Another interesting tidbit from the mouth of Brett Hull on NBC's telecast from Columbus: He thinks the chance that Pavel Datsyuk will re-sign with Detroit next season is "none". The whole exchange began with Hull saying that it would be years before the Columbus Blue Jackets could compete, wound its way through where Datsyuk might sign (Pierre McGuire said Datsyuk would go to Washington to play with "his best friend" Alex Ovechkin, Hull said Washington didn't have any money), and eventually came back to Hull where he was asked what he thought of Datsyuk's chances of returning to Detroit.
Which is when he shut the door on Datsyuk playing for the Wings next year.
After Hull hesitated to elaborate, NBC color man Ed Olczyk prodded Hull to say more. In response, Hull made it clear that Datsyuk wasn't happy with head coach Mike Babcock. In response, Olczyk questioned why Datsyuk would be unhappy playing in a great hockey town with great teammates for a winning franchise. To which Hull answered that he was in a similar situation in St. Louis, but he wasn't happy because he had to play for Mike Keenan.
Ouch. It's going to be interesting in the Detroit locker room for the next few days.
Developing, as they say...
UPDATE: Bravo to whoever at NBC Sports decided that it would be a good idea to get Hull more air time by adding him to the play-by-play team covering today's game. All Hull needed was more opportunities, which was exactly what he was talking about a few weeks ago when he went public with his unhappiness. Credit Paulsen at Sports Media Watch for making this call earlier this week.
For more Wings-centric discussion, check out Abel to Yzerman.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-01-2007 @ 3:38PM
J.P. said...
Washington doesn't have any money? What's the Hull is he talking about?
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4-01-2007 @ 8:03PM
Memmy said...
I can see where Hull is going with some of his statements, but I think he is dead wrong in a lot of it. Washington will have plenty of money to spend, but are they going to drop close to 6-7 million on Datsyuk?
I think that Datsyuk will stay in Detroit, of course he will have to perform in the playoffs, which he hasn't in previous years.
He has stepped up since Zetterberg got injured, and has been leading the team well. I do think that he would be happy playing with Ovechkin, but he has been very happy playing with Zetterberg and Homer also.
I think he'll resign with Detroit.
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4-01-2007 @ 8:15PM
James Mirtle said...
I, too, was impressed with Hull today... why on earth no one else has the cojones to tell it like it is with the Blue Jackets, I don't know.
That franchise is still in a heap of trouble, and I'm not sure what the signs of progress are supposed to be.
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4-01-2007 @ 9:42PM
Rick said...
A lot of people don't like Brett Hull due to his willingness to be so outspoken. I'm not one of them. I've always liked Brett for being so outspoken and more often than not for being right. However, he couldn't be more wrong about Datsyuk. I have heard nothing about Datsyuk being unhappy with the coach or anything else in Detroit. In fact, I have heard the exact opposite. Pavel loves playing for Detroit. He likes the organization, the town, and his team mates. If he has a best friend besides his wife it is more likely to be Henrik Zetterberg than Ovechkin or anyone else. And as for the coach, Datsyuk just mentioned the other day how glad he was to be given the "A" on his jersey by the coach. He said it shows that they have confidence in him and makes him want to show that he can be/is a leader. And as the one announcer mentioned, Datsyuk gets all kinds of ice time in all kinds of situations. Power play, penalty kill, 5 on 5, 4 on 4, you name it. He is not unhappy with the coach. If anything prevents Pavel from re-signing with Detroit it will be him and/or his agent asking for too much money. On the other hand, if Datsyuk has a good playoff he may be able to get whatever he asks for anyhow. Pavel will remain a Red Wing either way. Hull must have been hitting the sauce during the game because there is no truth to that "rumor".
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