New York — This past weekend’s reunion of the Red Wings’ 1997 and 1998 Stanley Cup winning teams could have served as some sort of NHL front office gathering.
So many of the players from the 1997 and 1998 teams, along with Detroit’s 2002 Cup-winning team, serve in high-profile positions with NHL or European pro teams.
Though many are Hall of Fame players, they’ve remained in the game, which isn’t always the case in hockey or many other pro sports.
“Actually, I was just talking about that with Martin Lapointe,” said Ken Holland, the former longtime Red Wings general manager who was succeeded by Steve Yzerman (Holland is GM of the Edmonton Oilers). “That team, and I’m sure it’s the same with championship teams all over, they have a lot of passion. The success that we had as a group, as a team, allows you to kind of stay in the game.
“When you’ve got that many Hall of Fame players, you know that they can give the input. I’m happy to see them in the league.”
On the Red Wings alone, Yzerman is the general manager while Nicklas Lidstrom is the Wings’ vice president of hockey operations, Kris Draper is the director of amateur scouting, Kirk Maltby is a pro scout and Mike Knuble is an assistant coach with the Grand Rapids Griffins, the Wings’ minor league affiliate.
That’s just with the Red Wings.
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Brendan Shanahan is president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Tim Taylor is director of player development for St. Louis, Jamie Pushor is assistant GM with Tampa Bay and Lapointe is director of player personnel and amateur scouting with Montreal.
Sergei Fedorov and Igor Larionov are head coaches in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League, and Slava Kozlov is an assistant coach.
Off the 2002 Wings’ team, Luc Robitaille is president of the Los Angeles Kings, Brett Hull is executive vice president in St. Louis and Manny Legace is goaltending coach for Columbus.
Pat Verbeek, who was on the Wings’ roster between 1997-98 and 2002, is general manager in Anaheim.
Niklas Kronwall (European player development), Jiri Fischer (associate director of player development) and Dan Cleary (assistant director of player development), Cup winners in 2002 or 2008, are all in the Wings’ front office.
“When I was manager there (in Detroit), I hired Steve Yzerman and Pat Verbeek and Chris Osgood (then goaltending coach) and Kirk Maltby and Kris Draper and Jiri Fischer,” Holland said. “We had so much success and I couldn’t find jobs for everybody, but I wanted to find jobs for lots of those ex-players because I knew them as people and I knew their passion. I tried to give them an opportunity that (former Wings front office managers) Neil Smith and Jimmy Devellano gave to me 15 years earlier.
“Once they got in the game, they kind of take it and run with it, because of their passion, because of their work ethic, because of their understanding of what the National Hockey League is all about.”
In particular with Yzerman, who was the main architect in constructing Tampa Bay’s two Stanley Cup championship teams and is rebuilding the Wings, Holland isn’t surprised by his success.
“He was in the process of himself for after hockey (toward the end of Yzerman’s playing career),” Holland said. “He came to work in our front office for four years (after Yzerman retired as a player) and sat in all the meetings, pro meetings and amateur meetings. We drove to Grand Rapids. He asked a lot of questions. He was at the rink every day. He’d talk to all the people.
“He took all of his playing experiences and his thirst for knowledge and he put together in his own mind what he wanted to do to put an organization together. I’m not surprised at the success he had in Tampa and now building in Detroit, just because of his passion and work ethic and commitment and his inquiring mind. He’s always trying to find more information.”
Home sweet home
The Wings have been superb at Little Caesars Arena, with a 5-1-1 record thus far this season.
Away from home, before Sunday’s game in New York against the Rangers, the Wings were 1-2-1.
Coach Derek Lalonde believes limiting turnovers and making good decisions with the puck will bring more road success.
“Manage our game,” said Lalonde, of how the Wings can become better on the road.
“As good as we played (Thursday, a 3-1 home win over Washington), we still had some puck play issues, a lot of turnovers. That was the only thing we worked on (Friday) at practice and for the most part we were pretty good (during Saturday’s 3-0 victory over New York Islanders). We didn’t have those egregious turnovers.
“Those turnovers just keep piling up on you and there’s too much zone time. (Saturday) we didn’t do that. We were clean for most of our game. That led for us to probably win the possession battle, and positionally we were spending more time in our zone.”
Ice chips
What does Holland believe stood out about the 1997 and 1998 Wings teams?
“What I remember is the disappointments that probably in most cases are necessary steps to eventually become champions,” Holland said. “You’d love to suddenly put a team together and win a Stanley Cup but in reality, and even when you look at today’s teams, you can see the building three, four, five years in advance and that’s what we went through.”
… The Wings had a season-high 24 blocked shots Saturday against the Islanders, which showed to Lalonde a team-first attitude during an injury-riddled stretch in the schedule.
“Our guys’ commitment for their teammates, blocking shots and just that will has gotten us through this stretch,” Lalonde said. “That was awesome to see.”
ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tkulfan