Wade Redden

Wade Redden
Redden with the New York Rangers.
Born	(1977-06-12) June 12, 1977 Lloydminster, SK, CAN
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight	209 lb (95 kg; 14 st 13 lb)
Position	Defence
Shot	Left
Played for	Ottawa Senators New York Rangers St. Louis Blues Boston Bruins
National team	Canada
NHL Draft	2nd overall, 1995 New York Islanders
Playing career	1996–2013

Wade Redden (born June 12, 1977) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Redden played in the NHL with the Ottawa Senators, New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, and the Boston Bruins. He played for Canada internationally seven times, winning two gold medals in the World Junior Championships and one in the World Cup of Hockey. He was a two-time NHL All-Star.

Early life

Redden grew up in Hillmond, Saskatchewan. As a youngster, Wade played hockey and softball. Wade completed Kindergarten to grade nine at the Hillmond School. He then attended the Lloydminster Comprehensive School for grade ten, and completed grades 11 and 12 in Brandon, Manitoba. He is the youngest of three children and has an older sister Niki and an older brother Bart.

Playing career

Junior

Redden played minor hockey with the teams at Hillmond High School, and the Mid West Red Wings, which were from the rural area. After that Wade played one year with the Lloydminster Blazers, before joining the Brandon Wheat Kings. After that Wade was named rookie of the year. The Wheat Kings made it to two Memorial Cup while Redden was a member of the team. Wade was a member of the 1995 and 1996 Canadian teams at the World Junior Hockey Championships, both teams winning gold medals.

Pre-Senators

Redden was selected second overall by the New York Islanders in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft but never played for the team. He was traded to the Ottawa Senators along with Damian Rhodes for Don Beaupre, Martin Straka and the rights to Bryan Berard on January 23, 1996. The trade had become necessary when the Senators' efforts to sign Berard, whom they had selected first overall in the same draft, had become futile.

Ottawa Senators

Redden joined the Senators for the 1996–97 season, making the team out of his first training camp. He scored his first NHL goal on his first shot, against Jocelyn Thibault of the Montreal Canadiens on October 5, 1996.^[1] Redden would be named "NHL Rookie of the Month" for April 1997, and was an important part of the team's drive to qualify for the playoffs that season.^[2] The team would go on to make the playoffs that season, the first time in the modern Senators' history.

By the 1999–2000 season, Redden was an important part of the team. On October 2, 1999, Redden was named alternate captain of the Senators, a position he held for nine seasons afterwards.^[3] Near the end of the season he suffered an ankle injury, forcing him to miss the playoffs, a contributing factor in the Senators losing in the first round to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The following year Redden continued his improvement, averaging over 25 minutes of ice time per game, scoring 37 assists, a three-point game and several two-point games. After the Senators were eliminated from the NHL playoffs, he was named to the Canadian national team for the first time, for the 2001 IIHF World Championship. He followed that up the next year with a trip to the 2002 NHL All-Star Game to represent the Senators. He would have nine multi-point games in 2002–03 and would set a personal best of 17 goals in the 2003–04 season which helped earn him a spot in the 2004 NHL All-Star Game. He was named to the gold-medal winning Canadian team for the 2004 World Cup of Hockey. He would also play for Canada in the 2005 IIHF World Championship.

Redden with the Ottawa Senators, 2007.

In the 2005–06 NHL season, he missed games because of a knee injury and to be with his mother, Pat as she battled cancer. Redden finished the season with a career-high 50 points, and a league-leading +/- of 35, in 65 games. He had twelve multi-point games including a four-point game against the New York Rangers on December 26, 2005.^[3] Redden was selected for the Canadian Olympic team along with teammate Dany Heatley. After the 2005–06 season, the Senators were faced with having their two top defencemen (Redden and Zdeno Chara) becoming unrestricted free agents, and having to choose to sign only one to keep the team salaries within the league-mandated salary cap. The Senators chose Redden and the Senators and Redden agreed on a two-year contract worth $13 million with a no-trade clause, and Chara signed with the Boston Bruins. His salary made him the highest paid player on the team and the media and fans expected another top-notch season. The 2006–07 NHL season was a difficult one for Redden, playing with a new defensive partner, Andrej Meszaros, who had played with Chara. However, by the time of the playoffs, Redden and Meszaros had jelled and were a strong pairing for the Senators. Redden participated in all of Ottawa's run to the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals, recording 10 points in 20 playoff games. The Senators lost to the Anaheim Ducks in 5 games.

The 2007–08 NHL season was eventful for Redden. Newly-promoted general manager Bryan Murray attempted to trade Redden to the Edmonton Oilers during the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.^[4] Redden turned down the trade proposal. Trade rumours would swirl around Redden for most of the season. Redden remained a starter with the team and he played in his 800th career NHL game, all with the Senators, on January 10, 2008, against the Buffalo Sabres. As the team started to slump, Murray started to look for solutions to turn the team around. In February 2008, it was revealed that Redden used the no trade clause in his contract to kill a deal that would have sent him to the San Jose Sharks for Matt Carle and a draft pick.^[5] As the leaked deal became public, Redden publicly declared his desire to win the Stanley Cup with Ottawa, at the time still the Eastern Conference leader. Within weeks of the aborted trade, the Sharks surpassed Ottawa in the league-wide standings, and the Senators performance continued to decline, the coach was fired and the team struggled into the playoffs.

Redden's numbers improved slightly over the previous season, but this was overshadowed by the size of his contract and the team's overall performance. The 2007-08 season was also the last season of the contract and speculation about his re-signing was regularly discussed in the media. Redden made clear that he would take a 'hometown discount', taking less money to stay in Ottawa. After the season, the media openly speculated that Redden would be leaving the Senators.^[6]

New York Rangers

On July 1, 2008, he signed a six-year, $39 million contract with the New York Rangers.^[7] Redden's performance continued to decline in New York where he faced considerable criticism. One writer for the New York Post even called the contract "the worst in the history of the NHL, if not in the history of hard-cap pro sports."^[8] On September 25, 2010, the Rangers placed Redden on waivers, the result of the defenseman's declining play.^[9] The move also allowed the Rangers to fit under salary cap.^[10] Speaking in 2013 on his stint with the Rangers, Redden said "I think maybe making that money there and being the player I am… I felt like the first little while, things were going pretty good, and then they kind of fell off. I felt like I wasn’t doing enough, and like I should have been doing more. Once I started feeling that way, I think I just got away from the things that made me successful. Things just kind of snowballed from there".^[11]

Redden cleared waivers and was assigned to the Rangers' minor league farm team, the Hartford Wolf Pack,^[9] becoming the highest-paid player in the history of the American Hockey League in the process. Redden, who admitted contemplating retirement, decided to report and play for Hartford.^[12] Of Redden's ill-fated signing with the Rangers, one newspaper later commented that "through no fault of his own, (Redden) has become the poster-boy for free-agent foolishness".^[13] In 2011–12 Redden served as the captain of the Connecticut Whale, formerly known as the Hartford Wolf Pack.

2012-13 lockout

At the time of the NHL 2012 lockout, the Rangers decided not to transfer Redden to the AHL roster, thereby not having to pay his salary during the dispute.^[14] When the lockout was settled, the new collective agreement directly affected Redden in two ways - it forced teams to count any AHL player's salary above $900,000 against its NHL cap, and it allowed for up to two contracts per team to be bought out for up to two-thirds of the remaining salary, without the buyout not counting against the cap in the 2013 and/or 2014 off-seasons, so as to help teams get under the reduced cap, also known as a compliance buyout. However, the buyouts cannot be used on injured players, so, to avoid any risk of a hockey-related injury, the Rangers originally instructed Redden to simply not report to camp.

While this meant that Redden (along with Scott Gomez of the Montreal Canadiens, who was in a similar situation) would still have been paid his pro-rated 2012-13 salary despite not playing, the NHLPA was concerned that for Redden and Gomez to be forced to spend an entire year away from hockey would adversely affect their ability to find employment elsewhere in the NHL during the 2013 off-season, even at a much reduced salary. On January 15, in order to avoid this process, the CBA was revised to allow teams to use one of their two compliance buyouts prior to the start of the shortened 2013 season, with the provision that the players bought out in such a way would still be paid their pro-rated but otherwise full 2012-13 salaries (which would still count against the 2012-13 cap), and with the buyout of the subsequent years otherwise proceeding as originally intended.

With the revised agreement in place, Redden was waived by the Rangers on January 16, 2013, and cleared waivers the following day. After a compliance buyout from the Rangers was completed, Redden became a free agent for the first time since 2008.^[15]

Return to NHL

On January 18, 2013, the eve of the shortened 2012–13 season, Redden signed a one-year $800,000 deal with the St. Louis Blues.^[16] The Blues activated Redden on January 23, opening the door for him to play the following night against the Nashville Predators. To make room for Redden, the Blues demoted Ian Cole to Peoria of the AHL.^[17] On January 24, 2013, against the Nashville Predators, Redden played his first NHL game since April 11, 2010.^[18] He scored his first goal back against the Dallas Stars on January 26, 2013 and played his 1,000th career NHL game on February 7, 2013 against the Detroit Red Wings.

At the 2013 NHL trade deadline, Redden was traded to the Boston Bruins for a conditional 7th round pick in 2014 on April 3, 2013. ^[19] The Bruins hoped he would rediscover the chemistry he had with Chara and return to elite form, though he was a non-factor for the Bruins. In six regular-season games with the Bruins, Redden scored one goal and had one assist. In his first playoff game since the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals, Redden scored a goal and added an assist in the Bruins' 4-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

On January 9, 2014, Redden officially announced his retirement from professional hockey.^[20]

Personal life

Since moving to Ottawa to play NHL hockey, he became involved in the Ottawa community. Redden sponsored a suite at the Scotiabank Place named Wade's World reserved for critically and terminally-ill children, that he paid for while a member of the Senators from 1997 until 2008.^[21] He was also involved with the charity "65 Roses Club" committed to raise money for cystic fibrosis research.^[22] Wade also appeared in Road Hockey Rumble in his hometown.

During the off-season Redden and his wife, Danica Topolnisky, had a home near Kelowna, British Columbia. After two years of involvement, the couple became engaged in September 2007^[23] and married in August 2008.^[24]

Awards

• WHL Rookie of the Year - 1994
• WHL East Second All-Star Team - 1995
• WHL East First All-Star Team - 1996
• Memorial Cup All-Star Team - 1996
• NHL Rookie of the Month - April 1997
• Played in NHL All-Star Game - 2002
• NHL Defensive Player of the Month - January 2004
• Named to NHL All-Star Game - 2004 (did not play due to flu)
• Best Defenceman - 2005 IIHF World Championship
• NHL Plus/Minus Award - 2006 (joint winner)
• Victoria Cup (as a member of the New York Rangers) - 2008

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Medal record
Competitor for  Canada
Ice hockey
World Championships
Silver	2005 Vienna
World Cup of Hockey
Gold	2004 Canada
World Junior Championships
Gold	1995 Alberta
Gold	1996 Massachusetts

References

• Ottawa Senators 2007–08 Media Guide. Ottawa Senators. 2007. 

External links

• Wade Redden's player profile at NHL.com
• Wade Redden's career statistics at The Internet Hockey Database
• Wade Redden's player profile at TSN.ca