By Jason La Canfora
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 13, 2003; Page D01

DETROIT

After each Detroit Red Wings victory, one player returns to the dressing room to find a gift awaiting him. In his stall will sit a construction helmet adorned with team stickers and with No. 16 taped on the front, the number no player in Detroit has worn since all-star defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov suffered life-threatening and career-ending head injuries in June 1997.

Coach Dave Lewis and his assistants wanted to do something symbolic to recognize a player who performed with the determination that Konstantinov brought to the game, while keeping the fallen defenseman's spirit alive as well. Konstantinov remains a stirring figure in the Red Wings organization, six years removed from the limousine accident that robbed him of his life's passion at the pinnacle of his career and left him unable to function normally or care for himself.

"This is just a way for us to keep the memory of what kind of player Vladdie was alive," said Lewis, who started the tradition this season and was an assistant coach in Detroit during Konstantinov's career. "He always had a way to aggravate the other team, to show up, to play hard, to excite his teammates and to do all the things everybody wishes they could do, and the coaches thought we should have some kind of award for someone who exemplifies that type of performance."

The hard hat is symbolic of Konstantinov's work ethic and physical approach to hockey. He was one of the sport's true intimidating figures, a devastating open-ice hitter who also had the soft hands, insight and instincts to skate on Detroit's famed "Russian Five" unit with skilled countrymen Sergei Fedorov, Igor Larionov, Slava Kozlov and Slava Fetisov, a combination spawned by Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman, who won more games than anyone else in NHL history.

"Vladdie ranks right up there with all of the top guys I ever coached," said Bowman, who spent 30 years behind the bench in the NHL, won nine Stanley Cups and oversaw a dynasty in Montreal. "He came to play every night and he was so hard to play against. He did everything so well. He had so much bite to his game. He would have been one of the best defensemen in this league for a long time."

Konstantinov finished second in the voting for the Norris Trophy, presented annually to the league's best defenseman, in 1997. He helped guide Detroit to its first Stanley Cup in 42 years and, at age 30, was on the cusp of superstardom. Six days after winning the championship, Konstantinov, Fetisov and team massage therapist Sergei Mnatsakanov were returning from a club function when their car swerved off the road and struck a tree head-on. The driver was later jailed for driving with a suspended license.

All faced near-death experiences, requiring multiple surgeries and lengthy rehabilitation. Mnatsakanov was paralyzed from the waist down, Fetisov returned to Detroit's lineup early the following season and Konstantinov suffered severe head trauma, leaving him unable to complete even the most simple of tasks.

His limited mental capacity rendered him childlike, with scant memory of his previous life and meager motor skills. When he did speak, it was mostly in short Russian words and phrases. But slowly, quietly, and, to the surprise of many, Konstantinov has regained a bit of self-reliance in what has been an arduous recovery.

Konstantinov's wife, Irina, and daughter, Anastasia, moved to New Jersey a few years ago, though his daughter does visit from time to time. Konstantinov receives 24-hour care at a home in Ann Arbor, Mich. (His caregivers declined to comment for this story.) There, he is stimulated mentally and physically, and is a 45-mintue drive from Joe Louis Arena and a franchise that still loves him and looks after him. Konstantinov is a regular presence in Detroit's dressing room and at its home games, and is making progress few believed was possible.

Konstantinov, now 36, is able to get around with a walker for brief periods of time, exudes a gleeful personality and is able to hold short but relatively detailed conversations before losing focus after five minutes or so.

"I am so pleased with the progress Vladdie has made," said Red Wings senior vice president Jimmy Devellano. "It is so encouraging for us. He was such a young, strong guy in the prime of his life, and to see him makes strides and get around on a walker and hold a conversation is great. He seems reasonably happy and seems to get enjoyment out of life and never seems down or depressed, and we're very pleased about that."

Devellano was the first person Konstantinov met in the United States. A team of Russian players was in Detroit for exhibition games in 1990 -- before such players were free to sign with NHL teams -- and Devellano made a contact in the team's delegation and sneaked Konstantinov and an interpreter from their hotel to his office at arena for a 2 a.m. meeting, hoping to convince him to defect from the Soviet Union that night.

The Red Wings, who selected Konstantinov in the 1989 draft, were informed the defenseman had a wife and young child back in Russia. In the summer of 1991, the Red Wings ferreted Konstantinov and his family out of the country, forging documents claiming he had cancer and needed treatment in the United States, to expedite an early release from his mandatory obligations to the Soviet army. The scenario was straight out of a spy novel, with payoffs and bribes to Moscow doctors, people being stashed in car trunks and, ultimately, with Konstantinov becoming an instant fan favorite in Detroit in 1991-92. "What we didn't do to get some of those guys out of Russia back then," Devellano said.

Konstantinov and Devellano often joke about their first meeting, and sometimes watch games together at Joe Louis Arena. Konstantinov, who scored a total of 47 goals in his career, bemoans the lack of scoring in the NHL these days, and shares many laughs on his trips to his old arena.

"He never was really a conversationalist," Bowman said. "But he always has his humor about him when I see him. He's always trying to say something funny and make little jokes."

"We love to see him before games," winger Brendan Shanahan said. "The guys love to kid around with him a little. It's always good to see him."

Konstantinov's bond with the city was cemented one year after his accident, when the Red Wings won their second straight Stanley Cup, beating the Washington Capitals in the finals and celebrating on the MCI Center ice. "I don't think anybody could have beaten us that year," Lewis said, "because we were so focused on winning it for Vladdie and Sergei Mnatsakanov."

Konstantinov's wheelchair was parked at center ice of Joe Louis Arena in 2002 when Detroit won the championship again.

How many more such celebrations Konstantinov would have been a part of had he continued to play will never be known. While the Red Wings are still one of the NHL's model franchises, they have never truly overcome the loss of their beloved warrior and have been uncharacteristically porous on defense this season.

First, the team signed free agent defenseman Uwe Krupp to a four-year, $16.4 million deal in the summer of 1998; Krupp played only 30 games over the duration of the contract and ended up in a bitter grievance settlement with management. In March 1999 they traded two first round picks and a prospect for rugged defender Chris Chelios, who was already 37 years old. Chelios has played well in Detroit, but also cost the team $22 million in contract extensions. This summer, still searching for that imposing defender, Detroit gave free agent Derian Hatcher a five-year, $30 million contract; Hatcher suffered what is a likely season-ending knee injury after playing three games for Detroit.

"I don't think we would have made any of those moves if we still had Vladdie," Devellano said. "Chelios has eaten up some big minutes and we did win a Cup with him, but no one could really come in and replace Vladdie."

"Vladdie would have been fighting [Detroit's] Nick Lidstrom for the Norris Trophy every season if he was still playing," said Atlanta General Manager Don Waddell, Detroit's assistant general manager in 1996-97. "You can imagine with Lidstrom and Konstantinov on that defense you would be talking about a team winning many more Stanley Cups than even the three they have won."

No matter how much progress Konstantinov makes, nothing will ever return him to the heights he once attained. He lacks the wherewithal to fully comprehend what was stolen from him, but still relishes being around the game and those who play it. He will always have a home at Joe Louis Arena, where his friends remember him for what he was, and try not to dwell on what could have been.

"You'd like to just be able to somehow give him his career back," Lewis said. "That's the one thing everyone wishes could happen."