DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji spoke with St. Louis Blues color commentator Darren Pang regarding the fact that his close friend, one Steve Yzerman, has ascended to the GM’s chair in Detroit:
“Obviously I’m thrilled for Steve to be back here,” Pang said. “Steve’s just a special guy. He does things the right way, he’s an honorable friend, he’s loyal. I went up there to his offices to see him and spent a half a day. I saw him in the Red Wings golf shirt and I just looked at him and I said, ‘Boy, does that look good.’ And it does look good. He’s a special guy and I’m lucky to have him as a friend for a long time.”
Pang said he was not surprised to see Yzerman, the Hall of Fame player, decide to stay in hockey in a front office role after his retirement.
“Once he started running Team Canada, started being under Kenny Holland, yes, I saw it,” Pang said. “There was a determination typical of Steve that just never went away. He’s a worker, he’s a grinder, every day he’s thinking about another way of making the team better and what player and Hot Stoving and talking about this player, that player, this coach, that coach, this assistant manager. He thinks about it, besides that and me and him golfing, those are the things we talk about all the time.”
George, did you see the stories about Jesse Puljijarvi? He seems dead set on playing anywhere but the Oilers. I don’t know much about the kid, any chance he’s worth it if Stevie could actually work out a deal that makes sense with the Oiler’s new GM?
I know Darren Pang is a close friend of Steve Yzerman and I loved hearing his insight. It was a good article.
Good read George.
Thanks for posting.