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The off-ice trouble didn’t stop there.

A $1 million donation to the National Arts Centre in 1998 turned out to be controversial. Perhaps the final straw came in 1999-2000 when he refused to honour his contract and demanded a trade while skating with a team in Europe.

Then-Senators owner Rod Bryden, who bankrupted the club in 2003, demanded Yashin return for the 2000-01 campaign to honour his contract and the organization won a case in front of an independent arbitrator. Stripped of the captain’s ‘C’ by coach Jacques Martin, Yashin returned to finish with 88 points (40 goals and 48 assists).

Of course, when you look back on it, it was quite a chapter in the club’s history and for Yashin’s career, but he maintains what happened off the ice never once affected the effort he gave every time he put on the jersey.

“There are things that you have to live by,” Yashin said. “When you’re on the ice, you play hockey 100% for your team. When you have issues with business or something else, you just don’t play. I never saw myself as somebody who didn’t play good enough to try to force something business-wide.

“I always thought if I was going to come (to the rink) I was going to play and I was going to play as I can every game I play. People might not like some of my business decisions, and it was a tough time with Ottawa, but everything that was about hockey, I tried my best.”

Photo by Jean Levac, CanWest News Service / The Ottawa Citizen

Still, it’s hard to believe people would actually jeer Yashin in an alumni match that’s about the celebration of the game. He was always a popular figure anywhere he went around town. The fans who asked for his autograph always treated him with respect, and the reality is he’s one of the best players to ever put on the uniform.