NHL Execs Flock Back To Familiar Franchises
Martin Brodeur has been back with the New Jersey Devils for eight months and only walked by his statue once. It's harder to avoid his banner hanging from the arena rafters.
Brodeur returning to the place he spent the majority of his career sparked a recent run of executives going home to work for organizations they're synonymous with. Steve Yzerman last month went back to Detroit as Red Wings general manager. In the past week, John Davidson became New York Rangers president and Mike Modano went back to his Minnesota playing roots as Wild adviser.
Yzerman, Davidson, and Modano don't have to avoid statues but do have to balance being beloved by their respective fan bases with the new pressure of succeeding in the front office. There are plenty of recent examples of fan favorite homecomings that didn't work out: Pat LaFontaine in Buffalo, Ron Hextall in Philadelphia, Trevor Linden in Vancouver, Ron Francis in Carolina and Patrick Roy in Colorado are among them.
Still, the lure of going home is always strong.
"All the things with my banner in the rafters and my statue, this is what I did as a hockey player, but now I'm trying to leave my mark in a different way," Brodeur said. "I came back because I care about the success and the fans and the area. Regardless, you still feel the pressure because you want to do well. I'm a proud guy. I'm investing my time in this organization, and I want to see them do well."
While Brodeur and Modano are business-focused now, fellow Hockey Hall of Famer Yzerman and Hall-honored broadcaster Davidson are right in the fire of trying to rebuild proud franchises into championship contenders.
Yzerman won the Stanley Cup three times as Red Wings captain and is back in Hockeytown after eight years as Tampa Bay Lightning GM and another as an adviser. His family still lives in Michigan, he was tired of commuting, and he considers the link to his playing days "irrelevant" in undertaking this challenge.
"What I did as a player is done," said Yzerman, who will work in the shadow of his No. 19 banner. "I can't do anymore, good or bad. It really has no bearing on whether I'm a good general manager or not. I have a job to do."
Davidson understands he has a tough job ahead to try to deliver the Rangers' first title since 1994. After 13 seasons in St. Louis and Columbus gave him executive experience, parts of eight seasons as a Rangers goaltender and two more decades as team broadcaster before all that drew him back.
"I was here 28 years in a lot of different areas, and that makes it a whole lot easier," Davidson said after his introductory news conference Wednesday. "I wouldn't have left Columbus had I not been here originally and had a sense of home, a sense of people welcoming myself and our family back. .... It's just this is a unique opportunity at a very unique time."
When Davidson and wife Diana walked the streets of New York on Tuesday night, she turned to him and said, "Doesn't this just feel like we didn't leave?" Thirteen years after leaving the broadcast booth to embark on a journey that has made him one of hockey's most respected executives, he felt the same way.
Davidson was welcomed home like a conquering hero.
"There's a lot of good feeling because John is a beloved person here in New York," longtime broadcast partner Sam Rosen said. "He was loved when he was a player, he was loved as a broadcaster, and people now respect that he's been a lead executive in the National Hockey League for more than a decade."
Minnesota is in Modano's blood after he was the North Stars' first overall pick in 1988 and played there until the team moved to Dallas in 1993. Post-retirement, Modano spent three seasons as a Dallas Stars adviser, and while this isn't the same franchise he played for, he's excited to get back to where his NHL career started.
"It's always been obviously a real sentimental thing for me, an emotional thing for me to start my career in Minneapolis and St. Paul back in the North Star era," Modano said Thursday. "I have a lot of fond memories with fans and friends and everybody involved in the hockey community there."
Modano will work with owner Craig Leipold, who heralded the Hall of Fame center as "an important part of our hockey culture in this state."
The same is true of Brodeur in New Jersey after he backstopped the Devils to the Stanley Cup three times. His job as executive vice president of business operations is about as far away from the pressure cooker of tending goal as Brodeur can get, and it follows three hands-on seasons as Blues assistant GM.
"I went from my playing career right into hockey operations as an assistant GM, so the pressure and the day to day operations were always big," said Brodeur, who sold his old house to Devils coach John Hynes and rents while traveling back and forth to St. Louis. "You figure from the first day I walk into the NHL to last year, for me, every game, you get the mood swings, you got everything. I was kind of looking forward to kind of sit back and just kind of look at the big picture instead of the daily grind. It's been a great change for me and for me family to be able to handle that."
Hall of Fame defenseman Brian Leetch, who won the Cup with the 1994 Rangers and returned as an adviser, isn't worried about the heavy expectations on Davidson or Yzerman to make the most of a second act.
"Steve Yzerman, John Davidson — any of these people that are in these positions that are successful, they put the pressure on themselves to be successful and to have a positive impact," Leetch said. "As much as there is outside pressure from media and the big city and fans, it's really internal."
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