The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted an excerpt from her new book, The Big 50: Detroit Red Wings this morning. St. James discusses two times in which the Red Wings’ management considered trading Steve Yzerman, including once in 1995, when Yzerman was almost traded to Ottawa for Alexei Yashin and a 1st round pick. As St. James notes, Yzerman wasn’t thrilled about the concept:
When Yzerman found out his name had come up in trade talks, he fumed to reporters about how much it bothered him.
“I can’t say I’m upset about the possibility of being traded,” he said. “I just expected to be treated like an adult. I would have thought that at some time somebody would have come to me and said, ‘Here’s what we’re thinking. Here’s why we’re doing this.’ I guess they’re not adult enough to do that. I thought I knew people in the organization well enough. I’ve always tried to be upfront and honest and I thought I deserved that in return—the good or the bad. I love this city and I love this hockey team. But life goes on. Hockey goes on. Careers go on. We’ll just wait and see what happens.”
It is unlikely Ilitch would have okayed a deal, but Bowman let it play out until it petered out. “Ken Holland and Scotty were in on the discussions,” [Jimmy] Devellano said. “They would report back to me. There were tons of names involved. At the end of the day, that trade didn’t get done because [Ottawa] couldn’t even afford to pay Yzerman. It was a wasted effort.”
Continued; thank goodness that the Red Wings never ended up trading #19.
