Szabados, who won her second Olympic gold medal with the Canadian women's hockey team last month, announced via Twitter she will play for the Columbus Cottonmouths of the Southern Professional Hockey League.

"Well here goes nothing Heading to the @SPHL to join the @Cottonmouths for the remainder of their season See you on the 12th guys! #snakes" she wrote Friday.

The 27-year-old will be the first female player in the SPHL, adding to her "first female" accomplishments in the Western Hockey League and the Alberta Junior Hockey League, where she recorded a shutout in her first game. In fact, the only women's team she's ever played on has been the two national squads.

The Cottonmouths have home games March 13, 15 and 16, then finish out the season with three road games. General Manager Jerome Bechard is hoping she'll be in goal next weekend for a home appearance.

"It all depends on her," Bechard told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. "I'd like to get her playing time before the playoffs. Hopefully that will happen next weekend but definitely the following weekend. Her biggest concern is the speed of the puck and the game itself compared to the women's game. I'm not going to throw her to the dogs, but I'm going to play her when she's ready."

Szabados, who practiced with the short-handed Edmonton Oilers last week, will be greeted by familiar faces in Columbus. She played with captain Kyle Johnson, forward Jordan Draper and defenseman Andy Willigar in 2011-2012 at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and won a championship. The Olympian told the newspaper she thought she might join the team next season, but received texts from he former teammates insisting they wanted her on the team this season.

"I think she can definitely stand in this league," Draper said. "She can handle the shots. She'll have to physically stand in there. … Mentally, she's stronger than anyone I've ever played with. I look forward to making her feel comfortable. The guys who haven't played with a girl before will find out she's just one of the guys."


MODANO'S NIGHT


Mike Modano spent 20 minutes choking back tears while he thanked old teammates, family, friends, coaches and fans before stepping off the stage to watch his No. 9 get lifted to the rafters.

There was one more stop for the guy who made hockey cool in football-mad Dallas: handshakes from former Cowboys quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman, not to mention the most likely candidate to have his number retired next at American Airlines Center — Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki.

"The fans and having those guys there and Troy and Roger and Dirk and those guys," said Modano, "it certainly put a great touch to it."

Modano's number was the fourth in franchise history to be retired after Bill Masterton (19), Bill Goldsworthy (8) and Neal Broten (7).

Aikman was in the middle of winning three Super Bowls in four seasons when Modano and the rest of the Minnesota North Stars showed up in 1993 and became the Dallas Stars, not even remotely sure how hockey would catch on in Texas.

The answer came 21 years later, when thousands showed up hours before a pregame ceremony on a chilly, windy Saturday for a celebrity-like outdoor parade of former Modano coaches, owners and teammates, including most from the franchise's only Stanley Cup winner in 1999.

It was almost as much a celebration of that team as it was Modano, with a circular curtain at center ice falling and revealing those players at the start of the 50-minute ceremony.

"They taught me a lot about winning," Modano said at a news conference after the event. "I think it was important for us to have them all here to share in this because without them, that probably wouldn't have happened."

It was a celebration of hockey in Dallas, too, with Modano recapping his decision to move away from home in Livonia, Mich., at age 16, then settling in Minnesota after the baby-faced 18-year-old was the No. 1 pick in the draft in 1988.

"And now when people ask me where I'm from, I say, 'Texas. Dallas, Texas,'" Modano said on a video before he appeared. That drew a roar from a record crowd of 19,109 that filled most of the seats an hour and a half before a game against the Minnesota Wild, who replaced the North Stars seven years after the move.

Hall of Famer Brett Hull, who scored the disputed winning goal to beat Buffalo and current Stars coach Lindy Ruff in the Stanley Cup finals, was at the center of the line of players behind Modano during a 20-minute speech that ran the gamut of thanks.

"He's going to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer," Hull said. "And I said today if he's not, take my stuff out. If he doesn't deserve to be in there first ballot, no one does. Except for Gretzky, I guess."

Well, in that case, the highest-scoring American-born player in NHL history qualifies. At least that's what one of his former owners said in one of several videos during the ceremony.

"Mike is our Wayne Gretzky," said Norm Green, who moved the franchise from Minnesota to Dallas.


BRODEUR WANTS TO PLAY ... SOMEWHERE


Martin Brodeur made it through the trade deadline rumor mill still standing — er, squatting? — as a New Jersey Devil. But that doesn't mean the 41-year-old goalie, who wants to continue his playing career, will return as a Devil next season.

Brodeur wants to play in a situation in which he feels comfortable and doesn't mind if that means he'll be a backup goalie instead of clear No. 1 guy, according to the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

“No, just to play more and have the chance to win the Stanley Cup. Be in the playoffs,” Brodeur told the Star-Ledger Friday. “Those were some of the requirements I had, not just being outside looking in. I didn’t want to come back to a situation like this.”

He told the newspaper he thinks there will be a market for him this summer and will not be making the decision alone, as in the past when he was clear on "I want to be a Devil."

Coach Pete DeBoer said he didn't have a plan on how much time Brodeur would get in goal or how much Cory Schneider would see.

Brodeur has spent his entire 21-year career in New Jersey and has ammassed a significant trophy room. A team with a young goalie could see promise in adding the future Hall-of-Famer for his talent and mentoring abilities.

Contributor: Cassandra Negley.