Mike Brophy

Veteran hockey columnist Mike Brophy writes Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday on Sportsnet.ca and appears regularly on Hockeycentral.

Darren McCarty.

Darren McCarty retires as a fan favourite in Detroit not for his numbers but his passion.

There's no place in the Hockey Hall of Fame for the likes of a plugger like Darren McCarty.

But there will always be a special place in my heart for this very special hockey player who announced his retirement today.

I had the very good fortune of getting to know a young Darren McCarty when he moved to Peterborough to play Junior B hockey in an effort to attract the attention of Major Junior hockey scouts. And boy did he ever get their attention.

Skating was a bit of an issue, though it would improve over the years, but toughness, leadership and a good scoring sense more than made up for a missing gear back then. Some nights, when the Peterborough Petes weren't playing, I'd swing by the Memorial Center to watch McCarty play -- and he never disappointed.

I was particularly taken with his physical game back then. Quite often he would be challenged to fight by players three and four years older and I can't remember ever seeing him lose a scrap. I kept my fingers crossed that the local Petes would choose him in the draft, but they passed on the opportunity and took a Belleville kid named Chris Longo instead. Ironically, the Belleville Bulls responded by choosing McCarty.

It looked good for the Petes in their first year when Longo scored 33 goals and 75 points in 66 games compared to 12 goals and 27 points in 63 games for McCarty. But by their third year, the tables were turned. McCarty managed 55 goals and 127 points with 177 penalty minutes while Longo, in an injury-filled year, had five goals and 19 points in 25 games.

Longo was a decent, but troubled junior who played 11 seasons of professional hockey, but never made it to the NHL. McCarty played his first full year of pro in the minors, but when he made the Detroit Red Wings, it would be 13 years before he made a minor-league bus trip.

In between McCarty scored 127 goals and 288 points with 1,990 penalty minutes in 758 regular-season games and added another 23 goals and 49 points with 278 PIMs while helping the Red Wings win four Stanley Cups. Six of his post-season goals were game-winners. On top of that, he scored the Cup-winning goal against the Philadelphia Flyers in 1997.

It wasn't the numbers that made him such a fan favourite in Detroit; it was his toughness and passion. As a member of the Grind Line with Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby, McCarty played a fearless game, often dropping his gloves with players who towered over him and out-weighed him by 20 to 30 pounds.

As you probably know, McCarty went a little off the track late in his career and admits he got hooked on booze and drugs. He became the lead singer of a punk rock band, Grinder, and lived a lifestyle more closely related to Johnny Rotten than Gordie Howe. It cost him dearly. But in the past few years McCarty has battled his demons and after a couple of years spent with the Calgary Flames, he was welcomed back home in Detroit.

McCarty spent his final two seasons between Detroit and Grand Rapids of the American League. Many might look at it as overstaying your welcome, but not me. And not the Red Wings. That is one of the things I admire about this organization. They rewarded a family member for his hard work in getting his life back in order.

I remember being on the ice in Pittsburgh in 2008 after the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup and trust me, there wasn't a happier player than Darren McCarty. He played two regular-season games and then dressed for 17 more in the playoffs that year during which he averaged a mere six minutes and 23 seconds of ice time. Still, even though the Red Wings had a bunch of young studs with the team at the time, it was an old battle horse they turned to in the crunch.

People usually get what they deserve and if that holds true, Darren McCarty should enjoy a fruitful retirement watching his four kids grow up.