Scotty Bowman Contemplated The Trade But It Never Happened

Published on March 5th, 2024 4:27 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


Imagine Steve Yzerman, one of the greatest hockey players of all time, in a different uniform.

In 1995, the Ottawa Senators were desperate.

The Senators had a terrible hockey team, and fans in the Ottawa area were not turning out for games.

Ottawa's arena held only 9,500 people at capacity, and the team wasn't coming even close to selling out the small arena.

The Senators needed something that would draw people to the game, and they settled on one name - Steve Yzerman.

Yzerman grew up just outside of Ottawa and was one of the top players in the game.

Yzerman was just 30 years of age and had a number of prime years ahead of him - would the Red Wings be interested in doing a deal?

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Remember - 1995 was a couple of years before the Red Wings would win their first of three Stanley Cups under the leadership of team captain, Steve Yzerman.

Trading Yzerman would not considered sacrilege for the leadership team of the Red Wings - in fact, general manager Scotty Bowman seriously contemplated the move.

The Senators were offering young star Alexei Yashin in return. Yashin was the second overall pick of the 1992 NHL Draft, and put up 79 points in his first season in the NHL.

In addition, Yashin was eight years younger than Yzerman.

Scotty Bowman had something to think about.

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Though Bowman was seriously contemplating the deal, things never progressed enough for him to run the deal past the owner of the Red Wings, Mike Ilitch.

Bowman felt as though Ilitch would have blocked any deal involving Steve Yzerman, and he was likely correct.

The Red Wings were smart to hold onto Yzerman, as the team would soon go on a remarkable run that resulted in three more Stanley Cups.

The Senators, on the other hand, were left to flounder.