Who doesn’t love former Detroit Red Wings‘ captain Steve Yzerman?
After all, Yzerman always seemed like a classy player both on and off the ice and that has continued since he moved into front-office positions in the NHL.
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Well, one person who does not seem too fond of Yzerman is former NHL referee Paul Stewart, who says Yzerman was his least-favorite player to deal with because of his disrespect for officials.
In Stewart’s new book “You Wanna Go,” he called out Yzerman for treating officials like garbage.
From The Detroit News:
“I made it my business to step up and defend the linesmen whom he treated the most poorly, in my opinion,” Stewart wrote in the book. “In Minnesota, he berated a linesman to the point where I felt awful for this guy.
“Bowman had other players like Doug Brown, Viacheslav Fetisov, Igor Larionov and Chris Chelios, who didn’t berate officials and could discuss penalties and calls with me without going over the top in a disrespectful manner.”
One of Yzerman’s former teammates, Brendan Shanahan disputes Stewart’s claim that Yzerman treated officials poorly.
“He’s (Stewart) trying to sell a book, right?” said Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan, a former Red Wing and the only player in NHL history with 600 goals and 2,000 penalty minutes.
“Steve had that fire in the belly, that relentless, unyielding will to win, but you would be mistaken and it would be inaccurate to say he was disrespectful. He wasn’t that kind of guy. He held everyone accountable on the ice, even the officials.”
Shanahan did say Yzerman and some officials weren’t on great speaking terms.
Shanahan remembers Yzerman’s reaction when an official offered to buy them a round of drinks at a restaurant the day after ejecting Yzerman in the third period of a game in Nashville in 2003.
“Steve told the guy to (expletive) off … and he (Yzerman) walked out of the restaurant,” Shanahan said.
