Two legends of the sport are apparently looking to make an NHL comeback next season. Recently word surfaced that 47 year old goaltender Dominik Hasek was practicing daily and making enquiries about an NHL comeback attempt. Now another NHL legend has followed his lead as 42 year old Mike Modano is also looking for a comeback attempt.
Both of these players were out of hockey last year, with Hasek playing his 2010-11 season with Moscow Spartak in the KHL and Modano playing 40 games that year for the Detroit Red Wings.
What can I say about Dominik Hasek? He is unarguably one of the greatest goalies of all time. Surely a top 5 guy all time, and someone who can claim to be number 1. Hasek is the only goalie in NHL history to win 2 Hart Trophies. He owned the Vezina in the late 90s and early 2000s and put up ridiculous season after ridiculous season. In 1998 Hasek turned in what was arguably one of the most dominant performances in Olympic Hockey History, nearly singlehandedly leading the Czech Republic to a Gold Medal. In 2002 he backstopped the Red Wings to the Stanley Cup, and got a second ring as Chris Osgood’s backup on the 2008 squad.
Hasek would leave the NHL after the 2008 Cup win, his final year in the NHL he posted a very un-hasek like (and below NHL average) save percentage of 902. While his numbers playing in 2009-10 in the Czech league, and in 2010-11 in the KHL are good, he is an aging goaltender who looked past his prime and a shadow of his former greatness in his final year in the NHL, and that was 4 years ago. I just don’t see Hasek as having what it takes at age 47 to play in the NHL at a high level and be the Dominator again.
Modano is one of the greatest hockey players of his generation, and has a legitimate claim to be the greatest American born player of all time. He has made his mark in hockey winning the Stanley Cup in Dallas, the World Cup with Team USA, and scoring 561 career goals and 1374 career points. Modano was a leader on and off the ice who spent twenty-one of his twenty-two NHL seasons as the face of the Stars franchise, both in Minnesota and Dallas. The 1988 first overall pick was the face and cornerstone of the franchise that would become a perennial NHL contender in the late 90s/early 2000s, and win the 1999 Stanley Cup.
In his last year’s Modano had regressed into the shell of the player he once was. He was relegated to a third line checking role, and then in 2010 as his game further regressed, he was told by General Manager, and former Stanley Cup Winning teammate, Joe Nieuwendyk that his services in Dallas would no longer be required. Trying to hang on Modano decided to play one more season close to his childhood home in Livonia Michigan, and suited up for the Detroit Red Wings. The season was a disaster, when Modano wasn’t hurt, he could often be found in the pressbox as a healthy scratch. In the 40 games when he was on the ice, he scored just 4 goals, and managed to have the 4th worst +/- among the forwards on the time, despite playing over 30 less games than the three players who were worse than him. His lack of speed was a major concern, and he just could no longer keep up in the NHL.
I know that guys like Ray Whitney, Jaromir Jagr, and Teemu Selanne are still playing in the NHL in their forties, but these three guys played last season, and produced in their last NHL season. Its great to see a living legend out there, playing the game at a high level. Its great to see these guys score one more goal, one more point, and continue to produce. However, this only works when they are still NHL caliber players. When a legend goes out there and just cannot perform at a high level anymore, its sad to see. Based on their most recent NHL performances there is little to suggest that Modano and Hasek have what it takes to continue to be NHL players, and a comeback will do nothing for these two men, other than tarnish their outstanding legacies.
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