Lauder's efforts on behalf of British troops in World War I and his comedic timing and content made him beloved throughout the free world. Winston Churchill called him Britain's greatest export and George V knighted him in 1919. His "retirement" appearances, even in the hard years of the Great Depression, were sellouts.

Similarly, you'll be hard pressed to get a seat when they raise Steve Yzerman's No. 19 banner to the ceiling of Joe Louis Arena on Jan. 2 in a pre-game ceremony before the Red Wings take on the Anaheim Ducks. Or, Monday when Yzerman will be awarded the Lester Patrick Award for outstanding contributions to American hockey.

That contribution is mainly summed up by the way Yzerman restored respect and enthusiasm for the Detroit Red Wings and the resultant spillover in Michigan hockey. There were less than a handful of Michigan-raised players in the NHL when Yzerman arrived in Detroit. Two decades later, there are 15 players from Michigan and more in juniors, the minors and colleges. Detroit youth-hockey clubs have won numerous national championships.

The Red Wings were one of hockey's worst teams when Yzerman joined them in 1982 and he leaves the ice as a winner of three Stanley Cups in the past 10 years. Does anyone outside Detroit recall anyone calling the city "Hockeytown" before Yzerman came to town?

After years of fearing that this time was imminent, this is the season of Yzerman's retirement. Repeated serious injuries raised the prospect of retirement numerous times in recent years. But Yzerman fought back to have one last good year and retire on his own terms.

Although he's 41 and has earned retirement, we're going to miss watching Yzerman, a pleasure we've enjoyed for a long time. He was a beautiful skater and a wizard with the stick. In a league where courage is common, he stood out. Hockey fans are in withdrawal. The team will be all right, though. Yzerman has agreed to become a Red Wings vice president.

Yzerman retired July 3 after a 22-year NHL career that saw him score 692 goals and add 1,063 assists for 1,755 points in 1,514 games. He added 70 goals and 115 assists for 185 points in 196 Stanley Cup Playoff games. In a sense, his career can be divided into four parts. He was the youthful captain and offensive star of a generally weak Detroit team prior to 1987; the star of an improved but inconsistent team until the hiring of coach Scotty Bowman in 1993; the leader of three Stanley Cup champions through Bowman's retirement in 2002; and the oft-wounded warrior who tried to rally his team to another championship in his final seasons.

"When I took over the team in 1993, Steve had been in the league for 10 years and was getting frustrated," Bowman said. "The team was getting better then, but for the first few years of his career, he was all they had. He had led the team for most of his career and there was a lot of pressure on him.

"His next 10 years were awesome and I was there for nine of them. He was so competitive and he wasn't reluctant to play injured. He was a coach's dream because you could use him to play offensively, defensively, on the power play, killing penalties and he was one of the best on faceoffs. He was the complete player.

"There have been a lot of great players in the history of the National Hockey League, but he is one of the few that you can say had the total package. In that regard, he was a similar player to the vastly underrated player I had in Montreal, Jacques Lemaire. Like Jacques, Steve was very durable and he showed up to play every game. They were very comparable players. Steve just knew the game inside and out and he was able to come up with big plays time and again when we needed them. He was a very good scorer, but he was a great team player."

Degrading knees made his final seasons painful and a dangerous eye injury put an end to his 2004 Stanley Cup hopes. Yzerman played only 54 regular-season games in 2000-01, broke his leg with six games remaining in the regular season and still got into one playoff game. Fighting pain, he played in only 52 regular-season games in 2001-02, but summoned incredible reserves to put up six goals and 23 points in 23 games en route to his third Stanley Cup. Knee surgery limited him to 16 games in new coach Dave Lewis's first season. Somewhat healed and eager to play, he scored 18 goals and added 33 assists the following season, but took a stick to the eye off a faceoff in the Playoffs.

In 1993, Yzerman played with three compressed vertebrae, then wore a halo brace during the summer. When he couldn't get healthy enough to play in the 2002 Winter Olympics, X-rays were taken that showed he had no remaining cartilage in one knee. Teammates watched him make his way upstairs by stepping forward with one leg and then lifting the other leg to that step. He still managed to play well enough to win a Stanley Cup.

Those closest to him have repeatedly said they don't understand how he was able to play through such incredible pain.

Yzerman sat out the lockout season then had 14 goals and 20 assists in 61 games last year. At his retirement, he said he knew all year it would be his final season.

"My intention throughout the season was to retire, play one last year," Yzerman said. "I really enjoyed my final season here with the Red Wings. I thought about it a lot, about coming back and playing this season. This is the right decision for me at this time. I really have no doubt about that."

To understand Detroit's devotion to Yzerman, you have to understand that by 1997 the Red Wings hadn't won the Stanley Cup since 1955, when Gordie Howe, Alex Delvecchio, Red Kelly, Earl Reibel, Marcel Pronovost, Ted Lindsay, Johnny Wilson, Terry Sawchuk, Bill Dineen and Marty Pavelich delivered Detroit's second-straight Stanley Cup and fourth in six years. A whole generation of Red Wings fans grew up having no idea what their elders were talking about when they spoke of the glory of Detroit hockey.

Steve Yzerman may no longer wear the 'C' in Hockeytown, but he won't soon be forgotten by Wings' fans.

That all changed when the Red Wings swept the favored Flyers in 1997. Yzerman had seven goals and six assists in the playoffs. Yzerman has the world's-greatest poker face in public but teammates will tell you about his quick wit. It was on display at the press conference when Yzerman sat down with series-winning goal-scorer Darren McCarty, who had only two other goals in the playoffs while working with Grind Liners Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby to shut down some of the NHL's top stars, including Eric Lindros and John LeClair.

"On my left is Bobby Orr," cracked Yzerman.

Yzerman was the scoring leader and Conn Smythe Trophy winner the next year when the Red Wings became only the fifth team in NHL history to sweep consecutive Stanley Cup Finals. He had six goals and 18 assists for 24 points in 22 games. Yzerman had the winning goal in Detroit's 2-1 Game 1 victory. He scored twice, including a shorthanded goal, in their Game 2 5-4 overtime victory. On the first shift of Game 3, Yzerman outfought the much heavier Esa Tikkamen as he carried the puck down the middle into goalie Olaf Kolzig. Tomas Holmstrom netted the loose puck 35 seconds into the 2-1 victory at Washington.

In defeat, Washington's Brian Bellows described Yzerman's importance to Sports Illustrated's Michael Farber, "He's in that rare class of athletes who can lift their team. He defines the personality of his team. Their 'no quit' comes from him."

In retrospect, it's hard to decide which was his greatest Stanley Cup: When he won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1998 or when he played on one leg in 2002.

He'll be remembered for both of those times and many more.