The relationship between Campbell and Yzerman has now lasted 30-plus years. Once Yzerman started a family of his own—he has three daughters with his wife, Lisa—his crew and the Campbell clan would sometimes vacation together. The trips provided Campbell further insight into the mind of a man with a wide array of interests, including architecture. But hockey was never off the brain of either man for too long. In 1997, when Campbell was coach of a New York Rangers squad that got dumped by the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference Final, Yzerman peppered him with questions about what the Wings might do to get a better result with the Stanley Cup on the line. (It worked, as Detroit pumped Philly in four straight.) More recently, Campbell has been working for the league office while Yzerman has spent the past decade apprenticing with Detroit’s management team and then running the show in Tampa. In that span, as part of committees convened to discuss subjects ranging from head shots to goalie equipment, Campbell has heard Yzerman frequently throw out one word: Why?

“He doesn’t like to accept the norm,” Campbell says.

Even better, if Yzerman doesn’t understand something, he makes it a point to change that fact. When Shanahan was with the Wings and the team went out for dinner, the boys would take turns holding the wine list and squinting at it like bewildered middle school students examining a museum exhibit their teacher said was important.

“None of us really knew what we were looking for,” says Shanahan. “Steve went out and bought a book that looked like the Yellow Pages on French red wine. By the next season, he was telling you what the good years were, what the bad years were, what the bargains were, what the overpriced stuff was. He was somebody who studied things. When there was a subject that interested him, he made himself an expert.”