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PLAYING CAREER Growing up in his hometown of Nepean, Ontario , where he attended Bell High School , Steve Yzerman (pronounced EYE-zer-man) started out playing Center in the juniors with the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League , from 1981 to 1983. He had 91 points in 56 games in his second year with the Petes, but his numbers were far from what a future NHL phenom would have had because Peterborough rolled four lines, each having equal playing time. Jim Devellano , the Wings GM at the time, had originally set his sights on Pat LaFontaine for the 1983 Draft . LaFontaine was taken 3rd by the Islanders , so with the 4th overall pick the Wings selected Yzerman. After being drafted, the Red Wings feared he would be too small to compete in the NHL, standing 5'11" and weighing 185 pounds. Detroit was fully prepared to send him back to Peterborough for another year of junior hockey. When Yzerman arrived at training camp in 1983, "he immediately was our best player," Devellano recalled. In his first professional season, Yzerman tallied 39 goals and 87 points, and finished 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting. In 1986 he was named captain, the youngest player to ever be named captain in the team's then 60-year history. During the 1988-1989 Season Yzerman recorded 155 points, a total that only Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux have surpassed. In 1997, Yzerman led Detroit to its first Stanley Cup in 42 years by sweeping the Philadelphia Flyers in 4 straight games. The following year Detroit repeated the feat, taking four in a row from the Washington Capitals. Yzerman handed the Cup first to Vladimir Konstantinov , a Red Wing defenseman who had been injured severely in a car accident a year earlier. On 26 November , 1999 , Yzerman became the eleventh player in NHL history to score 600 goals. In 2001-2002, Yzerman re-aggravated a longtime knee injury, forcing him to miss 30 regular season games. Playing on one good knee, he led Detroit to its 3rd Stanley Cup in 6 years, scoring 23 points in 23 games. The following summer, Yzerman underwent Osteotomy surgery for knee realignment, a procedure typically reserved for the elderly. Yzerman missed 66 games and received a standing ovation from the home crowd when he returned in mid-April, registering an assist in his first game back. His comeback from this type of surgery is rare, if not unprecedented, among professional athletes. On 2 August 2005 , Yzerman signed a one-year deal with the Wings, ensuring that Detroit would have the same captain for the 19th consecutive season. This could mean that Yzerman will retire as the longest serving captain of a single team in NHL history. On 31 March 2006 Steve scored his 691st NHL career goal versus the Chicago Blackhawks . He passed Lemieux for eighth place for career goals. {Link without Title} . AWARDS
CAREER STATISTICS ''Statistics as of 28 April 2006'' INTERNATIONAL PLAY Played for Canada in:
In late 2005, the Canadian Olympic Team announced they would retire jersey number 19 in honor of Yzerman. SEE ALSO
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