Is The Younger, More Dynamic Yzerman A Forgotten Player?

[GlitchMarner]

It seems like when people think of Yzerman these days, they generally picture the gritty two-way veteran who helped Detroit win three Stanley Cups. But Steve Yzerman was once one of the more exciting and electric players in the NHL.

Has the earlier version of Yzerman been somewhat forgotten? Or maybe people think it's better to remember the older version because he was more of a "winner" and leader?


I remember on the TV show Full House, the character Joey Gladstone had an Yzerman jersey hanging in his basement. I think back then he was a popular and well-known player (for someone who played on an American team and wasn't named Gretzky or Lemieux). For those a little older: How much star power did he have exactly?

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

I mean, although I was born in the 90’s, I didn’t pay attention to hockey until 2000.

I was always under the impression that successful Yzerman was always going to come out on top. If HFBoards existed back in the 80s and 90s, you would have endless threads wondering if Yzerman is a winner, does he have the intangibles etc.

 

[Staniowski]

Yzerman was very popular in the '80s and early '90s....he had a lot of fans in the hockey world. Especially before the big influx of skilled Europeans in the early '90s - who became very popular....Jagr, Mogilny, then Bure, Selanne, etc - Yzerman was really admired for his skills - skating, stickhandling, dekes, etc.

He was a constant anywhere that showed hockey highlights....moreso than any other player for a period of time.

 

[Staniowski]

I have a vague memory of watching HNIC, I don't know who was playing, but the "other" game they were following was the Leafs vs Wings, and it was a big night for Yzerman, lots of points....it seemed like every highlight was a beautiful play by Yzerman.

 

[Stephen]

Look how cheeky he used to be too. On that EN goal at the 0:53 second mark.

I don't think his earlier more dynamic version is forgotten at all. The transformation from that player to the eventual champion is often cited as the blueprint for any gifted young player who hasn't found their playoff success. The starting point of that journey is always important.

 

[NyQuil]

When I was a kid, he was the consensus #3 behind Gretzky and Lemieux.

The concerns about his two-way play didn’t really come up until the 90s IIRC.

 

[JackSlater]

I find that version of Yzerman largely forgotten. People remember and cite the Toews style Yzerman, but I've seen and heard him described as a poor skater, limited one on one, hard work but not so much skill player. That doesn't describe Yzerman before his knee injuries.

In terms of star power, I'd say that for a few years he was right behind Gretzky and Lemieux, only to be eventually surpassed by Hull and Messier in the early 90s.

 

[Staniowski]

Yzerman had an exciting game that was rare....it was like - in previous generations - Lafleur, Perreault, Orr, Hull, Rocket....the combination of elite skating and puck skills. Even Gretzky and Lemieux didn't really have it to the same extent.
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Yes, I think the dynamism would be forgotten for anybody who didn't see him play....you might get the gist by looking at numbers, but you really have to see it.

 

[tabness]

From one of the many covers of The Hockey News covers that Yzerman was featured on back then:

Yzerman was a huge superstar and well marketed in the late eighties and also early nineties, showing up on many highlight videos, magazines, cards, posters, and so on. He was generally considered the third best player in the world after Gretzky and Lemieux.

However, in the early nineties his star did begin to fade a bit for various reasons, probably most notably that he started to shut off a bit from the media. Yzerman was never one to blow his own horn, but whereas before Jacques Demers definitely had the media attention and drew it to Yzerman, Bryan Murray was quieter and not the same way. Yzerman also had his own issues with the media, the Canadian media first (notably the Canada Cup 1991 thing and his comments on refusing to play for the Nordiques if traded for Lindros), and later the Detroit sports media (some of the stuff writers... speculated to be charitable/made up to be real lol... were understandably upsetting for Yzerman). Add to this his own stats decreasing as the team got better and Detroit's playoff failures during the period, and yeah. There was a Bob McKenzie piece on Yzerman sometime around 1992 that discussed how his stock had fallen a bit due to these reasons. By the mid nineties, initially Yzerman and Scotty Bowman did not get along well to begin with, and well, Bowman's side of the story was generally what was told in the media at the time.

By the time the Wings won their cups in the late nineties, Yzerman was once again one of the most popular players in the hockey world (I believe his was the most sold jersey quite a few years in this time period), but he was known for his defensive play and leadership more than his smooth as silk offensive skills. This is the Yzerman that people afterward remember, and as time goes on (been thirty years since Yzerman's prime) of course his early years will be less and less remembered.

Interestingly enough, I think Yzerman's best hockey actually was during the time he was fading from the hockey world, in the second half of the 1991-1992 season (first part was a big slump) and into the 1992-1993 season. Even if the numbers were slightly lower than in the late eighties as the Red Wings were a very deep offensive team by then, Yzerman was just an everything player at that time for the Wings, offensively and defensively. The playoff injuries and failures really make it forgotten a bit.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Yes. At least around here because most of the posters weren't around to see him before his knee injury and just normal aging took a half step away from him. He was sooo slick and dynamic and explosive offensively.

I don't know how, but somehow Yzerman's peak 1989 season has become underrated. I think it is because Bernie Nicholls happened to catch lightning in a bottle that year as well, but although he didn't score a lot more, Yzerman had a much better season.

 

[The Panther]

Just the usual recency bias.

No, I remember him very well from 1987, 1988, 1989... He was called 'silk' by his teammates because he was so smooth with the moves.

I still think 1987-88 was his best regular season ever, despite the late injury.

(The reason the Full House guy had an Yzerman jersey on TV wasn't because Yzerman was that famous -- it was because that actor, Dave Coulier, is from Michigan and was a big Red Wings / Tigers fan.)

 

[tabness]

nineties TV was a good time for repping Detroit

• Joey wearing all the Red Wings merch in Full House
• Home Improvement with Tim Allen
• and of course Martin (one of my all time favorite shows lol)

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

It seems like when people think of Yzerman these days, they generally picture the gritty two-way veteran who helped Detroit win three Stanley Cups. But Steve Yzerman was once one of the more exciting and electric players in the NHL.

Has the earlier version of Yzerman been somewhat forgotten? Or maybe people think it's better to remember the older version because he was more of a "winner" and leader?


I remember on the TV show Full House, the character Joey Gladstone had an Yzerman jersey hanging in his basement. I think back then he was a popular and well-known player (for someone who played on an American team and wasn't named Gretzky or Lemieux). For those a little older: How much star power did he have exactly?

this was the upper deck year two box

at the time, those other three guys were the last three hart trophy winners

 

[The Panther]

When I was a kid, he was the consensus #3 behind Gretzky and Lemieux.

I wouldn't say he was ever a "consensus", but more like one of two or three popular choices.

1987-88 might be the best example of when he was commonly called #3, but even then you've got people who'd still take Hawerchuk or Coffey or maybe Savard/Stastny over him.

1988-89 he stands out the most, statistically, but Bernie Nicholls also scored 150 points and Patrick Roy had maybe his greatest regular season.

1989-90, not many taking Yzerman over Messier or Bourque.

After that, you've got Brett Hull, Messier, Lafontaine, Roy, etc., and Yzerman's stock, as noted, fell a little for a few years.

 

[tabness]

I wouldn't say he was ever a "consensus", but more like one of two or three popular choices.

1987-88 might be the best example of when he was commonly called #3, but even then you've got people who'd still take Hawerchuk or Coffey or maybe Savard/Stastny over him.

1988-89 he stands out the most, statistically, but Bernie Nicholls also scored 150 points and Patrick Roy had maybe his greatest regular season.

1989-90, not many taking Yzerman over Messier or Bourque.

After that, you've got Brett Hull, Messier, Lafontaine, Roy, etc., and Yzerman's stock, as noted, fell a little for a few years.

It was pretty obviously Gretzky • Lemieux • Yzerman and then the rest during and after 1988-1989.

After that it was more of the same for a bit. The Hockey News yearbooks didn't have the player rankings back then, but in the team pages, after 1989-1990, they called Yzerman the third best player again and after 1990-1991 they called him the third best center behind Gretzky and Lemieux (since I guess Hull had his 86 goal year).

The Hockey Scouting Report 1990-91 (after the 1989-1990 season) said they wouldn't argue much against the idea that Yzerman was the league's best player (to contrast, Bourque's entry stated he was among the top five players in the world).

More of the same stuff in things like Superstar Hockey, the Hockey Digest yearbooks, and so on.

Yzerman didn't have a shot at the Hart trophy or whatever in 1989-1990 given how poorly the Red Wings played, but that may have been his most impressive season given that Paul Maclean was replaced on his right with Joey Kocur of all people lol (career year for Kocur though)

It was really starting in 1991-1992 where you started to see Yzerman's star fade a bit.

 

[FissionFire]

this was the upper deck year two box

View attachment 499080

at the time, those other three guys were the last three hart trophy winners

While impressive, it should be noted that Upper Deck co-founder, Richard Kughn, was a Detroit resident. His grandkids lived next door to me growing up and we used to get tons of free sets of baseball and hockey cards. Yzerman being featured on the box makes lots of sense considering the origins.

 

[Cursed Lemon]

nineties TV was a good time for repping Detroit

• Joey wearing all the Red Wings merch in Full House
• Home Improvement with Tim Allen
• and of course Martin (one of my all time favorite shows lol)

Jeff Daniels in the locker room after the 1997 Cup win:

 

[BenchBrawl]

I would say yes, he gets abstracted away in the Yzerman/Sakic comparison.

Problem with that version of Yzerman is that he wasn't considered a winner. Then he changed his game and became a major winner. But of course while this narrative has truth in it, it's also largely a matter of timing, of the Wings getting better as he himself was slowing down. He deserves respect for maturing his game as he got older. But in different circumstances, I'm sure the offensive wizard version of Stevie Y would have been a winner all the same, like it happened to Mario.

What gets forgotten is just how above the pack he really was in the late-1980s in terms of offensive talent, ignoring Wayne/Mario of course.

 

[Johnny Engine]

Funny, the thing I've seen most on various non-HF social platforms about Yzerman lately is pushing the idea that him changing his game to be more defensively oriented is a myth, and that he was simply the same player as before, just a step or two down as a dynamic offensive player.

It's usually delivered in a "old hockey men are dumb" kind of tone, but I rarely see any real evidence presented one way or another.

On anothere note, I once described Red Kelly's career to a younger fan who thought Kelly was a Byfuglien-type, as "if Paul Coffey and Steve Yzerman switched bodies in 1995"). Which makes me wonder who the closest thing to the byproduct of such a reaction would be. Charlie Conacher?

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

While impressive, it should be noted that Upper Deck co-founder, Richard Kughn, was a Detroit resident. His grandkids lived next door to me growing up and we used to get tons of free sets of baseball and hockey cards. Yzerman being featured on the box makes lots of sense considering the origins.

wow that is amazing context

i started to pay attention around 1989 but i was really just learning what was what until around 91. my sense (as a pretty young kid mind you) was that yzerman had passed all the garden variety 130ish pt superstar centers like hawerchuk, savard, stastny to this other sub-99/66 level that he and he alone was in.

to make a contemporary analogy, messier would have been the toews-intangibles guy confounding the offensive numbers hierarchy.

but now i am wondering if what you’re saying about upper deck’s detroit homerism played a part in that general feeling.

 

[daver]

What gets forgotten is just how above the pack he really was in the late-1980s in terms of offensive talent, ignoring Wayne/Mario of course.

His level of offensive performance over 7 years (87/88 to 93/94) is Top 5 since 1980.

 

[86Habs]

His level of offensive performance over 7 years (87/88 to 93/94) is Top 5 since 1980.

This passes the "eye test", imo.

 

[Sentinel]

In the early 90s he was still a god in Michigan. My high school and college buddies never questioned his status and were appalled when the Ottawa talks began. Even when Fedorov took over as the team's biggest star, Yzerman was still THE Red Wing. As my roommate at the University of Michigan said, "It's wrong to love a French Canadian like that but I can't help it!"

He was not blamed for the team's playoff failures. First it was because of goalies (everybody knew you weren't going far with Essenza and Chevaldae), then Primeau became the scapegoat.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

nineties TV was a good time for repping Detroit

• Joey wearing all the Red Wings merch in Full House
• Home Improvement with Tim Allen
• and of course Martin (one of my all time favorite shows lol)

basically the entire yzerman era really was a golden age wasn't it? from john hughes not long after yzerman's rookie year all the way up to john c mcginley's mancrush on chris chelios in yzerman's last years

(martin i don't remember, but i have seen a still of him wearing an old timey caps jersey on the show)

 

[The Panther]

Even when Fedorov took over as the team's biggest star, Yzerman was still THE Red Wing. As my roommate at the University of Michigan said, "It's wrong to love a French Canadian like that but I can't help it!"

Am I missing something? Who's the French Canadian?