Excerpt from “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft “ by Helene St. James
The 1983 draft brought life back to the Red Wings. It marked a turning point after a decade of poor talent development and poorer finishes in the standings, distancing the club from the dismal days of the 1970s, when the team was so awful it spurred the sobriquet the “Dead Wings.” It yielded The Captain and the Bruise Brothers and an enigma from the Czech Republic.
It was the first draft for the group of men who had breathed hope into the franchise the previous summer. Mike Ilitch bought the Wings in early June 1982, too late to install his own people before the draft, which was held June 9.
The 1983 draft, especially the club’s first pick, carried all the more importance in light of what had happened the previous draft. Despite finishing with the second-worst record in 1981–82, the Wings didn’t pick until near the end of the first round because of a trade with Minnesota in the summer of 1981. North Stars general manager Lou Nanne swindled Wings counterpart Jimmy Skinner, convincing him to swap first-round picks in exchange for two players — Greg Smith and Don Murdoch — who made little to no impact on the Wings. The North Stars finished sixth and picked second; the Wings finished 20th and picked 17th.
The 1983 draft was, in fact, the first time since 1979 the Wings retained their own first-round pick, having traded away their first-round picks in 1980, 1981, and 1982. (All the trades were disastrous for the Wings, while their trade partners benefited from being able to draft Larry Murphy in 1980 and Brian Bellows in 1982.)
As (Jimmy) Devellano and his top aide, Neil Smith, proceeded through their first season, they zeroed in on three players who they thought could be game-changers: Pat LaFontaine, Sylvain Turgeon, and Steve Yzerman. When the buzzer sounded on the regular season in May, the Wings sat in the 18th spot, giving them their first pick at No. 4. As soon as the Minnesota North Stars took Brian Lawton with the first overall pick, Devellano and Smith knew they’d get one of their guys. LaFontaine was the top choice because he was a prodigy from the Detroit area, but when the New York Islanders grabbed him at No. 3, after the Hartford Whalers had taken Turgeon, the Wings took Yzerman.
“I saw Steve quite a few times, particularly in the second half of the season,” Smith said in 2021. “As the season went on, we were getting closer and closer to figuring out where we would land in the draft. It was always Sylvain Turgeon, LaFontaine, and Stevie. We saw each of them quite a number of times. We had them rated pretty equally, but LaFontaine was the local guy.”
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When he arrived in Detroit that summer, local papers included explanations on how to pronounce Yzerman: I-zer-man. But soon he was known simply as Stevie, and then “The Captain”— he was honored with the C on his sweater in 1986 when he was 21 years old, making him the youngest in franchise history. Yzerman was quiet but played a thunderous game. He was stoic through playoff heartbreaks, and when he finally won the Stanley Cup on June 7, 1997, at age 32, he embodied a city’s return to glory as he skated a lap with the Cup, his gap-toothed smile an instant, iconic image. Yzerman had won three Stanley Cups by the time he retired in 2006. He had his No. 19 retired in 2007, won another Cup as a front-office member in 2008, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009. Yzerman’s 692 goals, 1,063 assists, 1,755 points, plus-184 rating, and 1,514 games all are best in his draft class.
Yzerman alone…
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