Is this the End of the Road for Chelios?

On Friday night in Montreal, 30 young men will get started with their careers as hockey professionals when they are selected in the first round of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. But yesterday in Detroit, one old warrior was telling the world that he wants to hang on for just one more year. The man I'm talking about is pending free agent defenseman Chris Chelios. At a press conference at his restaurant in Detroit, Chelios told the locals that the Red Wings have already said that they don't want him back next season. Truth be told, it was hard to tell if they even really wanted him around this year, as the veteran defenseman only played in 28 regular season games before making six appearances in postseason. When he did get on the ice in the playoffs -- and we ought to remember that we didn't see Chelios at all in the Finals against Pittsburgh -- it was clear that Detroit head coach Mike Babcock didn't have a whole lot of faith in him, as he averaged only 7:21 of ice...