Chris Chelios: A Special Breed

While strongly counting down the hours until the puck drops for Friday’s Game Seven of the Stanley Cup finals, I can’t help but to wonder if hockey fans will ever get the privilege of seeing 47-year-old defenseman Chris Chelios play again.

This 25-year-veteran, who has three Stanley Cups on his resume, has over the years won countless battles on the ice, but has slowly been losing the fight against Father Time. This 1981 Montreal Canadiens draft choice has carved out a Hall-of-Fame career that includes three Norris Trophies, and has been picked to partake in 11 All-Star Games over a career with Montreal, Chicago Blackhawks, and the Detroit Red Wings.

A couple of seasons after coming to Detroit in March 1999, Red Wings management planned to cut down on the aging defenceman’s ice time. Even though he is one of the most competitive players in the league and can still be effective on the ice, Chelios has become the ultimate team player by putting the Wings first and his ego over ice time second. Even though he has only dressed for six playoff games this spring and will not be playing in Friday’s Game Seven, Cheli understands the situation. 

“Obviously, I want to play, but I’m realistic too,” Chelios, who ranks third all-time among American players with 1,644 games played, said. “We have one of the best teams in the league and some young guys coming up and it’s bound to happen sooner or later. But I had an opportunity to play six games (in postseason) and help out a little bit, and there’s no other 47-year-old doing it in the league, so I’m going to hope and pray that things work out and I’ll be rooting just like the rest of our fans.”

That team-first attitude has made this 948-point scorer very popular with teammates and management alike. “He’d like to be part of it, but as long as the team wins and the other players are getting bigger roles and responsibilities, he’s okay with it,” Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said. “I think he understands going into Game Seven that our best lineup, unfortunately, doesn’t include him. But he’s OK with that—he just wants the team to win.”

Fellow hard-hitting blue liner Nicklas Kronwall couldn’t say enough good things about Chelios and how he is a valuable leader in the room who helps out with his experience, sense of humor and his veteran savvy.

On a personal note, the one thing that really sticks out from last year’s Cup run was how Chelios was all smiles and excited to hoist the Stanley Cup even though he didn’t play in the Finals. He never complained last spring or this spring about being scratched for games.

In the Western Conference Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks this year, Cheli contributed mightily off the ice when he quickly killed a rumor started by fellow American Jeremy Roenick that Coach Mike Babcock didn’t like Americans, and that’s why he wasn’t playing Chelios.

To the credit of Chelios, he quickly put that rumor to rest before it took on a life of its own and interfered with Detroit’s ultimate focus of defending the Stanley Cup.

I’ve formed many great memories of number 24 over the years and I’m realistic in knowing that the last image of him as a professional hockey player might come on Friday night when dressed in civvies he joins his team in celebrating one more Stanley Cup.