How good was Steve Yzerman in his last 2 years?
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WarriorofTime
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- Jul 3, 2010
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Voight
#winning
tabness
be a playa 🇵🇸
- Apr 4, 2014
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Yzerman's mobility which had already lost a step for few years now was totally shot after his operation in 2002. It was honestly a huge surprise and a testament to his conditioning and drive that he even continued his career after a surgery that's done for old men lol
In 2003-2004 with the departure of Fedorov, Wings were ripe for Datsyuk and Zetterberg to really take over but they were still pretty green and so you saw a guy like Draper take on a bigger role and Yzerman's own role didn't diminish as much as you would think. There was a nice Matby • Draper • Yzerman line to start off that year. Yzerman was effectively a winger who took faceoffs from the 2002 Olympics anyway.
Wings went out and got Robert Lang at the trade deadline to try and replace Fedorov, but he almost immediately got hurt though and missed all but a handful of games at the end of the season.
2005-2006 though was much tougher initially for Yzerman. He didn't play elsewhere during the lockout. New coach in Babcock rather than Dave Lewis who was Yzerman's teammate and then coach since the eighties. League was much faster too, which was not suited to Yzerman's abilities. Datsyuk and Zetterberg had fully arrived too, Lang was still there as well.
So Yzerman had a much diminished role to start. As others veterans started to fall by the wayside and retire that year, Yzerman also apparently considered retirement midway through the season, but then Lang went down with injury again, and so there was a need for Yzerman again, and he must have finally adjusted enough to the new league and rules. Remember that it was Yzerman who blasted the new NHL almost instantly, saying "it's not hockey" because of the way the game was called for basically breathing on another player (he was absolutely right in retrospect as it's come to its teleological end lol... so soft now).
He played great to finish the season and going into the playoffs, still pretty slow comparatively but a bit faster than before, plus his usual linemates were Lang and Jason Williams who were also not the greatest skaters so it wasn't looking too bad.
Unfortunately he kept getting groin injuries that last year and so despite finishing strong and by the playoffs end making it an open question if he'd return rather than a foregone conclusion he wouldn't, he ended up retiring.
Obviously Yzerman had a blank check to play however long he wanted on the Wings though he probably could have played another year or two legitimately but it also looked like he couldn't get those groin issues sorted out and didn't like the way the new NHL was going anyway.
In 2003-2004 with the departure of Fedorov, Wings were ripe for Datsyuk and Zetterberg to really take over but they were still pretty green and so you saw a guy like Draper take on a bigger role and Yzerman's own role didn't diminish as much as you would think. There was a nice Matby • Draper • Yzerman line to start off that year. Yzerman was effectively a winger who took faceoffs from the 2002 Olympics anyway.
Wings went out and got Robert Lang at the trade deadline to try and replace Fedorov, but he almost immediately got hurt though and missed all but a handful of games at the end of the season.
2005-2006 though was much tougher initially for Yzerman. He didn't play elsewhere during the lockout. New coach in Babcock rather than Dave Lewis who was Yzerman's teammate and then coach since the eighties. League was much faster too, which was not suited to Yzerman's abilities. Datsyuk and Zetterberg had fully arrived too, Lang was still there as well.
So Yzerman had a much diminished role to start. As others veterans started to fall by the wayside and retire that year, Yzerman also apparently considered retirement midway through the season, but then Lang went down with injury again, and so there was a need for Yzerman again, and he must have finally adjusted enough to the new league and rules. Remember that it was Yzerman who blasted the new NHL almost instantly, saying "it's not hockey" because of the way the game was called for basically breathing on another player (he was absolutely right in retrospect as it's come to its teleological end lol... so soft now).
He played great to finish the season and going into the playoffs, still pretty slow comparatively but a bit faster than before, plus his usual linemates were Lang and Jason Williams who were also not the greatest skaters so it wasn't looking too bad.
Unfortunately he kept getting groin injuries that last year and so despite finishing strong and by the playoffs end making it an open question if he'd return rather than a foregone conclusion he wouldn't, he ended up retiring.
Obviously Yzerman had a blank check to play however long he wanted on the Wings though he probably could have played another year or two legitimately but it also looked like he couldn't get those groin issues sorted out and didn't like the way the new NHL was going anyway.
Crosby2010
Registered User
- Mar 4, 2023
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The 2002 season is the last we saw of Yzerman, really. Obviously he was getting older even then, and his knee was killing him, but it was the last we saw of him showing at least flashes of what he could do. Think the 2002 Olympics and then of course the 2002 playoffs. Good for Lidstrom for winning the Conn Smythe and being the first European to do so, but man oh man I would have put my car on the line that Yzerman is the one that wins that Smythe, not just because of his stats but knowing full well that their captain went through the sort of pain required to do that. I was pretty sure he was done by 2002 anyway. We all knew his knee was going to be repaired. And he came back in 2004 not as the Yzerman we knew. And that doesn't even talk about the drop in 2006. So he was okay, but he was a shell of his former self. Still had the heart though.
I can remember him getting a puck deflected in the face in the 2004 playoffs and it looked like it hurt. But if you want to see what sort of competitor he was, he skated back to the bench in lots of pain, he never lay on the ice, he got up, skated wobbly over to the bench and that was it. Man that is some heart!
Here is one thing I remember the most from those Yzerman years. Gretzky was still in charge of picking the 2004 World Cup team and the 2006 Olympic team. He had done as good of a job as anyone in picking the 2002 team, so my thought was he'd do the same for 2004. However, he was too hung up on loyalty. He had Yzerman on the 2004 team initially. This was not a good pick. Lecavalier for example was not initially picked, Kariya was never picked at all and other top scorers like Rick Nash or Alex Tanguay weren't picked. But Gretzky had him there for whatever reason as a loyalty pick. Yzerman politely declined, probably knowing what Gretzky didn't know himself and that he was too old by then. Lecavalier takes his place. Then in 2006 the same thing happened. Gretzky had Lemieux and Yzerman picked for the 2006 team if they wanted it. This was bad. Both players turned down the offer and Mario was retired in January of 2006 anyway. But Gretzky had them on the team if they chose to. If we think the 4 Nations had some questionable picks, just realize that this has always been happening in Canada. Picking Yzerman on the 2006 team would be like picking Corey Perry for the 4 Nations today just because. It would be a bad, bad pick. I don't know if that is a testament to Yzerman or just a dumb choice on Gretzky's part but that's what actually happened.
I can remember him getting a puck deflected in the face in the 2004 playoffs and it looked like it hurt. But if you want to see what sort of competitor he was, he skated back to the bench in lots of pain, he never lay on the ice, he got up, skated wobbly over to the bench and that was it. Man that is some heart!
Here is one thing I remember the most from those Yzerman years. Gretzky was still in charge of picking the 2004 World Cup team and the 2006 Olympic team. He had done as good of a job as anyone in picking the 2002 team, so my thought was he'd do the same for 2004. However, he was too hung up on loyalty. He had Yzerman on the 2004 team initially. This was not a good pick. Lecavalier for example was not initially picked, Kariya was never picked at all and other top scorers like Rick Nash or Alex Tanguay weren't picked. But Gretzky had him there for whatever reason as a loyalty pick. Yzerman politely declined, probably knowing what Gretzky didn't know himself and that he was too old by then. Lecavalier takes his place. Then in 2006 the same thing happened. Gretzky had Lemieux and Yzerman picked for the 2006 team if they wanted it. This was bad. Both players turned down the offer and Mario was retired in January of 2006 anyway. But Gretzky had them on the team if they chose to. If we think the 4 Nations had some questionable picks, just realize that this has always been happening in Canada. Picking Yzerman on the 2006 team would be like picking Corey Perry for the 4 Nations today just because. It would be a bad, bad pick. I don't know if that is a testament to Yzerman or just a dumb choice on Gretzky's part but that's what actually happened.
MadLuke
Registered User
- Jan 18, 2011
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Could have been understood they would decline before the public offer just as a deference (an extreme version of we are really considering Modano for the 2010 team public statement)... but could have been true.
I think it would be more similar to a very old Crosby or a 2010 Sakic than a Perry level player. I am not sure how terrible a 2006 Lemieux would have been because of how large those rosters are, 20 skaters open the door to a power play specialist. Could have been a distraction to have him benched too, and this is with the hindsight of impossible for that tourney to go any worst than it did without him.
I think it would be more similar to a very old Crosby or a 2010 Sakic than a Perry level player. I am not sure how terrible a 2006 Lemieux would have been because of how large those rosters are, 20 skaters open the door to a power play specialist. Could have been a distraction to have him benched too, and this is with the hindsight of impossible for that tourney to go any worst than it did without him.
GMR
Registered User
Even though he was washed after 2002, it was great just to have him in the lineup. He still had the hockey IQ, was good at draws, and of course his leadership. As a fan of those teams, you knew his career was winding down and appreciated being able to watch him.
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