Mike Modano is 39 years old, due to be an unrestricted free agent, and has spent his entire career, spanning 20 seasons, with one franchise. Evidently that's the way he likes it.

Mike Heika dropped this little nugget on everyone last night after the loss at Buffalo: Modano had the chance to be traded, but turned it down.

Three teams were pursuing Mike Modano at the trade deadline, but Modano said he did not want to waive his no-trade clause and leave the only team he has been a part of. ``We talked about this a couple of months ago, and we agreed at the time that if there were teams interested, I would bring the information to Mike,'' Nieuwendyk said. ``I did that, and he decided he wanted to stay.''

Modano said it would have felt strange to leave the team. ``Honestly, I just couldn't do it,'' he said. ``We were in pretty good shape in the playoff race, and there's no guarantee with a new team. I've been with this team my whole life and I want to stay with this team.''

Modano, 39, will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer, but he said he still has not decided if this will be his last season.

``That's something for Joe and I to talk about in the summer,'' he said.

Say what you will about Mike Modano and his performance over the last several seasons. He has had an ever changing role with an ever changing team that has needed him to be 4 or 5 different kinds of player, all of which are different than the guy he was 10 or even 20 years ago, and he's done all of it with no complaint.

Now it turns out that all of that speculation coming out of Washington about Modano trade rumors was a little more correct than Stars fans would have believed at the time; In fact, there were as many as three teams interested. We all said it together last month: "Joe would never trade Mike," but it turns out he at least asked him about it, and Mike declined.

The one-franchise player is a dying breed across all of sports. It would appear that Modano values the increasing rarity and significance of such a thing. It should also be noted that he's expressed a desire to stay with the team in one capacity or another, possibly even becoming a minority owner.

In a season that seems full of disappointment, does it comfort you at all that this franchise's greatest player shows this loyalty to his team? Or will you turn a cynical eye on it, cracking a joke about his wife, etc?

As for me, it makes me appreciate him all over again. His last season or not, it might be appropriate to start appreciating Mike Modano a little more while there's still time.