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Originally Posted by Pablo Fanque
Good post. Thanks.
The only thing I would take exception with is your comment that Yzerman "rescued the franchise." Certainly, he was the marquis player, the reason why fans started come back to Wings games. But, Illitch built a team around him. The Wings were a nice little team in the late 80's, but it wasn't until they added players like Lidstrom, Federov, Konstantinov, Draper, Larionov, Coffey, etc. in the early to mid 90's that they became the premiere franchise in the NHL. Put it this way: with Stevie Y alone, they wouldn't have gone anywhere. He would have been a great player on a mediocre to bad team.
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Well I say "rescued the franchise" b/c he kept the fans coming AND gave Illitch someone to build a team around (similar in some ways to the Pens). True, the Wings were not a great team in his early years but at least he gave the fans a reason for hope. I remember them taking on the Oilers in the playoffs and realistically there was no way they were going to beat the Oilers but everyone was at least interested in the series to see if Stevie could work some magic against the Great One. Without others, no way they go on later to win the Cup but without Stevie there might have been another 5 years or more of missing the playoffs entirely.