Steve Yzerman

Stephen Gregory Yzerman (born May 9, 1965) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player currently serving as executive vice president and general manager of the Detroit Red Wings, with whom he spent all 22 seasons of his NHL playing career.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he is a Detroit sports icon and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

After his retirement as a player, he served in the front office of the Red Wings, and then as general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning, while also being executive director for Team Canada in two Olympics.

That season, Yzerman also became the first 18-year-old and youngest player to play in an NHL All-Star Game (18 years, 267 days) since the current format was adopted in 1969.

This stood as an NHL record for 27 years until Jeff Skinner broke it by eight days.

As a youth, he played in the 1977 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a minor ice hockey team from Nepean, Ontario.

He attended Bell High School and played for his hometown Nepean Raiders Junior A hockey team.

After one season with the Raiders, the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) drafted him, and he played centre for the Petes from 1981 to 1983.

The 1983 NHL Entry Draft was the first for Mike and Marian Ilitch, who had purchased the Detroit Red Wings in the summer of 1982.

Jim Devellano, the Red Wings' general manager at the time, wanted to draft Pat LaFontaine, who had grown up outside Detroit and played his junior hockey in the area.

However, when the New York Islanders selected LaFontaine third overall, Devellano "settled" on Yzerman, drafting him fourth.

The Red Wings were prepared to send Yzerman back to Peterborough for one more year, but "after one (training camp) session, you knew he was a tremendous hockey player", said Ken Holland, the former Red Wings general manager who was then a minor league goaltender for the Wings during Yzerman's rookie training camp.

Yzerman tallied 39 goals and 87 points in his rookie season and finished second in Calder Memorial Trophy voting.

Prior to the 1986–87 season, at age 21, Yzerman was named captain of the Red Wings and continuously served for the next two decades (dressing as captain for over 1,300 games), retiring as the longest-serving captain of any team in North American major league sports history.

Once voted to be the most popular athlete in Detroit sports history, locals often simply refer to Yzerman as "Stevie Y", "Stevie Wonder", or "The Captain".

Following the departure of Red Wings captain Danny Gare during the 1985–86 season, Red Wings head coach Jacques Demers named Yzerman captain of the team on October 7, 1986, making him the youngest captain in the team's history.

Demers said he "wanted a guy with the Red Wings crest tattooed on his chest".

Yzerman won numerous awards during his career, including the Lester B. Pearson Award (Most outstanding player) in the 1988–89 season, the Conn Smythe Trophy (Most Valuable Player of the Stanley Cup playoffs) in 1998, the Selke Trophy as the league's best defensive forward in 2000 and the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for perseverance in 2003.

During the next season, Yzerman scored his then-career high 50th goal against the Buffalo Sabres on March 1, 1988.

However, during the same game, Yzerman suffered a knee injury which caused him to miss the rest of the regular season.

Despite his absence, the Red Wings would win their first division title in 23 years.

Yzerman led the Wings to five first-place regular season finishes and three Stanley Cup championships (1997, 1998 and 2002).

He played in ten All-Star Games, and was a first team All-Star in 2000 and a member of the All-Rookie Team in 1984.

In 2002, Yzerman won an Olympic gold medal, making him one of few players to win an Olympic gold medal and the Stanley Cup in the same year.

On July 3, 2006, Yzerman officially retired from professional hockey, finishing his career ranked as the sixth all-time leading scorer in NHL history, having scored a career-high 155 points (65 goals and 90 assists) in 1988–89, which has been bettered only by Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.

On September 25, 2006, Yzerman was named as a vice president and alternate governor of the Red Wings, winning a fourth Stanley Cup championship as an executive in 2007–08.

Yzerman's #19 jersey was retired on January 2, 2007, during a pre-game ceremony at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

Yzerman was the general manager of Team Canada for the 2007 IIHF World Championship, which they won.

On November 4, 2008, he was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.

Yzerman was appointed executive director of Team Canada on October 7, 2008, for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Team Canada went on to win the gold medal by defeating the United States.

He also became an honoured member of the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009, his first year of eligibility, inducted alongside 2001–02 Red Wing teammates Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille.

In May 2010, he left the Red Wings organization to become general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning, serving in that capacity until September 2018.

Yzerman was again appointed executive director of Team Canada on March 5, 2012, for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Canada went on to win their second-straight gold medal after defeating Sweden.

He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2014.

Yzerman was born in Cranbrook, British Columbia.

In 2017, Yzerman was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players" in history.

On April 19, 2019, Yzerman was named the general manager of the Red Wings.

Yzerman has represented his country in several international tournaments as a member of Canada's national hockey team (Team Canada).