NEWSLETTER
Editor’s Note: earlier we shared Matt’s thoughts as a Blackhawks fan in his 30s about the Blackhawks retiring No. 7 for Chris Chelios this weekend. Now, in the second part of our series, a fan in his mid-40s shares his thoughts on the night to come.
Chris Chelios was traded to the Detroit Red Wings on March 23, 1999 for Anders Eriksson, first-round pick in the 1999 NHL Draft and first-round pick in the 2001 NHL Draft. At the time, Chelios was 37 years old and had appeared in 664 games for his hometown Chicago Blackhawks. He had been a respected captain, a two-time Norris Trophy winner for the Hawks, and one of the most liked star players in any sport in the city.
I was a freshman in college when the trade happened, playing football and enjoying all that comes with that experience. I was not in Chicago for the radio comments Chelios made about never wanting to play for the hated rival Red Wings, but I knew they happened. I hated the Red Wings like so many other Blackhawks fans; it was one of the great rivalries in the NHL. So when the trade was announced, I was heartbroken.
Part of my heartbreak was that I had a unique experience with Chelios as a Chicago star. I had umpired Little League games that his sons had played in, games that Caley Chelios attended in a stroller. I still have a Clarendon Hills umpire evaluation card signed by Chelios from one of the games his son Jake played in back in the mid-1990s.
As a Chicago sports fan, my first hero was Walter Payton. Then, Steve Larmer and Ryne Sandberg. Over time, the names changed and like so many others I worshipped Michael Jordan, loved Mark Grace and Frank Thomas, and fell in love with the Blackhawks led by Chelios and Jeremy Roenick.
But the 1990s weren’t kind to Blackhawks fans. After getting demolished by the Penguins in the Stanley Cup Final, the painful teardown began. Larmer went to the Rangers. Ed Belfour got traded. Roenick got traded. The group that we loved so much became, well, little more than Chelios.
So it was only a matter of time until Chelios followed all of those other greats out the door. Ironically, he was brought home to Chicago in a trade with another Original Six franchise that swapped hometown favorites; the Blackhawks traded Denis Savard “home” to Montreal to bring Chelios back to play for the team he cheered for as a kid himself.
The pain felt by all Blackhawks fans in the wake of the Chelios trade was universal. Many fans held it against Chelios for accepting the trade, and those hard feelings were amplified by him bringing the Stanley Cup to Wrigley Field as a member of the Red Wings. Heck, he played against the Blackhawks as a member of the Red Wings in the 2009 Winter Classic at Wrigley almost ten years after he was traded out of town.
Some fans still don’t like the idea that he’s getting his name put in the rafters. After all, he spent more years as a Red Wing than he did a Blackhawk.
My feelings have softened over the years because I’ve grown into the acceptance that professional sports are a business. If a general manager in the NHL today traded a 37-year-old defenseman for two first-round picks, there might be riots in the streets of the team giving up the draft picks. It isn’t Chelios’ fault the Blackhawks wasted those picks.
And it isn’t Chelios’ fault that the years following his trade to Detroit, where he won championships, were so bad in Chicago. The Blackhawks fell into a dark period where, for many, it felt like the sun might never come up again.
That all changed when Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane arrived. Those two, with Duncan Keith, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Brent Seabrook, reached the mountain top that the Savard-Larmer and Chelios-Roenick teams never could. Five home-grown stars, with Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp, authored a resurrection of the franchise that felt inconceivable when Chelios first put on a Red Wings sweater.
But that’s where some of the new-era angst comes for many fans. How are they retiring No. 7 for Chelios and not honoring Seabrook, who played every game of his great NHL career for the Blackhawks?
I’m not worried about Seabrook getting his flowers. He’s still on the payroll in Tampa, and the Blackhawks have said in the wake of announcing Chelios’ jersey retirement that players need to be retired for a few years before they’ll consider taking their numbers out of circulation. Hossa’s jersey has already been retired, and I’m sure Toews, Kane and Keith will eventually join him there. And Seabrook.
The framing of this night is especially unique and appropriate in that Kane will make his return to Chicago as a visitor for the first time as a member of… the Red Wings. He will be celebrated and cheered, and there will be a tribute video that undoubtedly brings many to tears — including 88.
I’m over the beef with Chelios, and am glad the Blackhawks have been able to accept him back into the fold. He was a damn good player and respected leader during his time in Chicago and deserves this honor.
