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The Oldest Wolf - Nov. 16 2009 - Vol. 63 Issue 9 - Eric Duhatschek

Chris Chelios is happy to mentor young prospects, but says it’s really all about winning.

PERHAPS THE BEST EXAMPLE of how transcendent Chris Chelios has become on the American sporting landscape occurred a couple of years back, on the television series Boston Legal.

James Spader, playing lawyer Alan Shore, was arguing a case of age discrimination. In his closing, he provided a long list of real people – older men and women, thriving despite the advances of age and the and the 47-year-old ravages of time. One example jumped out: Chelios, playing regularly in the NHL through his mid-40s, long after many of his peers and contemporaries had faded from the scene.

It was true, too. As recently as the 2007 playoffs, when the Detroit Red Wings ran into a series of injuries on defense, Chelios was able, at the age of 45-and-a-half, to average more than 20 minutes per game in 18 appearances that spring. More impressive than the seven points he scored along the way was his post-game ritual of riding the exercise bicycle in the Wings’ sauna, a training technique that had his younger teammates shaking their heads in awe and admiration.

Chelios was always like that – a species apart, a physical freak of nature, and one greatly admired by the Sutter clan of Viking, Alta., two of whom were with him in Chicago for most for the 1990s. Darryl Sutter, the Calgary Flames GM, considers Chelios the greatest American-born player of all-time. Sutter’s younger brother, Brent, said of Chelios in his prime: “He could play all day long and it didn’t affect him. Some guys are just made up that way. Some other guys can’t, because it’s just not in their makeup. They wear out, they get tired, their shifts get long.

Red Wings Close Preseason Against Maple Leafs with Final Roster Spots on the Line <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/detroit-red-wings">Red Wings</a> face-off against Maple Leafs in preseason finale Saturday with several notable prospects still in the hunt for main roster spots.

“Chelly was such an intelligent player. He knew how to use his time and space and to recognize when he should be involved in the offense and when not to go up. He was just such a strong positional player… Bobby Orr was like that, too. Everybody talks about what a great offensive player Orr was, but he was also so good defensively and so smart, and that’s a gift and it doesn’t come naturally to everybody.”

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Mentioning Chelios in the same breath as Orr is indeed heady company. Orr obviously had a far greater offensive touch, but they both had the ability to control the pace of the game whenever they were on the ice, which was usually a lot. Back in 2002-03, a season in which he celebrated his 41st birthday, Chelios still played, on average, 24 minutes and 15 seconds per game. The next year, the last one before the lockout, his numbers dropped a little, to 21:21 – respectable, but not the kind of minutes a player logs on the first pair anymore. Even in the first two post-lockout seasons, when so many players of Chelios’ generation couldn’t find a way of coming back after missing a full year, he played 81 and 71 games, respectively, and averaged more than 18 minutes per night.

It was really only last season that his ice time and his role with the Wings dropped substantially – he appeared in only 28 games (after sustaining a broken leg in the pre-season) and played only 11:40 per night.

Some might read the writing on the wall, but not Chelios, who once said he wanted to play until the age of 50 and is determined to find a way to do it, even if it means going somewhere he’d been only twice before – the minors. Chelios went straight to the NHL from the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, breaking in with the Montreal Canadiens. Apart from a brief AHL conditioning stint with Grand Rapids last year, the only other time he spent outside the NHL – until late October when he made his Chicago Wolves debut – was the 23 games he played for the Motor City Mechanics of the United League during the 2004-05 lockout.

The Wolves are the farm team of the Atlanta Thrashers. Even if Chelios’ presence on the roster may take some development time away from one of their prospects, the Thrashers believe his leadership influence will more than compensate – and have a positive impact on any player who’s trying to learn what it takes to become a professional.

“He’s still the smartest player on the ice,” said Wolves coach Don Lever. “He can add a lot, just teaching the young guys and helping out in that position. What can you say when you have a future Hall of Famer on your hockey team? He just loves playing the game.”

Lever is 56, only nine years older than Chelios, but he hasn’t been a player for 22 years – and he was effectively done as a full-time NHLer by the age of 33, a common occurrence in the youth-crazed mid-’80s.

It makes it even harder to believe that Chelios skated with his teenage sons last summer, preparing as if he was going to play. Even if the Wolves called largely because of his leadership, Chelios is OK with that. But after all these years, the last thing he’s about to do is kid himself.

“I’ve always said that leadership comes on the ice first and foremost,” Chelios stated. “I’ll do my best to help the young guys because I know that’s what the organization and the coaches are looking for from me, and I have no problem doing that. But the bottom line is we’ve got to win and I’ve got to contribute.” 

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