The Grind and the Buck stop here: Kris Draper will announce his retirement tomorrow.

Kris Draper will announce his retirement tomorrow, marking the formal end of the Grind Line Era. Sure, you might say that when Macs and Malts quietly stepped off the ice for the last time, the Grind Line was done, but you’d be wrong. As long as Kris Draper was on the ice to remind us what real speed is, the Grind Line lived on.

I was hoping he’d be back for one more year, but so far, the hockey gods are not granting my wishes in 2011. I mean who else can keep up with D-Helm? Nobody, that’s who.  

Most will remember Kris Draper as the grinder with the tremendous heart, who was maimed  by that filthy pig cochon deucebag Claude le-pew who viciously blindsided Draper in a devastating boarding back in 1996, a violently disgusting criminal act against Kris Draper that left him hospitalized for months with multiple broken facial bones and required reconstruction of his jaw,  an incident that forever formed our most intense and hated rivalry and around which the Wings organization and her fans rallied as the Wings utterly humiliated Patrick Wah and his Avalanche teammates soon after.

You may even know that the Wings picked Drapes up for the cost of a song. $1 dollar man. The best $1 ever spent by a sports organization EVER. Kris Draper, like his bretheren, Maltby, Osgood and McCarty gave his heart and soul to the Wings organization, integral in everyway to its on ice success.  But there are some things you might not know about Kris.

In the 1990’s, Draper and quite a few other Red Wings would head to the training room after each game and hop on a bike to do cardio or other workouts. A practice pretty much unheard of in the NHL at this time. I mean Messier’s preferred after game routine involved single dollar bills and strippers for christsakes. Draper was one of the first Red Wings (and players in the NHL) to embrace trainer John Wharton’s workout philosophies, and incorporate post game workouts, plyometrics, cross training and other techniques, helping turn the world of NHL from one where the boys played a game, threw a few punches and then headed out for beers at the Post (or worse, if you were Mark Messier), to a world where each player could better his game and better his team by more fully functioning as a world class athlete. Chronic knee and back injuries, such as those suffered by Stevie Y. and Mario L. are virtually a past remembrance due to the changes in training techniques first successfully employed in the 1990s, and Draper was a pioneer.

In the way Jimmy Howard credits Chris Osgood for mentoring him, Guys like Darren Helm and Jiri Hudler can and have given credit to Kris Draper for his role in helping them grow their game.

It was Kris Draper who first gave Darren McCarty his second, third and fourth chances to launch his come back, including his heartwarming rise back onto the Red Wing Roster in 2008-2009.  In fact, this is a story that bears repeating – please click here to read about the incredible strength of friendship, loyalty and generosity between two life long friends and teammates: Mac and Drapes.  

I will remember Kris Draper as the incredibly hardworking, tough as nails speedster who could explode across the ice faster than any other player, even players half his age. I will always remember and be grateful for the days of “Grind and Kocurs”, and I will fondly remember the last couple years of watching him play with Darren Helm, and the speed and accuracy with which they could pick off any defense and leave their opponents standing between the blues as if the whistle had been blown. Thank you Kris Draper for all you have given the Red Wing Organization and us fans. We are forever in your debt and just like Ozzie, Malts, Macs, and even Joey- Wings Fans adore you.