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Quincey's Red Wings days likely done |
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As the Detroit Red Wings prepared for their final game of the National Hockey League regular season April 6 at Joe Louis Arena against the Philadelphia Flyers, Detroit defenseman Kyle Quincey did his utmost to take it all in.
At that point the Wings weren’t assured of a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs, so Quincey, about to enter unrestricted free agency, was well aware that it could be his last time suiting up in the home dressing room.
“Yeah,” Quincey acknowledged. “I’d been thinking that for a while and was just kind of soaking it in.
“Philly, that game, with the uncertainty of the playoffs, I was really soaking in that game.”
Following a third successive first-round playoff exit, Quincey expects some sort of shakeup with the Detroit roster.
A veteran in Colorado told me ‘We’re in the business of winning,’” Quincey recalled. “Teams that win stay together. Everyone keeps talking about change, so it’s uncertainty right now.”
The Wings must make decisions on defensemen Xavier Ouellet, Nick Jensen and Ryan Sproul, all currently in the AHL playoffs with the club’s Grand Rapids farm club who will be required to clear NHL waivers starting next season in order to be sent to the minor leagues.
Quincey understands that such circumstances could leave him as the odd man out.
“I really have no idea,” Quincey said of his future. “Two years ago I didn’t know anything until July 1 (when Detroit opted to re-sign him.
“I’m assuming it’s probably going to be the same thing. I’m not dwelling on it. It’s nothing new. We’ve been in this line of work for a lot of years, so we know how it works.”
It seems unlikely at this stage that the Wings would make Quincey, 30, an offer, and it’s possible that another of his former teams, the Avalanche, could be interested. Quincey maintains an off-season home in the Denver area.
Until July 1, when other teams can sign unrestricted free agents, Quincey expects to remain in a holding pattern.
“It’s the same as two years ago,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know that side of the job. Packing up a house and not knowing where you’re going to be. You’ve got family that need to know where they’re going to be, and when you have no answers for them. It’s kind of the crappy part of the job I guess. The uncertainly.
“If (Detroit GM) Kenny (Holland) offers me something I’d love to come back. We love it here. But if not, it’s July 1 and we’ll just see what happens.”
Coaching Search
Still on the hunt for a candidate to fill their second assistant’s role on the bench and also run the team’s power play, Detroit coach Jeff Blashill has made it abundantly clear he’d prefer someone who features significant NHL experience on his resume, hopefully even head-coaching experience in the league.
Blashill addressed some of the other qualities he seeks in the person who will fill this void on his staff, and also made it clear that much of the onus toward improving the team’s power-play unit from 13th overall this season back closer to the second overall positioning of 2014-15 rests on the shoulders of his players.
“I would certainly like to add a coach who’s innovative,” Blashill said. “I’d like to add a coach who adds a lot of experience at running a power play. I talked about some of the other areas I’d like to have a coach to have experience in in terms of bench management and that sort of thing.
“Will we find a perfect candidate? I can’t answer that. I still would say this about the power play – I don’t think there’s lots of different things going on in the NHL regarding the power play. I still think it comes down to execution on a nightly basis by the players that are on that.
“I think different ways to practice that and different ways to create habits on the power play is real important, but in the end it’s still going to come down to our guys that come back on the power play are going to have to execute at a real high level.”
Son Unlike Father
USA Hockey’s ninth annual Warren Strelow national team goalie camp brought the best junior netminders in the country to USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Mich. on the weekend and there was a distinct Red Wings flavour to the event.
Among the instructors was former Red Wings netminder Ty Conklin and two of the pupils hold Detroit family ties, one to a current Red Wing – Ryan Larkin is the cousin of Red Wings center Dylan Larkin, while Cayden Primeau is the son of ex-Wings forward Keith Primeau, who played in Detroit from 1990-96 and really wasn’t sold on the idea of his son becoming a puckstopper.
“It wasn’t his top choice,” Cayden admitted. “My oldest brother (Corey) was a goalie and switched back over.”
When Cayden was removed from the net, his passion for the game also seemed to leave him.
“I would just drag my stick along the ice when I was a forward and he didn’t really like that, so he was like ‘Might as well give him the opportunity (to play goal)’ and I loved every second of it,” Cayden explained of his dad. “He was like, ‘I’ve got to make my kid happy’ so he let me do it.
“I don’t know why I wanted to be a goalie. I couldn’t tell you but I still love it.”
Just 16, Cayden missed out on his dad’s time as a Wing, though he enjoyed getting the chance to visit the town his father called his first NHL home.
“I wasn’t born when he was playing for Detroit,” said Cayden, who played for the Philadelphia Revolution this season and is verbally committed to Northeastern. “I’ve lived in Philly my whole life (where his dad finished his NHL career in 2006).”
He does have vague memories of watching his father perform for the Flyers.
“I don’t have much recollection but I do remember going to some games and going down under the tunnel after the game and seeing some of the guys,” Cayden said. “It was pretty cool.
“We had the same section every game we went, so I remember it was on the right side behind the goalie.”
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