Detroit Red Wings: Will Pavel Datsyuk Ever Return To The NHL?

Although some were hoping Pavel Datsyuk would pull a Kovalchuk and return back to the NHL for next season, his decision to sign with another KHL decision puts those dream to rest.

Once a beloved player for the Detroit Red Wings, Pavel Datsyuk left behind the NHL at the end of the 2016 season to take his talents to the KHL. Ever since then, the magic man has played for SKA St. Petersburg but didn’t re-sign with the club when his three-year contract was up after this past season.

With that news, some Detroit faithful hoped a reunion with his old team the Red Wings was in the works. However, Datsyuk would break their hopeful little hearts when he would instead sign with a different KHL club, Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, on a one year deal.

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Since the contract term is only one year, all those that wanted to see Datsyuk grace NHL ice this next season are thinking to themselves “maybe next year!” If Datsyuk wasn’t going to come back this season, he’s probably never coming back. With his recommitment to the KHL, all hopes of an NHL return for the Magic Man seem to have faded away.

It’s easy to see why some, especially Red Wings fans, wanted Datsyuk back. Datsyuk was a beloved and highly successful player for their franchise, winning two Stanley Cups. Since their impressive postseason streak ended back in 2014, the Red Wings have had little, if any success. Since then their rebuild has struggled to take its next step forward.

Red Wings fans, albeit having a nice new stadium, have watched players who should have been the future of their franchise in Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist never live up to potential and get traded away.

Pavel Datsyuk may not be the player he was in 2008, and the Red Wings are far from the team they were in 2008. Still, seeing a long gone face would at least give their suffering fans something to look forward too. By no means would it turn the team into a contender, or even help in their rebuild, but it would at least sell tickets and be a morale booster.

Further firing up these rumors was the news that Datsyuk’s old friend and teammate Steve Yzerman would take over as the Red Wing’s general manager. If anyone could convince Datsyuk to come back stateside, it would be Yzerman. With Yzerman’s extensive to-do list with the seemingly stalled rebuilt, signing his old friend might be a task he passes over.

Steven Ellis of The Hockey News writes that even though Datsyuk was a productive player at the KHL level last season, he likely couldn’t produce at the level expected from him at the NHL level. That, mixed with Ilya Kovalchuk’s less than impressive NHL return, might have convinced Datsyuk to stay in Russia. Like Datsyuk, Kovalchuk left the NHL to go play in his homeland and the KHL, but Kovalchuk made the decision to return to the NHL with the Los Angeles Kings last season.

One note Ellis passed over was the difference in factors between Kovalchuk and Datsyuk. First and most glaring is their age. Kovalchuk made his NHL return at age 35, which while older than a good portion of the NHL isn’t so old that a return to top-level play was out of the question.

Datsyuk is a few years older at the age 40 and will be 41 by the time his latest KHL contract expires. At that age, most teams would have moved on from a player that old, no matter how legendary. Remember how difficult it was for Jaromir Jagr to sign an NHL contract a few years back despite his consistent and impressive track record.

Then there’s the matter of success at the NHL level. Datsyuk was part of the Red Wings glory years and won multiple NHL awards in addition to two Stanley Cups. While Kovalchuk shared a Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy, he never won a Stanley Cup or filled his NHL trophy cabinet the same way Datsyuk did.

Could it be that Kovalchuk feels he has some unfinished business stateside, prompting his NHL return? Both Datsyuk and Kovalchuk were on Russia’s, meaning “the Olympic Athletes From Russia”, gold medal victory in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

There’s more than a bit of sentimentality in Datsyuk’s latest KHL contract. From Fox Sports Detroit:

"The 40-year-old center has signed a one-year deal with Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, the successor to the team where he began his pro career in the 1996-97 season.He posted a picture on social media of himself in the Avtomobilist uniform and the caption “beloved Yekaterinburg.”"

With that little bit of an emotional layer, it looks like Datsyuk’s heart still belongs to the KHL. That’s the type of post Red Wings fans which he posted in a Detroit sweater pledging allegiance to Motor City. While an NHL return isn’t impossible at this point it’s almost completely unlikely.

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Completely lost in all this speculation was the fact that Datsyuk’s NHL rights were traded by the Detroit Red Wings to the Arizona Coyotes back in 2016, which could further complicate any possible NHL return. Red Wings fans, we know you love Datsyuk, but he’s in the past for your franchise. Look forward to the future and the new generation Yzerman is going to usher in.

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