Delvecchio’s mentor played in the first game at the Old Red Barn on Grand River and Delvecchio’s statue sparkles at the state-of-the-art arena on Woodward. He had ties to the earliest days of Detroit’s franchise, when it was owned by a grain and shipping magnate, and he relished its rebirth as Hockeytown, when it was owned by a pizza baron.

Delvecchio, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, was a longtime linemate of Gordie Howe, a 12-year Red Wings team captain and — after his retirement as a player in 1973 — a Red Wings coach and general manager.

Alex Delvecchio starred on the Detroit Red Wings' famed "Production Line" of the 1950s and won three Stanley Cups with the franchise