New calling (and no more games) for Wings' Chris Chelios

Detroit -- Chris Chelios had avoided this retirement speech so long, it's no surprise he actually avoided saying the word when it finally came time to make it official Tuesday.

"Did I mention retirement?" he asked, laughing, after he'd talked for more than a half-hour at a news conference at Joe Louis Arena.

Well, not exactly.

His wife of 23 years, Tracee, joked beforehand Chelios would have as much trouble saying "the R-word" as Fonzie did saying "wrong" on "Happy Days."

So, I decided to give the 48-year-old Chelios -- the greatest American-born hockey player, to my mind -- one more opportunity to change his mind.

"No, I'm not gonna leave the door open," said Chelios, accepting his fate along with a new job as an advisor to hockey operations with the Red Wings. "I'm 100 percent sure this is it. I know that I'll never play in the NHL again. ... I couldn't have played any longer than I did. And I accomplished what I wanted to. Basically, there's nothing left."

Nothing but a legacy, of course, and one most Wings fans probably haven't fully appreciated the last decade. Lost amid the old-man jokes -- my favorite remains a sign in Calgary: "Hey, Chelios! Jesus called and He wants his sandals back!" -- was the fact Chelios did as much to stoke the competitive fire in that dressing room as anyone.

A three-time Stanley Cup champion who also won three Norris Trophy awards, Chelios suited up for more games (1,651) than any defenseman and more playoff games (266) than any player in history. And by finishing his 26-year career with the Thrashers -- a lonely month in Atlanta that sealed this retirement decision -- he became the second-oldest player in history behind Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe.

"I thought he was gonna try to play 'till 50 -- I honestly thought that," said Kris Draper, one of a handful of ex-teammates who showed up Tuesday. "But even for Cheli, it was gonna come."

Defying the odds

Wings general manager Ken Holland calls the 1999 deadline deal he made with the Blackhawks for Chelios one of the two best he has made, along with the Dominik Hasek heist in 2001.

Tuesday, he told one of his favorite stories as he tried to explain what Chelios meant to a team that already had an embarrassing wealth of veteran leadership from the likes of Steve Yzerman and Igor Larionov.

There was that day Holland ran into a carpenter hauling equipment into the dressing room, "I asked him, 'What's going on?' He just said, 'Don't worry, Chris Chelios is paying for this.' "

Turns out Chelios decided to remodel the sauna room, knocking out a wall to install a window so he could watch TV while he rode the stationary bike in the 185-degree heat for 15-20 minutes after practices and games.

"He was 40 years old," Holland said. "Most 40-year-olds would've had a heart attack and that would have been the end of them."

Not Chelios, who, as you'd expect, was busy riding the bike in that sauna an hour before Tuesday's news conference. Old habits are hard to break, I guess.

When I asked Draper to put Chelios' career in perspective, he answered quickly, "Hall of Fame. Three words."

Chelios needed a lot more than that Tuesday. He'd spent a few hours the night before scribbling down 30 years' worth of memories and thank yous on a legal pad. Then he spent close to 40 minutes fumbling through the pages at the podium.

"I forgot to number 'em," he explained to his wife afterward, shrugging the way husbands do.

"It showed," she laughed.

But it wasn't until the end of his not-so-prepared remarks that he finally broke down, thanking his family for their support as he took a career that began before his four kids were born and extended it long enough for two to enroll in college. (Sons Dean and Jake are both on the hockey team at Michigan State, while the eldest of his two daughters, Caley, a high school senior, is hoping to play college lacrosse next fall.)

Regrets? Maybe one

A few years ago, I sat on the patio at the Chelios' offseason home in Malibu talking with Chelios and his wife about this day that seemed like it might never come. Chelios, who never lost that trademark snarl on the ice -- he finished his career with nearly 3,000 penalty minutes -- insisted he'd know when it was time. And after 20 years, Tracee said she'd given up wondering how much would be enough -- the question every elite pro athlete struggles to answer.

"That's why we never talked about it," she said Tuesday. "I've never brought it up. When he's ready, he's ready. That's the way you want it to be. You don't want to have any regrets. And he doesn't have any."

That's not entirely true. He wishes he'd been able to win a Cup with his hometown Blackhawks. Years of political in-fighting with the players' union also took a toll. And Chelios drew laughs Tuesday when he paused to thank fans around the league.

"I know I wasn't well-liked in a lot of the cities, and deservedly so," he said. "But now that it's over, I hope you'll forgive me for some of the things I did to some of your players."

They'll forgive, maybe, but they won't forget.

Nor should they.

Chelios, who'll serve as both a mentor and a scout for the Wings, talks of writing a book about his life in hockey "one of these days."

"It's a hell of a story," he said.

But as he begins writing the next chapter in his life, please understand, it's probably going to take him some time.

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