Chris Chelios once played for this random team Red Wings fans forget every time

   

Chris Chelios once played for a random team that no longer exists during the final season of his career. After spending over two decades playing for the Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks, and Detroit Red Wings, the future Michigan Sports Hall of Famer and current Hockey Hall of Famer finished his career with....the Atlanta Thrashers.

Apr 6, 2010; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Thrashers defenseman Chris Chelios (24) and center Rich Peverley (47) fight for the puck in the corner with New Jersey Devils center Travis Zajac (19) and left wing Zach Parise (9) in the first period at Philips Arena. The Devils defeated the Thrashers 3-0. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

On March 2nd, 2010, Chelios, who'd previously been with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL since October 2009, signed with the Thrashers and soon found himself back in the NHL for his age-48 season and no, that's not a typo.

He spent four games with the Thrashers in March before rounding out his legendary career with another three games in April. Unfortunately for Chelios, his presence didn't do much for the Thrashers, and they lost all seven games he appeared in.

Their 83 points was good enough for a second-place finish in the old Southeast Division, but it wasn't good enough for the team to break into the playoffs. Still, it was impressive to see Chelios on the ice at such an advanced age, even if he didn't record a single point and averaged just 11:10 of ice time.

Chris Chelios officially played his final game in the NHL with the Atlanta Thrashers, not the Red Wings

Despite not recording a single point and finishing the stint with a minus-2 rating, Chelios still looked good with supplementary third-pairing minutes, landing seven blocks and eight body checks. Not bad for someone in their age-48 campaign who proved he could still play well against guys half his age.

But what made the Thrashers sign Chelios in the first place? Well, let's go back to 2009-10, when 19-year-old me was rather annoyed at local fans celebrating their favorite team's recent Stanley Cup win; something I had to go through again in 2016 and 2017.

Anyway, during that 2009-10 season, the Thrashers were actually in playoff contention. Yeah, imagine that. So, to increase their chances of breaking that playoff threshold, they brought on Chelios because who else could provide better veteran leadership for a team that definitely needed it?

 

He was also an ideal player for depth as opposed to some random organizational depth guy who probably wouldn't deal with the pressure so well. Or, at least potentially. Oh, and Chelios also wasn't looking half-bad in the AHL, averaging nearly a half point per game.

So yeah, bringing him on made sense. I'd have done the same thing, even if the Thrashers were doing what they do best; underachieving when it mattered the most. Either way, if you're ever playing a game of NHL Trivia and someone asks you who Chelios last played for before he retired, it wasn't the Red Wings. It was the Thrashers.