The inside of Chris Chelios’ Ford F-150 looks like an office. Sticky notes. Business cards. Notebooks. A phone.

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“I get a lot done in the car,” he said. “That’s why I don’t mind driving.”

He’s 51 now, about to go into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Nov. 11, but he hasn’t stopped just because he retired as a player. He stays in great shape. He motors back and forth on the highway, working for the Detroit Red Wings as an advisor to hockey operations, watching his sons and daughters play their sports at their schools.

Last week he let Yahoo Sports come along for the ride as he went to see the Wings’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. Some of the interview told the incredible story of his playing career. Some of it is here in edited Q&A form. We could go on forever, but we won’t. He is going to write a book.

Could you still play?

“Could I play eight or 10 minutes a night on a good team like the Wings? Maybe. But no. I always said it was going to be a physical thing why I couldn’t play, and towards the end of my career I couldn’t train because of my left knee. That’s what really limited me. I couldn’t do the heavy workload in the gym to get to the level I always was at. So basically, to answer your question, no, I couldn’t have kept playing.

“I don’t skate a whole lot. I’m on the ice pushing pucks and blowing whistles. When I do skate hard in practice, I feel it for the next day or two, but it goes away. For the Winter Classic [alumni event], I was thinking of skating, getting in shape, working real hard with [former Wings center] Kris Draper and his crew. But for me, it’s better just to do things that don’t hurt and get my conditioning. I’m not going to skate, because I think if I did, it would be killing me by the time the game rolls around.

“I think Drapes is still working out harder than anybody that I’ve ever seen after they’re done in hockey. He trains hard. He didn’t play until he was 48, either. If he’s doing that when he’s 48, I’ll be surprised.”

You mountain bike. You stand-up paddleboard. What else?

“In the summertime, I’m outside, so I do all kinds of stuff. The paddleboarding’s great. It’s great exercise. Surfing’s great for you. I pull this goddamn railroad tie in the sand that’s got a harness on it just to kill time during the day.”

You’re 51. You own a Malibu beach house. Why not sit there and do nothing?

“I do sit there and do nothing. Trust me. But after a couple hours, you find something to do. The schedule, basically, it’s mountain biking in the morning. If there’s waves, you surf. It’s one or the other. You go for a late breakfast at 11 or 12 o’clock. You’re back at the beach at 1 o’clock. That’s when you’ll do some stuff. There’s a sauna right there. And then people come over at 4 o’clock, whether it’s happy hour or the sauna. A lot of volleyball.”

What happens in the winter?

“I get bored. It’s pretty frustrating, long winters, from a physical standpoint, because you get so spoiled from California in summers, how great it is to get outside. I’m sure every person goes through that.”

So you go to spin class sometimes, too?

“For 45 minutes to an hour, burning 1,000 calories, I can honestly say I’m more tired doing that than I was practicing. It’s a room with 20 bikes in it. Average people. Some athletes and just normal moms and dads. It’s not for the extreme athlete. You can make it as hard as you want. The teachers are great. Everybody goes at their own speed. You can’t see anybody. They turn the lights out, and you can go at your own speed so no one feels intimidated.”

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