The Captain. When Scotty Bowman became Red Wings coach on June 15, 1993, Stever Yzerman was a superstar, an offensive juggernaut. During the 1988-89 season, he set the Wings all-time regular season mark in goals -65, assists-90 and points -155. Yzerman also won- the Lester B. Pearson Award (later renamed the Ted Lindsay Award in April of 2010) as the league’s most outstanding player selected by the NHLPA.  From 1987 through 1993 he scored over 100 points each season and was a five time 50-goal scorer. But he had not won a Stanley Cup and it tore into his competitive spirit. Bowman offered a solution on how Detroit needed to play to win the Cup, but it involved the Red Wings becoming a team committed to playing defense with Yzerman leading the way. In order to win, Yzerman sacrificed his numbers and turned himself into one of the best two-way players in the league. The Red Wings followed his lead, resulting in winning the Stanley Cup in 1997, 1998 and 2002. Yzerman had his own full circle moment following the 1999-2000 season when he was awarded the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward. Yzerman’s on ice play earned him a spot among the very best players to ever play the game. His 1755 career points is currently the seventh most in NHL history and his numbers in Red Wings history are only rivaled by Gordie Howe, and when you’re consistently mentioned in the same conversation as Howe, you’re taking a back seat to nobody. Not bad for a kid from Nepean, Ontario, who was hopeful he could last in the NHL for a few seasons.                                             

Detroit Career totals: 1983-2006

GP-1514 G-692 A-1063 PTS-1755 PIM-924 GWG-94

Right Wing

Detroit Red Wings (1991 - 1996)

Signed as a free agent on August 5, 1991, Ray Sheppard became a key offensive catalyst for the Red Wings during his five seasons with the club. Sheppard possessed a high hockey IQ, exceptional hand-eye coordination, outstanding positioning and puck awareness around net with an elite finishing ability. His patience and skill level made him an opportunistic goal scorer who relied more on his hockey sense than his speed. Considered to be a pure sniper because of his uncanny ability to anticipate where the puck was going, Sheppard was a dynamic player with the knack of scoring the big goal. He scored 52 goals for the Red Wings during the 1993-94, which was fifth highest in the league and his 93 total points ranked 15^th overall in the NHL. Sheppard followed up his 52-goal campaign with 30 tallies the next season, tied for the second most goals scored in the 48-game NHL schedule because of lockout during the 1994-95 season. Sheppard was an essential component of turning the Red Wings into an elite level offensive team. He was a proven NHL goal scorer and teams would routinely make inquiries to the Wings on whether he was available for trade. On October 24, 1995, the Red Wings traded Sheppard to the San Jose Sharks for Igor Larionov, a deal many Red Wings fans had a difficult time understanding. But coach Scotty Bowman was determined to shore up Detroit’s center position and had long been an admirer of Larionov, since his days as a star player for the Russian Red Army team. The trade had a positive effect on the Red Wings, eventually allowing Bowman to put together the revolutionary Russian Five unit, which changed how the NHL game was played. As for Sheppard, after the trade from the Red Wings he maintained a solid NHL career with the Sharks, Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes, but never duplicated the consistent offensive success he had in Detroit. Yet, to generations of Red Wings fans, Sheppard is remembered as a high-powered offensive player who regularly brought the fans out of their seats.                           

Detroit Career totals: 1991-1996

GP-274 G-152 A-113 PTS-265 PIM-100 GWG-16

Defenseman

Detroit Red Wings (1991 – 2012)

Today, it’s difficult to imagine when he was 18 years old, Nicklas Lidstrom was passed over in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft. As a European player, he wasn’t taken in the first three rounds of the draft, so the rule was he had to wait another year before a team could select the talented but skinny teenager. A self-proclaimed late bloomer, Lidstrom realized he needed to become stronger if he was going to make it in the NHL. He spent the next year perfecting his game and building up his body while playing for the Swedish National Junior team and his hometown team Vasteras, in the Eliterien (Swedish Hockey League). A year later, 19-year-old, Lidstrom was taken by the Red Wings in the third round, 53^rd overall in the 1989 Entry Draft.  Lidstrom remained in Sweden for the next two years before making his Red Wings debut on October 3, 1991, in Chicago, a 3-3 overtime tie versus the Blackhawks. A rookie campaign where he finished with 60 points - 11 goals and 49 assists - was truly just the beginning of Lidstrom’s Hall of Fame career. In 20 seasons, Lidstrom won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman seven times, a feat more remarkable when you consider he didn’t win his first Norris until he was 30 years old. He was named to the NHL’S first All-Star team 10 times and the league’s second All-Star team twice. In 2002, Lidstrom won the Conn Smyth Trophy as the Playoffs MVP and in 2008, he became the first European-born captain to win the Stanley Cup. The Hockey News named Lidstrom the Best European-trained player ever. When he retired in 2012, Lidstrom was an astounding +450 and holds many regular season and playoff records for a Detroit defenseman including most games played, most goals, most assists, and most points. On March 6, 2014, the Detroit Red Wings retired Nicklas Lidstrom’s number 5.                            

Detroit career totals: 1991-2012

GP- 1564 G- 264 A-878 PTS -1142 PIM-514 GWG-35

Defenseman

Detroit Red Wings (1991 – 1997)

Vladimir Konstantinov’s path to the NHL reads like a espionage thriller. But instead of top-secret political information being obtained - through bribery and the forging of medical documents – the “information” was in the form of a hockey player, who was a budding star for CSKA Moscow (Red Army team) in the KHL. Konstantinov first caught the eye of Red Wings scouts at the 1987 World Junior Championships when a brawl broke out between the Soviet Union and Canada. The Wings drafted Konstantinov in the 11^th round, 221^st overall in the 1989 Entry Draft. Working with a Russian journalist, the Red Wings were able to pay cash to six Russian doctors to diagnose and confirm Konstantinov had inoperable cancer. He was released from his 25-year Red Army contract and fled to Detroit along with his wife and daughter. Once he became a Red Wing, “Vladdie” was an immediate hit with his teammates and the fans. Known as being physically aggressive, but a solid two-way player, he earned the nicknames of the Vladinator and Vlad the Impaler. His one-on-one battles with Philadelphia’s Eric Lindros, were appointment viewing.  In the 1995-96 season he won the NHL Plus/Minus Award with a +60. It was the highest plus total since Wayne Gretzky’s +70 during the 1986-87 season. When the Red Wings captured their first cup in 1997, ending a 42-year drought, Konstantinov finished second in voting for the Norris Trophy. It was believed by many pundits that Vladdie was the odds-on favorite to win the Norris the next season. Unfortunately, Konstantinov, teammate Viacheslav Fetisov and team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov, were involved in a limousine crash after a team golf outing celebrating the Stanley Cup. Fetisov was not severely hurt, but Konstantinov and Mnatskanov suffered serious head injuries. Vladimir Konstaninov’s hockey career ended as a result of the injuries sustain in the crash. The Red Wings have not officially retired Konstantinov’s number 16, but no other Detroit player has worn number 16, since Konstantinov’s last game as a Red Wing.                                        

Detroit Career totals: 1991-1997

GP-446 G-47 A-128 PTS-175 PIM-838 GWG-8

Goalie

Detroit Red Wings (1993 - 2001, 2005 - 2011)

If you believe in fate, then Chris Osgood’s career as a Red Wing began when he was a 14-year-old playing midget hockey. Osgood caught the attention of former Red Wings general manager Ken Holland, who was a scout for the Wings the first time he saw the teenaged Osgood play. Holland was impressed with Osgood and began keeping an eye on him from midgets through junior hockey where Osgood tended goal for the Medicine Hat Tigers, the same team Holland had been a goalie for several years earlier. Holland offered Osgood advice about what it would take for him to become an NHL goalie, which Osgood followed religiously, but Holland never gave the impression the Wings had interest in him. It wasn’t until a conversation Osgood had with Holland a couple of days before the NHL Entry Draft when he felt he had a legitimate chance of being drafted by Detroit. Osgood was ecstatic when the Red Wings chose him in the third round, 54^th overall in the 1991 NHL Entry draft. After spending another year in juniors, Osgood played one full season with Adirondack and was eager to begin his second season with the club, because the team was loaded with future NHL players, including Kris Draper, Marty Lapointe and Darren McCarty.  However, the Red Wings suffered several injuries in net and Osgood was called up to Detroit, making his NHL debut in Toronto on October 15, 1993, a 6-3 loss to the Maple Leafs. Despite surrendering 4 goals on 8 shots and being pulled from the game, Osgood gained confidence that he could play in the NHL and be successful, which is all you need to know about Chris Osgood. He handles adversity extremely well and bounces back with a vengeance. Whether it was giving up a playoff goal from center ice or an early overtime playoff goal, to having an Al MacInnis point shot break his hand, and every other pratfall that could besiege a goalie, Osgood’s belief in himself never waned. And when he retired in 2011, Osgood was a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Wings, was the second goalie to ever score in the NHL, he’s one of 15 goalies to notch 400 career victories, his 401 career wins ranks 15^th overall in NHL history. His 317 career wins as a Red Wing is second only to Terry Sawchuk’s 350 and his 39 career shutouts is second to Sawchuk’s 85. Osgood is the Wings playoff leader in career victories with 67 and shutouts with 14. His 2.02 GAA is second to Dominick Hasek’s 1.91 GAA. Perhaps someday, Osgood will receive the recognition many feel he deserves and get elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, but whether that day comes soon or further down the road, Chris Osgood’s career ranks among the best in league history, which has made him a Red Wings hockey immortal.                     

Detroit Career totals: 1993-2001, 2005-2011

GP-565 W-317 L-149 T/0-75 GAA-2.49 SO-39

Playoffs: 1993-2009 (10 seasons total)

GP-110 W-67 L-37 GAA-2.02 SO-14