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In the history of the young Ottawa Senators, and quite possibly the entire National Hockey League, no single player has been viewed with such polarizing emotions by his fan base than Alexei Valeryevich Yashin.

Joy. For scoring an overtime goal to help the Senators win their first ever playoff series, against the New Jersey Devils.

Anger. For his incessant contract demands (three times in five years) and suspension for the entire 1999-2000 season.

Hope. For being the first draft pick in Ottawa Senators history and almost winning the Calder Trophy for the league's top rookie.

Disgust. For cancelling a million dollar pledge to the National Arts Centre after the NAC refused to pay about half of it back to Yashin's parents for odd fees.

Adoration. For being an absolutely dominant force in the regular season and captaining the Sens to the beginning of their abnormal streak of consecutive playoff appearances.

Disappointment. For acting like a ghost when it came to the playoffs.

Even after his ignominious exit from the Senators, he still conjures up such differing emotions from Senators faithful. Gratitude, because he helped kick-start the Senators of the new milennium thanks to his trade for Jason Spezza and Zdeno Chara. Bitterness, because of the deep scars he left on the Ottawa Senators.

If you have read any of my previous entries (and I seriously hope that you have), you probably have realized that a common theme of my work is blaming the Ottawa Senators organization. However, this doesn't apply here. In fact, the organization even shielded Yashin from a lot of media publicity. I could also quite easily blame Mark Gandler, Yashin's greedy agent, for twisting Yashin's action and such. Not here, though. What we have here is an extremely rare breed: an obstensibly selfish, narcissistic hockey player.

Now, he may have had a point when he reacted in outrage over Alexandre Daigle's albatross-sized original contract. However, his contract wasn't exactly a bad one: five years for four million dollars was very good for a rookie in those days. His methods were much more egregious than his reasoning: holding out to start a season is never a good way to endear oneself to the fans, especially those in a relatively blue-collar city like Ottawa. It is also a technique that is almost never employed by hockey players, who realize that most of their support comes from blue-collar fans. Yet the fans still loved him, because he was the brightest star in a roster with more than a few.

The oddest part of the Yashin saga was the one that showed his true colours: the fracas with the NAC donation. Yashin's reputation was damaged within Ottawa thanks to his grumbling about his contract, yet it could have quite easily been repaired with his planned donation to an organization that has a special place in the hearts of most Ottawa residents, classical music fans or not. However, his generosity on the surface was remarkably stingy below it. First of all, he wanted the NAC to divert money to his parents as a condition of the deal for "consulting services". Not only is this self-serving, it is also unethical in terms of business. How would the other donors feel if they figured out their money was going towards a pampered athlete's parents instead of the symphonic orchestra? Yashin did not look at the big picture here; his tunnel vision only saw that his people could get buddy-buddy with one of the most influential music groups in Canada. The NAC had every right to balk at the deal, and when they inevitably did, Yashin pulled his donation. This shows that he was only doing the donation for PR, and not for any good reasons. He didn't give a damn about the NAC; he was only using them as a vessel for his own personal interests. Fortunately, he was up for a rude awakening at how a city like Ottawa treats their pariahs.

If he wanted to repair his reputation after his various strikes, missing a season thanks to a contract dispute and subsequently demanding a trade wasn't exactly the way to do it. The sad thing is that he was the captain of the team at the time, which goes to show that Jacques Martin didn't really have a clue about the vibe in the dressing room. Such a moody, distant, and disharmonious player doesn't deserve to be nominated for anything important.

Anyways, holding out for the season basically made him reviled in the eyes of all NHL fans. Such a move was not only unprecedented, it was shocking and will probably never be repeated. NHLers want their money, but they want to play hockey more. Most hockey players are Canadian and European, and modesty and humility are classic Canadian traits. And with Yashin, it permanently damaged his reputation across the hockey world, branding him as a selfish swine of a player.

How did he scar the Sens? Well, after Yashin's disastrous tenure all of the good feelings and hope abounding in Ottawa over the Sens quickly dissipated. The fans became skeptical of the team and Yashin, and were therefore loath to buy tickets to see a product they didn't truly appreciate. This led to the financial problems that nearly crippled the still-young franchise situated in an almost perfect market.

Up Next: The Sens Go Bust (Part Four)