George Sipple

Detroit Free Press

He was once the young face of a fledgling NHL franchise.

Still relatively young at 35, Patrik Stefan is now happy to remain involved in hockey as an agent and youth coach in metro Detroit.

Stefan, the No. 1 overall pick of the Atlanta Thrashers in the 1999 NHL draft, moved from California to Michigan in August with his wife and two young sons to pursue his second career as an agent.

He also joined Little Caesars Hockey as a coach. Oldest son James, 12, plays for the Little Caesars 2003 Pee Wee Major team, while youngest son Wyatt, 10, plays for the Little Caesars 2005 Squirt Major team.

Patrik Stefan said moving to Michigan was primarily due to his desire to be closer to the players he advises in the NHL, Ontario Hockey League, NCAA and U.S. Hockey League.

“Traveling is much easier for me (from Michigan),” Stefan said recently, before going on the ice with his sons for practices at the Southfield Sports Arena.

Moving to Michigan puts him within driving distance of other major hockey markets like Toronto and Chicago, which allows him to spend more time with his family when he’s not traveling.

“Everything is here,” he said. “Everything is driving distance. It kind of makes sense for me.”

Moving to Michigan gave his sons the opportunity play in a more competitive youth hockey environment. Stefan, who had also coached his sons in California, reconnected with Darren Eliot, formerly an analyst for the Thrashers. Eliot is now director of minor hockey operations for Little Caesars Hockey.

“I’d seen his teams play,” Eliot said. “We talked a lot about philosophy, and then knowing the person, Pat fit the profile that Kris Draper and I are looking for.”

Draper, the former Red Wings center and current Wings special assistant to the general manager, oversees Little Caesars Hockey and also coaches his son in the organization.

“You don’t have to have that kind of NHL background, but if you’re in youth hockey for the right reasons and you have that (background), I think it’s a real plus,” Eliot said. “Typically the guys who played at the highest level, they get it. They understand it’s not about wins and losses. They understand it’s about development for the kids. Winning becomes kind of a byproduct of that instead of the end game, the goal.”

Patrik Stefan said he stresses skill development and passing when he coaches.

“I want them to be competing and working hard every time they step on the ice,” Stefan said. “I don’t want to be in a position that I put so much pressure on my kids because I made it somewhere, they need to make it somewhere. That’s not something I want to be part of.”

James Stefan said he enjoys having his father as his coach.

“On the way home from practice he asks me, ‘How was your practice? How do you think you did? What do you think you need to improve on?’ ” James Stefan said. “That helps me a lot. He works with me on my speed and skill. As a (former) NHL player, he knows more than a lot of other people.”

James wears No. 13, while Wyatt wears No. 27. Those are the same numbers their dad wore when he played.

“When I was little I was No. 27, but I like No. 13 because my dad wore 13,” James Stefan said, adding that he also likes that number because it is worn by the Wings’ Pavel Datsyuk, his favorite current NHL player. “(Datsyuk) probably has the best hands in the league. I like that about him.”

Patrik Stefan possessed skill and speed as he developed in the Czech Republic and eventually came to the U.S. to play in the International Hockey League at age 17 for the Long Beach Ice Dogs.

He produced 11 goals and 24 assists for 35 points in 33 games before his 1998-99 season was cut short by a concussion.

He showed enough that the Thrashers drafted him first overall, and he went on to produce five goals and 20 assists for 25 points in 72 games on an expansion team that won 14 games in its inaugural season.

“I don’t think I was ready for that,” Stefan said, “an 18-year-old kid going to an expansion team.”

The Thrashers ended up with the No. 1 pick after the Canucks made deals to ensure they would land twin forwards Daniel and Henrik Sedin, who continue to play in the NHL today.

The NHL draft wasn’t considered particularly strong that year, and Stefan was put in a tough spot as a rookie, Eliot said.

“It was almost a marketing ploy to get the first overall pick as a new franchise,” Eliot said. “(Stefan) was coming off a year in the IHL where he had missed the last half of the year due to a concussion. So then you put him right in the NHL as an 18-year-old. I thought he was mishandled.

“You think of other sports, and you’re in a southern market. The first pick overall is supposed to be a world beater. He’s supposed to have an immediate impact, and we know how rare that is in hockey.”

Stefan suffered multiple concussions, a broken jaw and other injuries over his seven-year NHL career.

A left hip injury with the Stars during the 2006-2007 season required surgery, and his attempt to resurrect his career in Switzerland the following season ended quickly.

He finished with 64 goals and 124 assists for 188 points in 455 career games with the Thrashers and Stars.

As his boys have progressed in hockey, he’s reminded of what he’s no longer able to do on the ice due to the hip injury.

“We were out there for a fun little game for Christmas, and I skate pretty hard,” Stefan said. “Obviously, it felt not very good. I don’t play in any (adult) leagues. For me, it’s not worth it.

“I’m going to need a new hip. I’m still so young. The pain after that is not fun.”

Though he would have preferred a longer, more successful NHL career, Stefan isn’t bitter about the way things turned out.

For one thing, he’s able to spent a lot more time with his kids than he would if he were still playing.

And he’s happy to remain in the game in other ways. He represents a couple of fellow Czechs, including goaltender Michal Neuvirth of the Flyers, who will face the Red Wings today at Joe Louis Arena.

“I enjoyed the career I had,” Stefan said. “I had almost 500 (NHL) games. It wasn’t the career I wanted to (have), but I got to play in the NHL. I think people forget it’s really hard to make it to the NHL, and it’s even harder to stay there.”

When people talk about his career, they usually point out negatives, like the time he missed an empty net on a breakaway, then fell down and watched as Ales Hemsky went down the ice and scored a game-tying goal for the Oilers in 2007.

“My kids asked me about that now,” Stefan said. “My first thing about it is, bad things happen, unlucky, whatever it is.

“How are you going to respond after that? Good or bad? I tell the kids you can have a bad shift, bad game. There’s always next shift, next game. I didn’t kill somebody. It’s a game. Mistakes happen.”

He enjoys the game too much to dwell on the things that didn’t go right in his career.

“I cannot play it anymore,” he said. “But the game — I’ve loved it since I was first on the ice, and I’m sure I will love it until I die.”

Contact George Sipple: gsipple@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @georgesipple.Check out our new Red Wings Xtra app on Apple and Android!