March 08--On a dreary Wednesday morning in Michigan, the Grand Rapids Griffins coaching staff gathers in head coach Jeff Blashill's office at Van Andel Arena.
Joining Blashill and his four assistants -- only one of whom played in the NHL -- are two interns. One cues up video for a brief film session.
The other intern for the Red Wings' AHL affiliate stays mostly silent, taking notes and checking his calendar on his tablet.
He's the only intern in all of hockey with three Norris trophies, three Stanley Cups and membership in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Officially, Chris Chelios is adviser to hockey operations for the Red Wings, and he reports directly to general manager Ken Holland. It's a position he's held for the five years since his retirement, but practically speaking, he's still an intern.
"First year out, I tried the management side," Chelios said. "I wasn't separated enough from being a player. It was hard for me to be critical of my ex-teammates, making decisions basically on their careers and being critical of them. I didn't enjoy that one bit.
"I decided to get into the coaching aspect, and basically doing an internship, learning how to coach down in Grand Rapids."
Chelios, 53, was born at Little Company of Mary Hospital, raised in Evergreen Park and attended Mount Carmel for two years. He started skating at Candy Cane Park on 99th Place when he was 6 or 7. He suited up for the Chicago Jesters, St. Jude Knights and the Chicago Saints in his youth hockey days.
"I still will claim, till the day I die, that I'm a Chicago kid," he said.
His parents and children have Chicago-area ties that keep Chelios coming back. Whether he ever returns, for good, remains to be seen.
Leading the Caravan
Chelios has always been different.
He was a Greek kid growing up in a blue-collar Irish neighborhood. The kid who played hockey despite his family's tight budget and no indoor rink in his hometown. The Mount Carmel student who couldn't afford a Catholic education.
How he ended up with the Caravan was the first of three big breaks.
His father, Kostas Chelios, owned the Blue Note Lounge at 103rd and Halsted, where he befriended frequent patron Pat Doyle. Doyle knew Chris, who worked at his father's business, and offered to pay his way to Mount Carmel to help him continue his hockey career. Chelios had started his freshman year at Evergreen Park High School, which had no hockey team.
Chelios also played for the Chicago Saints, a Triple-A team, which was the highest level of youth hockey in the U.S. In the 1970s, players could play club hockey and high school hockey at the same time.
"I got myself in trouble because I skipped a game my freshman year to go play with the Triple-A team, and John Deuran, the coach, got a little upset with me," Chelios said. "That probably had a little bit to do with me playing on the JV team that year."
Chelios split time between JV and varsity as a freshman, scoring five goals with 10 assists in about 20 varsity games. He had a goal and two assists in his varsity debut Nov. 22, 1975, against Leo. He added 12 goals and 11 assists as a sophomore, when he played as the third-line varsity center.
First-line center Craig Ferguson, now Mount Carmel's head coach, was suspended for one game after slashing an opponent Jan. 7, 1977. Chelios was promoted to the top line to fill Ferguson's place and scored two goals in the next game.
"He was more of a finesse player back then," Ferguson said, adding that the young Chelios weighed no more than 120 pounds but won an intramural boxing title. "He wasn't the guy that terrorized NHL forwards. But personality-wise, Chris was extremely playful. He always had a goofy smile on his face."
Chelios was promoted to the second line after the first shift in the winner-take-all third game of the Kennedy Cup finals. The Caravan were 23-1 entering the playoffs, but Brother Rice had won Game 2 and was considered a favorite because Mount Carmel had a young team.
The Crusaders scored first, but Chelios tied it with 38 seconds to go in the first period. He scored again with 10 seconds left in the game, and Mount Carmel won 2-1 for its first of six consecutive Kennedy Cup titles.
"He probably scored the two most important goals in Mount Carmel history," Ferguson said. "He was really, really talented. The perfect skater, he really understood the game of hockey. He had a great head for the game."
His best game marked the end of his high school career.
Unlikely path to stardom
The first time Chelios left was for Australia, when his father pursued a business opportunity abroad. That lasted only a few months when Chelios was 10. The family returned to its previous home in Evergreen Park.
The second time was for San Diego, a chance for Kostas to re-launch his career as a restaurateur when Chris was 15. He played on a team with no nickname -- just a Jack in the Box logo on the front -- with men twice his age.
Meanwhile, Mount Carmel won its first state title in 1979. Ferguson and his Caravan teammates, none of whom would play major college or professional hockey, called Chelios to share the news.
Then, Chelios caught his second break. A friend from San Diego gave Chelios the phone number of the Moose Jaw Canucks coach. Chelios joined the junior team in Saskatchewan as a defenseman -- having played his whole life as a center. He lied about his position during a phone interview. His speed helped compensate for his technical shortcomings.
The third break came a year later, when the U.S. Olympic team upset the Soviet Union. The Miracle on Ice cleared the way to more college scholarships and made more NHL executives willing to give American players a chance.
Chelios was drafted by Montreal, then spent two years playing college hockey at Wisconsin, where Chelios said he learned the intricacies of playing defense from assistant coach Grant Standbrook.
Coincidentally, Standbrook saw Chelios play at Mount Carmel during his freshman year while in town scouting another tournament.
"He had grown quite a bit from that first observation," Standbrook said. "He had the right attitude, more than anything. A lot of guys have the natural talent, but they don't have the attitude that he had.
"He had the natural nastiness that is necessary at the NHL level. It's not something you condone, but it's something that you look for."
Chelios won a Stanley Cup in 1986, his second full season in Montreal, and co-captained the team in 1989-90. He was traded to the Blackhawks on June 29, 1990.
But his return to Chicago after a 13-year absence didn't feel right for many hockey fans, as the Blackhawks traded beloved star Denis Savard to Montreal to acquire Chelios. In hindsight, the Blackhawks got the better of the trade, as Chelios won another two Norris trophies while helping extend the Blackhawks' playoff streak to 28 years.
The streak ended in 1998, leading to Chelios' leaving Chicago again.
As Chelios wrote in his 2014 autobiography, "Made in America," he had a handshake no-trade agreement with then-owner Bill Wirtz. But general manager Bob Murray told the Tribune that his existing contract was negotiated under the belief it would be his "last contract with the Hawks."
"Seeing that in print stunned both me and my agents," Chelios wrote. The writing was on the wall.
Tradewinds
The previous two times Chelios had left Chicago were because of his father's business. This time, it was his own business, and it was complicated.
Chelios had a no-trade clause, but he waived that after Blackhawks officials instituted a no-kids-in-the-locker-room policy. Chelios took the message personally, as he enjoyed bringing his kids to work.
Chelios wrote in his book that he never wanted to go to Detroit. He thought he would be traded to Philadelphia, which excited him.
Instead, Detroit got Chelios in exchange for Anders Eriksson and two first-round draft picks. It was the first trade between the rivals in 33 years.
Chelios was so shocked by the trade that he didn't even notice he was assigned No. 24. That sweater belonged to former Red Wings enforcer Bob Probert, who was Chelios' teammate for four seasons in Chicago. Hockey etiquette suggests newcomers need permission to wear a number that most recently belonged to a well-respected player.
"I completely forgot about Probert because I'd never been traded and put in a situation like that before," Chelios said.
Chelios was relieved, though, to be within a few hours of his sister Gigi, who was being treated for breast cancer in Chicago. She died in 2000. His bar, Cheli's Chili on Madison Street, closed shortly after the trade and brought about Kostas' retirement.
Chelios won two Stanley Cups with the rival Red Wings, a feat he hadn't accomplished in Chicago. Improbably, he played more seasons in the Motor City than in the Windy City. He briefly returned to close his career with the Chicago Wolves, then an affiliate of the Atlanta Thrashers, but upon retirement -- announced in Detroit, with the winged wheel in the background -- he took a job in the Red Wings' organization. The new Cheli's Chili is near Comerica Park in downtown Detroit.
The Blackhawks honored him during Chris Chelios Heritage Night in 2010. Chelios donned his No. 7 jersey and addressed the Blackhawks faithful before a Dec. 17 game against Detroit.
He could not ignore the boos.
"Come on guys, let bygones be bygones here, all right?" he pleaded. "I'm one of you!"
Chelios now believes most fans have forgiven him. His 2013 Hockey Hall of Fame induction speech helped, as Chelios identified himself as a Chicagoan.
"I'm happy the Hawks are having all that success," he said. "I know the whole Red Wing thing is an issue with the Hawks fans, as it was for me when I was a Hawk. It's time to forgive, and I think for the most part everybody has."
Family first
Chelios hops over the boards at Van Andel Arena during the Griffins' practice. He's a bit slower at age 53, the result of 1,651 NHL games in 26 seasons. Only four players have played more games. Only Gordie Howe played as many years. Chelios holds both records among defensemen. He also earned more penalty minutes than any other Hall of Famer.
He skates smoothly, albeit without the speed that helped him learn the position in Moose Jaw and Wisconsin. An ACL tear in the mid-1990s, undiagnosed for years, still gives him trouble long after the ligament was repaired. A few Cortisone shots a year help ease the pain.
He takes part in drills, dumping pucks into the corner and watching the Red Wings' top prospects vie for positioning and the puck. On the ice, he gives pointers to defensemen Brian Lashoff, Xavier Ouellet and Ryan Sproul. Off the ice, he reports on their development to Holland, Detroit's general manager.
"He's been there and done everything," Blashill, the Griffins' head coach, said. "He's reached the pinnacle as a Hall of Famer, where they'd all like to be as NHL players. When you've done that, you command an unreal amount of respect."
Chelios spends most Griffins games sitting in suite above the ice and taking notes on what he sees. During intermissions, he'll brief the team on his observations.
But there's one player whom he won't include in any report.
His son, Jake Chelios, is a defenseman for the Wolves. The Griffins and Wolves play in the same division and meet eight times per season. Jake played in four of those games and recorded two assists.
"I never say a word whenever we play Chicago," Chris Chelios said. "I don't say too much about anything when it comes to Jake. It's almost comical the way it works out."
Jake and his three siblings all have ties to Chicago. Their grandparents live in Westmont. Sisters Tara and Caley Chelios play lacrosse at Northwestern. Older brother Dean, Jake's former teammate at Michigan State, played in the ECHL for the Indy Fuel, an affiliate of the Blackhawks.
Dean was born in Montreal, but the youngest three Chelios kids were born in Chicago. All four refer to the Detroit area as their hometown on their athletic rosters, which Chris Chelios does not find to be accurate.
"It pisses me off that they still have on their bios that they're from Bloomfield Hills (Mich.), because they're not. They're from Chicago," Chelios said. "That's one thing I've been telling them to change over all the years. They've been there 15 years, but at the end of the day, they're still from Chicago."
Chris travels from Detroit to Chicago frequently. He catches as many Wolves games as he can and made a point to watch Dean in Indianapolis. He flew to California to see Northwestern's lacrosse opener against USC, marking the first time his daughters had played on the same team.
"He's somebody who can't sit still," Jake Chelios said. "He's driving everywhere. There's enough for him to do, between my brother, me and my sisters. He's all over the place."
Someday, Chelios wants to be a full-time coach. He's even willing to revisit life in the front office, now that most of his former teammates have retired. He won't name names, but he says a number of NHL and AHL teams have pursued him for assistant coaching roles. One NHL team, which he would not reveal, gauged his interest in being an assistant general manager.
"I have met with the Blackhawks over the years, and they said if I ever wanted to come in some capacity with Chicago, they'd be willing," Chelios said, specifically citing conversations with team president and CEO John McDonough.
For now, Chelios enjoys being an intern. His hours are flexible, and he's still abreast to the game he first watched at Chicago Stadium and first tried at outdoor rinks in the south suburbs. Blashill prefers to have him at most Griffins games, but both men understand the allure of watching Chelios' kids play is important and won't last forever.
He's looking forward to having the family reunited for the summer at their Malibu, Calif., home.
"The biggest issue why I haven't taken a job full-time is because I'm having too much fun watching my kids participate in their sports," Chelios said. "I don't want to miss that."
