Report: Datsyuk could leave Wings for Russia
There’s some potentially troubling news for Detroit Red Wings fans Saturday night as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman mentioned on the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast that there is a “legitimate change” that Pavel Datsyuk could leave the team after this season to return to Russia.
The reason for Datsyuk’s return to Russia, should it actually happen, would be for family reasons according to Friedman.
Said Friedman:
“We’ve all understood that at some point, Pavel Datsyuk would go back to Russia and play. There is a legitimate chance, according to sources, that might happen after this season. If it does occur, it would be for family reasons. Datsyuk isn’t commenting and neither is the club. It is expected that everyone will sit down during the offseason for a final decision.”
Ansar Khan, Red Wings beat writer for Mlive.com, emailed Datsyuk’s agent shortly after that and was told that Datsyuk is currently concentrating on helping the Red Wings win the Stanley Cup this season and that he will sit down with general manager Ken Holland for their annual year end meeting.
If Datsyuk’s does end up leaving it would obviously be a huge story for the Red Wings for two reasons.
First if the fact that even though he is 37 years old he is still capable of playing at a high level and is still one of the better players on the team. His 47 points on the season entering Saturday were second on the team, just one point behind Henrik Zetterberg, even though he has only played in 62 games this season.
The other — and perhaps biggest — factor is the fact that Datsyuk’s $7.5 million salary cap hit would remain on the books for the Red Wings whether he plays for the team or not because his contract was signed after he turned 35 years old. So not only would they be losing one of their top players, they would also have a significant portion of salary cap space going to … nobody.
Selected in the sixth round (171st overall) of the 1998 NHL Draft, Datsyuk is one of the Red Wings’ many late-round draft steals and has been one of the elite players in the NHL for the past decade thanks to his combination of shutdown defensive play, electrifying talent with the puck and overall production. Entering Saturday he has 349 goals and 602 assists (916 points) in 949 career regular season games. He has been a member of two Stanley Cup-winning teams in Detroit, in his rookie season in 2002 and then again in 2008.
He is a three-time Selke Trophy winner as the best defensive forward in the NHL and a four-time Lady Byng award winner.
Over the past few years the Red Wings have already lost Nicklas Lidstrom to retirement and Mike Babcock to Toronto. Now there seems to be a chance they could soon be losing Datsyuk as well.
Detroit Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk could return to Russia after this season. (USATSI)
