July 5, 2006

BY BILL McGRAW

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

When Steve Yzerman arrived in Detroit in 1983, he was 18, had a layer of baby fat and ordered white milk in bars.

The lady who housed him in junior hockey said at the time: "He always took his plates to the sink."

His career turned out to be a fairy tale, but 23 years ago, before all the nifty goals, painful injuries, Stanley Cups and furniture commercials, Yzerman was so unknown that the newspapers had to instruct readers how to pronounce his name (EYE-zer-man).

And, of course, the supreme irony is the Red Wings really didn't want him at first.

In 1983, new owner Mike Ilitch and general manager Jimmy Devellano saw one player in that year's amateur draft whom they believed would do wonders for the moribund franchise they were desperately trying to resuscitate.

That player was Pat LaFontaine, the charismatic center from Waterford who had just completed a spectacular junior career in Quebec.

"He was a local boy who would have been a super marketing tool," Devellano recalled Monday. "We had 4,000 season-ticket owners and had just missed the playoffs for the sixth year in a row. The cupboard was bare."

But the New York Islanders, drafting third, chose LaFontaine, who went on to have a Hall of Fame career.

The next choice belonged to the Wings. Devellano took Yzerman, and suddenly, Yzerman assumed the role of being Ilitch's main building block when he should have been making plans for the senior prom.

"I was excited; I never felt any burden at 18," Yzerman said at Monday's retirement announcement. "I just wanted to play in the league. And I had no idea if I could play in the league."

Right.

He made an impression from the first day of training camp.

"After one session, you knew he was a tremendous hockey player," said Ken Holland, the Wings' general manager who was a minor-league goalie for Detroit in 1983.

During the regular season, Yzerman centered the Wings' top line and quickly caught the eye of Joe Louis Arena crowds with his on-ice intelligence and quick moves. He scored in his first game and ended his rookie year with 39 goals and 48 assists.

"He represented the turning-of-the-page for the franchise," said Colin Campbell, the NHL's director of hockey operations, who was one of the Wings' veterans in 1983.

As a youngster, Yzerman was shy and quiet and kept a low profile off the ice. He treated the older players -- who were nowhere near his equal when it came to talent -- with respect.

"He was even a better person than a player," Campbell said.

Yzerman scored 229 goals in his first six seasons. Coach Jacques Demers appointed him captain in 1986, and the media and fans began comparing him to such contemporary Detroit superstars as Alan Trammell and Isiah Thomas.

In 1988-89, Yzerman scored 65 goals and 90 assists, and the Wings had evolved into a truly interesting -- if not a truly contending -- team.

At the start of that season, speculating on the future, Yzerman said: "I'd like to stay in Detroit my entire career. I don't know what's going to happen, whether they want me or not."

Right.

He added: "But I know I don't want to go anywhere else."