In less than two weeks, some of the greatest talent spanning across several generations of Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs players will meet in the Winter Classic alumni showdown games at Comerica Park. We’ve seen alumni games previously at the Winter Classic or Heritage Classic, but they all fall short of the demand from both Original Six clubs had from their former players, which is why two games will be played.
Toronto has already announced their rosters for each game, while Detroit has yet to finalize theirs but GM Ken Holland said to the media that players who are Hall of Famers, multiple Stanley Cup or major award winners will have priority for the second game. One legendary Toronto player who has been out of the league for a few years will not be able to participate due to a bad knee that hasn’t healed.
Mats Sundin, who played for Toronto from 1994-2008 has had a knee issue for quite some time and now he finally decided to have surgery on it. “I have had problems with my right knee for a while and I’m having surgery,” Sundin said to Rosie Dimanno of the Toronto Star. “I have not been able to skate this last year and I can’t skate with my knee like this. I’m very disappointed not being able to play in the great alumni outdoor game and represent the Maple Leafs again.”
The team’s all-time leading point scorer with 987 regular-season points, Sundin played his last season in 2008-09 with Vancouver. The last time he publicly skated was November, 2012 when he played in the Hall of Fame Legends Game.
Below are the rosters of each team as of today.
Detroit:
Coaches
Scotty Bowman, Jacques Demers, Gordie Howe, Barry Smith
Forwards
Alex Delvecchio, Kris Draper, Mickey Redmond, Dino Ciccarelli, Darren McCarty, John Ogrodnick, Joe Kocur, Ted Lindsay, Kirk Maltby, Igor Larionov, Martin Lapointe, Dallas Drake, Petr Klima, Brent Fedyk, Tomas Holmstrom, Brendan Shanahan, Doug Brown, Mathieu Dandenault, Jimmy Carson, Paul Ysebaert, Garry Unger, Red Berenson, Dennis Polonic, Vyacheslav Kozlov. Sergei Fedorov, Patrick Verbeek, Steve Yzerman.
Defencemen
Chris Chelios, Mark Howe, Vladimir Konstantinov, Larry Murphy, Aaron Ward, Steve Duchesne, Jason Woolley, Mathieu Schneider, Jiri Fischer, Viacheslav Fetisov, Paul Coffey, Brian Rafalski, Nicklas Lidstrom.
Goalies
Mike Vernon, Eddie Mio, Chris Osgood, Manny Legace
Toronto Game 1:
Coaches
Red Kelly, Pat Quinn
Forwards
Dan Daoust, Mark Osborne, Bill Derlago, Stew Gavin, Pat Boutette, Rob Pearson, Claude Loiselle, Brad May, Shayne Corson, Tom Fergus, Mike Krushelnsyki, Dave McLlwain, Mike Johnson, Todd Warriner, Dave Reid, Nikolai Borschevsky, Lou Franceschetti.
Defencemen
Mike Pelyk, Jamie Macoun, Matt Martin, Brad Marsh, Greg Hotham, Cory Cross
Goalies
Mark Laforest
Peter Ing
Game 2
Forwards
Darryl Sitter, Rick Vaive, Wendel Clark, Doug Gilmour, Dave Andreychuk, Darcy Tucker, Kevin Maguire, Gary Leeman, Russ Courtnall, Gary Roberts, Lanny McDonald, Tiger Williams, Mike Walton, Tie Domi, Mike Gartner, Joe Nieuwendyk, Steve Thomas, Steve Sullivan.
Defencemen
Dave Ellett, Bryan McCabe, Bob McGill, Borje Salming, Al Iafrate, Bryan Berard
Goalies
Curtis Joseph, Felix Potvin, Mike Palmateer
