The Dallas Stars are celebrating 25 years in Texas by hosting the NHL draft for the first time.
The headliner for the home team had a little anniversary of his own: retired franchise icon Mike Modano marking 30 years since he was the No. 1 overall pick by helping introduce the Stars’ first-round pick
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Sharing the stage with high-scoring Dallas winger Jamie Benn, Modano only had to look up to see his No. 9 hanging from the rafters at the other end of American Airlines Center.
The highest-scoring U.S.-born player in NHL history was the first pick by the Minnesota North Stars in 1988, five years before the franchise moved to North Texas.
”I’ve been thinking about it,” Modano said. ”Didn’t really ring a bell till about a month ago when they started saying some stuff, called me to do some intros. I was like, `Dang, yeah, ’88
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Modano watched hockey grow from almost nothing in North Texas, but couldn’t say he was surprised his old franchise got the draft since a new arena that opened in 2001 brought the All-Star game six years later. The 48-year-old figured it was just a matter of time.
”I think a lot of things happened along the way that we didn’t think,” Modano said. ”Just kind of gives people a little bit of knowledge of the town. There’s hockey down in Texas and it’s alive and kicking. Brings a lot of attention to this town for hockey for a good week.”
Modano gigged the current captain of the Stars during their presentation, saying he wasn’t on stage when Benn got drafted and Benn responding that they didn’t bring fifth-round picks to the stage.
Benn, the 2015 Art Ross Trophy winner as the NHL’s points leader, is up to fifth on the club’s career scoring list after getting taken 129th overall in 2007. Benn’s rookie season was Modano’s last in Dallas.
”We worked on that for a little bit,” Modano said with a smile.
Dellandrea, the 13th overall pick
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”I might have been a little young,” said the 17-year-old Dellandrea, who spent the past two seasons with Flint of the Ontario Hockey League. ”But both of them have been tremendous role models to look up to as a young hockey player.”
Now one of them is a teammate.
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Now that he’s no longer an active player, maybe Ichiro Suzuki wants to start swinging for the fences.
How about at next month’s Home Run Derby during All-Star festivities in Washington?
What began as light-hearted banter among Seattle Mariners coaches grew into something that caused a stir in the clubhouse before Wednesday night’s game against the New York Yankees.
”He’s got power and he’s been launching balls into the seats,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. ”A couple of coaches said the other day, `You know, no one wants to do this Home Run Derby. Why don’t we just send Ichiro? He’d be awesome.”’
The idea gained momentum when Servais mentioned it on a radio show Wednesday, and suddenly a new Twitter hashtag was born – (hash)IchiForDC.
Not officially retired but unlikely to appear in another major league game
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Even though he’s still in game shape, Suzuki didn’t seem to be entertaining the idea of throwing his hat in the ring for the annual power contest.
”I’m not a player (anymore) and just the long, great history that MLB has, I don’t think it would be good for it,” Suzuki said through a translator. ”But I think it’s fun and I’m happy that it’s come up.”
Servais was happy the concept was being discussed, even if it was nothing more than a joke.
”This is really good because he’s been giving me a hard time so I’m really glad to throw this back in his lap,” he said with a grin.
Suzuki, the 2001 AL MVP and Rookie of the Year
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”It’s the funniest thing he’s said this first half of the year,” Suzuki said. ”I’m definitely going to get him back. I’m going to continue to get him.”
Suzuki has 3,089 big league hits, but only 117 of those were home runs. Despite reaching double-digit homers in just three of his 18 major league seasons, Suzuki often displayed surprising power in batting practice and it was widely believed he could have clubbed a lot more over the fence if he tried.
But the 10-time All-Star maintained his unorthodox, slashing swing throughout his career, leading the league in hits seven times.
”Right now I’m eating two hamburgers at lunch, and now that this Home Run Derby thing came up I’ll have to up it to three cheeseburgers for lunch, get some more power
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If Suzuki did try his hand against some of the game’s top sluggers in the nation’s capital, however, he knows who he’d want pitching to him.
”Mark Buehrle,” he said, after a long, contemplative pause.
Suzuki was 27 for 66 (.409) against the left-hander, who won 214 games over 16 seasons.
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