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The Road to Hockeytown is Paved with Chuck E Cheese

The Road to Hockeytown
Jimmy Devellano with Roger Lajoie
Wiley Publishing

Review by MF37

I’ve read my share of sports books and few sports executives and even fewer athletes offer any real insights or deep thoughts on the games that made their names. Ken Dryden is one, Bill Russell is another. I’m sure there’s a third or fourth out there but they’re not leaping to mind.

While most sports books lack any analytical rigor, the best ones make up for it with a good look behind the curtain and a rich trail of anecdotes.

And the anecdotes are the best thing and the main reason to read “The Road to Hockeytown” by Detroit Red Wings Executive Jimmy Devellano (with Roger Lajoie).

If you ask any hockey fan for the model of long-term success in the NHL most will answer Detroit.

Just how successful has the Wings franchise been?

This is a franchise that has been competing for and winning President’s Trophies and Stanly Cups since Lindros was on good terms with the Flyers, Tupac Shakur was walking the streets and heroin chic was the alleged hot new trend.

Since 1994, Wings players have combined to win six President’s trophies, four Conn Smythe trophies, six Frank Selke awards, one Hart trophy, Seven Norris trophies, one Jack Adams award, one King Clancy award, four Lady Byng trophies, five Lester Patrick awards, and 12 division championships. They have appeared in six Stanley Cup finals winning four Stanley Cups and they have not missed the playoffs in 19 years.

Their primary competition from the mid-90s, the Colorado Avalanche and New Jersey Devils, has not aged nearly as well. The Avalanche have only qualified for the post-season twice since the lockout and are in a serious re-building mode while the Devils have not been able to carry their regular season success into the post-season.

Hockeytown offers a rare glimpse inside the organization that has compiled this impressive run.

It isn’t chock-a block with stunning insights: building a franchise is about drafting well, hiring good coaches, and having a committed engaged deep pocketed owner. But it does demonstrate just how difficult it is to win the Cup and how big a role Mike Ilitch has played in Detroit.

Fans of other team can take hope that a turnaround is possible for any beleaguered franchise – the Red Wings were in such dire straights that they were sold to Mike Ilitch for the staggering low price of $2 million and three Chuck E. Cheese franchises.

In 1982-83, the Red Wings drew 3,500 fans for a pre-season tilt against the Toronto Maple Leafs. In the early days, in an effort to draw fans, Ilitch gave away a free car at each and every Red Wings home game.

Hockeytown wasn’t built in a day.

The transformation began in Detroit when Ilitch hired New York Islanders executive Jim Devellano. Brought in as the GM, Devellano thought the Stanley Cup could be delivered to Detroit within 8 years of his hiring. It would take 15 years for the Wings to win the Cup.

The turn-around started at the ’83 draft. The Wings held the fourth overall pick in what was widely regarded as a three player draft (some story angles never change, do they?). The North Stars went off the table and selected Brian Lawton (now the GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning) first overall. The Hartford Whalers selected Pierre Turgeon second and the New York Islanders took Pat Lafontaine with the third pick. That left Devellano with a fine young prospect named Steve Yzerman (they had actually targeted Lafontaine). The Wings also took Bob Probert, Joey Kocur and Petr Klima in that draft – not a bad day at the table.

But Devellano reminds the readers that the draft has its own kind of luck. The Wings held the first overall pick in 1986, only to encounter a decidedly sub-par draft class. The top two prospects were Joe Murphy and Jimmy Carson. Good hockey players to be sure, but not generational talents or even the type of player to build a franchise around.

Some other fun facts:

When the Wings made a play for former Bruins great Brad Park to come and finish his career in Detroit, they had to sweeten the pot to entice Park to come. Ilitch tendered him a contract for $350,000 a year and two Little Cesars pizza franchises in the Boston area.

While the book talks about the importance of and the Wings commitment to drafting, the key message of the book and the key to winning in the NHL is committed ownership.

How committed was Ilitch? In 1985, the Wings were struggling on the ice and at the gate. Owner Mike Illitch asked about the availability of NCAA free agents. Ilitch and his scouting staff identified seven NHL ready candidates. Illitch’s response? The Wings were to sign all of them. Every last one. Devellano managed to land five of the seven including Adam Oates.

Not only did Ilitch step-up with offers to NCAA free agents, he matched Sergei Federov’s other worldly $38 million RFA offer sheet from Hartford Carolina. That sheet included a $12 million signing bonus and $14 million in playoff bonuses if Federov won two post-season rounds. Ilitch had just seven days to come up with $12 million – and he did. Federov’s compensation worked out to $16 million for playing in 21 regular season games and $14 million for winning two playoff rounds. All in all, Federov was paid $30 million for a few months work.

In a very short epilogue, Devellano addresses the plight of the Maple Leafs and essentially blames the transitional ownership groups and says until there’s a stable, committed owner, the Leafs will have a tough time competing for the cup. It’s an assessment I agree with – if you look at the franchise, the Leafs’ dysfunction on the ice has always mirrored dysfunction in the boardroom and ownership suites.

And Devellano should know. Not only does he work for a model owner in Detroit, he also invested heavily in Maple Leaf Gardens Stock. Each and every bonus (he won five cups with the Islanders) went into purchasing more. By the time of Ballard’s death and the move to take the company private in 1994, Devellano was the third largest shareholder in the company owning over 32,000 shares. Imagine a rival GM owning that much of another franchise today? And try to imagine the media storm when the team bought those shares out at $49.50 a pop.

If you can get around Devellano’s penchant for referring to himself in the third person as “Jimmy” (and no I’m not making this up or aiming for a dated Seinfeld reference) the book is worth the read. There’s plenty of insight into how the Red Wings were built, some great anecdotes about players, trades, and the ineffectiveness of Brian Murray.

Pretty much all any hockey fan could ask for.

This was written by mf37. Posted on Tuesday, September 22, 2009, at 5:00 am. Filed under Book Reviews. Tagged Book Review, Detroit Red Wings. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Post a comment or leave a trackback.

The Road to Hockeytown is Paved with Chuck E Cheese

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