In the March 9th, 2001 issue of The Hockey News, the spotlight was on Alexei Yashin, who returned to form after sitting out an entire NHL season.
Alexei Yashin is one of the most talented players in Ottawa Senators history. He's still the only Sens player to be nominated for a Hart Trophy. But he always seemed to be a disgruntled about something, usually his contract. In the March 9th, 2001 issue of The Hockey News, Bruce Garrioch wrote about Yashin's return to form after sitting out an entire NHL season. The Russian put up 88 points that year in what would be his final season in Ottawa.
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Alexei Yashin’s comeback has been nothing like the celebrated one by Mario Lemieux in Pittsburgh. Instead, the Ottawa Senator had to get back in the good books by proving himself all over again.
After spending a year on the run from the final year of a contract that pays him $3.6 million this season, the star center gave up the fight last summer when an Ontario court judge ruled Yashin’s only choice was to honor his deal.
But now the boos which rained down on him during the pre-season have mostly turned to cheers. And while some critics suggested the Senators were better off without Yashin, he has, after a mediocre start, reemerged as an elite player. A noted patron of the arts, Yashin realizes the truest test is in his performance.
“When I put on the No. 19 jersey I always play with all my heart,” he says.
“I’m here and I’m going to do my best for the Ottawa Senators. I always do the best I can do whenever I step on the ice. Sometimes the points are not always there, but that doesn’t mean I’m not trying.”
The questions started the warm September afternoon Yashin stood on a podium in the bowels of the Corel Centre, wearing his new leather pants and acting defiant as he talked about his return.
He came back to the Senators as a man with a lot to prove, and prove it he has. Determined to make $8-to-$10 million next season, he recently passed Marian Hossa for the club scoring lead after trailing him by as many as 15 points.
Were it not for the sluggish start, Yashin would be on pace for a career year. As it is, he’s on pace for 86 points, just eight fewer than he had in 1998-99, when he was a Hart Trophy finalist.
“The guy is just playing really well,” says Ottawa goaltender Patrick Lalime. “I don’t know what has happened, maybe he has gotten confidence from putting so many by me in practice. It has helped him to score again.”
With the playoff drive entering its final stages, Yashin was the club’s hottest player with 16 goals and 25 points in 19 games as of Feb. 23.
“To me, he has been our best player,” says Ottawa coach Jacques Martin. “What we’re seeing now is that his game is getting back to the level of where it was before he left.
“The one thing we’ve talked about with him is using his shot. He has a great shot and I didn’t think he was shooting the puck enough. If you look at the great players in this league, they shoot the puck a lot.” Yashin had 187 shots through 60 games, 20th in the NHL.
He has never missed a game because of injury, but Yashin has a checkered past because of contract disputes that have made him and New Jersey-based agent Mark Gandler two of the most unpopular people in Ottawa.
Yashin finished his rookie season in 1992-93 with 79 points, then held out of training camp the next year until a bonus structure was put in place to get a new contract.
That resulted in another dispute which ultimately got GM Randy Sexton fired before his replacement Pierre Gauthier signed Yashin to a five-year, $13-million contract midway through 1996-97.
“He has been no trouble whatsoever,” says captain Daniel Alfredsson of Yashin.
“I think we all realize that if he’s giving it everything he has, then we’ve got a better chance of winning as a team.
That’s all we want.”
Says Yashin: “All I’ve ever wanted for this team is to have success. I feel good about the position that we’re in, but we have to keep playing well as a team.”
It’s no coincidence Yashin’s game improved the day Mario Lemieux madehis return to the pittsburgh lineup. The Pens’ star has always been a source of inspiration for the Ottawa center.
Following a game Dec. 30 at Mellon Arena, Yashin asked Lemieux for one of his sticks. The stick arrived withspecial words attached and is in a special place in his Ottawa home.
“When you see these great players and you see what they can do, it makes you want to play better,” Yashin says.
Or at least as good as he was playing before. And that’s a whole lot better than anyone in Ottawa imagined possible.