In a showdown with Steve Yzerman, the Red Wings icon always wins. Ask Jonathan Drouin.
Drouin blinked first last week. Suspended for walking out on the Tampa Bay Lightning’s AHL team after requesting a trade, Drouin called his general manager and told him he wanted to do what he should've been doing all along: play hockey.
Related: Yzerman not closing door on Drouin's return to Lightning
It was a call Yzerman was waiting for, likely expected. He was never going to back down, never going to have his arm twisted. Drouin, after not being traded by the Feb. 29 deadline, and set to lose a year on his entry-level contract, had no choice. He needs to play. And so, in a showdown with Yzerman, Drouin - and his agent Allan Walsh - were the unequivocal losers.
Yzerman labeled Drouin's call a "pleasant surprise." He’s saying all the right things.
"I will do whatever I think is right for the Lightning and that could include recalling Jonathan," Yzerman said. "If he gets back, plays well, he’s going to help us win, in the right frame of mind and he deserves it, he’ll get recalled."
Yzerman has proven as a player and executive that nothing and no one comes before the team. He left Martin St. Louis off Team Canada, eventually trading his captain. He did the unconventional, coming out and saying pending unrestricted free agent Steven Stamkos wouldn’t be traded. And Drouin’s been watching with the rest of us as the Lightning have won a franchise-best nine in a row.
Drouin, Walsh, and the NHL once again learned a familiar lesson: No one bullies Steve Yzerman.
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