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Mike Modano: I’ll retire if Detroit makes Stanley Cup final

Mike Modano

Mike Modano has always been a pretty forthcoming guy. From his past with the Minnesota North Stars and Dallas Stars, Modano’s never been a guy to hold back his thoughts and feelings. After all, when you hit the age of 40, there’s no real need to hold back your feelings anymore.

That’s why it’s no surprise that Modano was able to make some headlines today discussing what his NHL future looks like after this season. Depending on how things go for the Red Wings in the playoffs, it’s possible that Modano could be heading for retirement after the season ends.

Chris McCosky of The Detroit News shares the story about how if the Wings season ends with a run into the Stanley Cup final, it would be the end of Modano’s illustrious career.

“If we go that far, if we get to the Stanley Cup Finals, it would be it for me,” he said after the morning skate Friday.

With or without hoisting the Stanley Cup?

“Yeah,” he said, “If we can get a nice, two-month run at the end here, I’d be happy with that. It would be worth it to have a nice long run to make this whole year worthwhile. It hasn’t gone exactly how we all printed it up.”


At the least that kind of proclamation takes a little of the pressure off the Wings to send Modano out on top. The future Hall Of Fame center is the highest scoring American player of all time and the Livonia, Michigan native headed to Detroit during the offseason to finish up his career at home in front of the family. A scary wrist injury nearly cost Modano the rest of the season, but since recovering from that he’s been able to work his way back into playing on Detroit’s fourth line.

Modano’s numbers this season haven’t been the big scoring ones we might remember from the past from him, but in a deeper role with the Wings, more isn’t quite demanded from him to score. In 38 games Modano has four goals and 11 assists with a -5 plus/minus rating. Modano’s averaged 12:34 time on ice this season. At 40 years-old he’s not what Nicklas Lidstrom is to Detroit on the ice, but chances are if Modano played as well as Lidstrom he’d still be in Dallas.

If the Wings do go that deep, expect that the team will do what they can to try and win Modano another Cup and perhaps try to win one more for Lidstrom too as it’s unknown if this might be his last year or not.