Steve Yzerman (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #22)
Adjusted Stats
1983-1984 Det 82 GP 31 goals 38 assists 70 points 0.85 PPG
1984-1985 Det 82 GP 24 goals 48 assists 72 points 0.88 PPG
1985-1986 Det 52 GP 11 goals 22 assists 33 points 0.63 PPG
1986-1987 Det 82 GP 27 goals 51 assists 77 points 0.94 PPG
1987-1988 Det 66 GP 42 goals 44 assists 87 points 1.32 PPG
1988-1989 Det 82 GP 55 goals 76 assists 131 points 1.60 PPG
1989-1990 Det 81 GP 53 goals 56 assists 109 points 1.35 PPG
1990-1991 Det 82 GP 47 goals 52 assists 99 points 1.21 PPG
1991-1992 Det 81 GP 41 goals 53 assists 93 points 1.15 PPG
1992-1993 Det 82 GP 48 goals 65 assists 113 points 1.38 PPG
1993-1994 Det 57 GP 22 goals 54 assists 76 points 1.33 PPG
1994-1995 Det 80 GP 21 goals 46 assists 67 points 0.84 PPG
1995-1996 Det 80 GP 35 goals 58 assists 93 points 1.16 PPG
1996-1997 Det* 81 GP 23 goals 66 assists 90 points 1.11 PPG
1997-1998 Det* 75 GP 28 goals 52 assists 80 points 1.07 PPG
1998-1999 Det 80 GP 34 goals 53 assists 86 points 1.08 PPG
1999-2000 Det 78 GP 39 goals 49 assists 88 points 1.13 PPG
2000-2001 Det 54 GP 20 goals 38 assists 58 points 1.07 PPG
2001-2002 Det* 52 GP 15 goals 41 assists 56 points 1.08 PPG
2002-2003 Det 16 GP 2 goals 7 assists 9 points 0.56 PPG
2003-2004 Det 75 GP 22 goals 39 assists 61 points 0.81 PPG
2005-2006 Det 61 GP 14 goals 20 assists 35 points 0.57 PPG
Adjusted Playoff Stats
1983-1984 Det 4 GP 3 goals 3 assists 5 points 1.34 PPG
1984-1985 Det 3 GP 2 goals 1 assist 3 points 0.75 PPG
1986-1987 Det 16 GP 4 goals 12 assists 16 points 1.01 PPG
1987-1988 Det 3 GP 1 goal 2 assists 3 points 1.00 PPG
1990-1991 Det 7 GP 3 goals 3 assists 5 points 0.73 PPG
1991-1992 Det 11 GP 3 goals 4 assists 7 points 0.64 PPG
1992-1993 Det 7 GP 3 goals 2 assists 6 points 0.82 PPG
1993-1994 Det 3 GP 1 goal 3 assists 4 points 1.31 PPG
1994-1995 Det 15 GP 4 goals 7 assists 11 points 0.71 PPG
1995-1996 Det 18 GP 8 goals 11 assists 19 points 1.06 PPG
1996-1997 Det* 20 GP 7 goals 6 assists 14 points 0.68 PPG
1997-1998 Det* 22 GP 7 goals 20 assists 27 points 1.21 PPG
1998-1999 Det 10 GP 10 goals 4 assists 14 points 1.43 PPG
1999-2000 Det 8 GP 0 goals 5 assists 5 points 0.60 PPG
2000-2001 Det 1 GP 0 goals 0 assists 0 points 0.00 PPG
2001-2002 Det* 23 GP 7 goals 20 assists 27 points 1.19 PPG
2002-2003 Det 4 GP 0 goals 1 assist 1 point 0.30 PPG
2003-2004 Det 11 GP 4 goals 3 assists 6 points 0.58 PPG
2005-2006 Det 4 GP 0 goals 4 assists 4 assists 0.99 PPG
Career - 1561 GP, 654 goals, 1028 assists, 1683 points, 1.08 PPG
Career-Highs - 55 goals (88-89); 76 assists (88-89); 131 points (88-89); 1.60 PPG (88-89)
Avg. (21 seasons) - 71 GP, 30 goals, 47 assists, 76 points, 1.08 PPG
Peak Avg. (88-96) - 78 GP, 40 goals, 58 assists, 98 points, 1.25 PPG, 0 Cups
Playoff Career - 196 GP, 67 goals, 111 assists, 177 points, 0.90 PPG
Playoff-Highs - 10 goals (98-99); 20 assists (97-98); 27 points (97-98); 1.43 PPG (98-99)
Accolades - 1 Selke Trophy, 1 Conn Smythe
All-Star Teams - 1 1st-time all-star
3-time Stanley Cup Champion
Yzerman is a legend now, a Canadian icon, but when one looks at his career accolades, they are somewhat underwhelming. Only one appearance on a year-end All-Star team? One Selke trophy? That's it? That is because Yzerman is like those centers who played during the Bill Russell/Wilt Chamberlain era in basketball...a victim of bad timing. From 1983 to 1995, he played in the shadow of two guys named Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, not to mention competing for 2nd-team honours with Peter Stastny, Dale Hawerchuk, Denis Savard, etc. Good luck making a lot of all-star teams in that environment, even if you are great.
As I'll mention in the entry on Ovechkin, it's worth remembering that Steve Yzerman went 0-for-13 in his quest to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a Stanley Cup championship to begin his career. This is easily forgotten now, when we (rightly) consider Yzerman one of the best captains and leaders to play in the modern era. But early in his career, Yzerman was criticized in much the same way a player like Jason Spezza is raked through the coals: as a one-dimensional scorer who needed to improve his defensive game and couldn't win the big one.
For the first few years of Yzerman's career, the Red Wings were unequivocally awful. Then came a different, more painful stage...the Joe Thornton stage: the Red Wings were amazing in the regular season, but consistently choked come playoff time. Certainly, there were a number of reasons for this, but Yzerman often shouldered the blame. At first, there wasn't a lot of basis in this...in the playoffs, Yzerman was consistently productive (18 points in 16 games in a run to the Conference Finals in 1987, 10 in 6 in 1989). But then came some years where Yzerman faded into Thornton-level postseason production (less than a PPG) and the consistently-favoured Red Wings disappeared early in the playoffs.
Yzerman finally reinvented himself and began to develop into a premier two-way center: winning more faceoffs, covering more point shots, and still producing 85+ points a season. All of a sudden, the Red Wings finally clicked, and Yzerman won his coveted Cup in 1997 in a schelacking of the Lindros-led Philadelphia Flyers. The irony is that this was one of Yzerman's less-productive playoffs (13 in 20).
Yzerman would go on to win the Cup, and the Conn Smythe (with a stellar 24 in 22 and +10), the following year, and also added one more to his resume in 2002. So his three Cups came at the tail end of his career, and did not correspond with his prime scoring seasons. Yet no one who saw those Red Wing teams would question that Yzerman was, with perhaps the only competition being Nick Lidstrom, the most indispensable part of those championship squads. Sure, he wasn't scoring at the rate of his earlier career, but he was producing a point a game, playing great two-way hockey, and leading with quiet grace. Like Sakic and Mikita, Yzerman goes down as a class act and a great scorer all in one. Year-by-year he may not have been able to compete with Gretzky and Lemieux, but the final resume speaks for itself.
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