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Wings hold strong interest in UFA Matt Martin |
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The Detroit Red Wings are among the many teams interested in New York Islanders left winger Matt Martin, who will hit unrestricted free agency on Friday, but even though he grew up across the river from Detroit in Windsor, Ont. and began life as a fan of the Wings, Martin eventually lost interest in Detroit.
“I eventually switched over to the Colorado Avalanche, which caused some problems for my family,” Martin said. “I remember sitting at home watching as an Avalanche fan and my parents were still Red Wings fans.”
What was the cause behind such a polarizing switch in allegiances, one might ask?
“Joe Sakic was my favourite player and Patrick Roy was my favourite goalie,” Martin explained. “When Colorado came into the league and they went to the same team, it was a no-brainer for me. My family definitely wasn't happy about it.
“Obviously, the Cup runs and the brawls and Claude Lemieux and Patrick Roy and all the fights, it caused some problems in the household.
“Luckily I'm not a fan of either of those teams anymore, so there's no more heated rivalries at home.”
If the Wings are the team who land Martin’s name on a contract come Friday – they are among a long list of suitors for the man who’s led the NHL in hits in each of the past six seasons – the Calgary Flames, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings are others lining up to pay Martin somewhere between $3-4 million per season, and it’s the Rangers who might hold the inside track.
Martin's girlfriend is Sydney Esiason, and yes, before you ask, she is the daughter of former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason, and therein lays the root of Martin's new rivalry issue.
“He's a Rangers fan,” Martin explained of Sydney’s dad. “They're all Rangers fans except for Sydney.”
A good sport, Boomer has welcomed many of Martin’s Islanders teammates into his home.
“It's interesting,” Martin said. “We have some fun with it. He's good about it. It makes for interesting games when we play them.”
Miller’s Time
The Red Wings like what Drew Miller brings to their fourth line and their penalty kill, so they were delighted to keep the potential unrestricted free agent forward on a one-year deal at $1.025 million, even though Miller’s been on the shelf since January following ACL surgery on his left knee.
“I definitely wanted to stay in Detroit,” Miller said. “Pretty much from Day 1 of my rehab everything has been going well and progressing in the right direction. Kenny (Detroit GM Ken Holland) and Blash (Detroit coach Jeff Blashill) and the whole crew there have been updated pretty much weekly on how I’m doing. It was nice that they took a big interest it in and watching it.
“Everything is going good so both sides felt comfortable in getting a deal done. It’s great to be back.”
Offers Made
The Red Wings tendered qualifying offers to all of their restricted free agents – defensemen Danny DeKeyser and Alexey Marchenko, goaltender Petr Mrazek and forward Teemu Pulkkinen.
DeKeyser was confident that he’d get a deal done with the team long before training camp.
“Yeah, I don't expect it to drag out real long,” DeKeyser said. “Hopefully it gets done sooner rather than later.
“We haven't really gotten a whole lot into it. We had just one talk or something like that. I'm sure talks will get moving more towards the end of the month or into July as we get going.”
Five players in Detroit’s minor-league system – goalie Jared Coreau, defenseman Ryan Sproul and forwards Mitch Callahan, Louis-Marc Aubry and Colin Campbell – were also tendered qualifying offers.
Import Draft
For the second year in a row, a Detroit draft choice was selected in the Canadian Hockey League Import Draft by a Michigan-based Ontario Hockey League team.
The Saginaw Spirit claimed Czech defenseman Filip Hronek with the 14th overall pick in Tuesday’s draft. The Wings took Hronek 53rd overall in last week’s NHL entry draft.
Last year, Detroit defense prospect Vili Saarijarvi was selected by the Flint Firebirds and played there last season.
Saarijarvi, picked 73rd overall by Detroit in 2015, was recently traded by the Firebirds to the Mississauga Steelheads.
Detroit Memories
Rogie Vachon’s induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame Monday was certainly based more on his work with the Canadiens and Kings than anything he accomplished in two seasons with the Red Wings.
Signed as a free agent by Detroit in 1978, Vachon was 30-57-11 as a Wing with a 3.74 goals-against average.
“It was fun for the two years I was there, and there was a little bit of history because when I got traded to Detroit my first year we closed the old Olympia and the year after we moved into the new building (Joe Louis Arena),” Vachon said. It was a very good time and everybody was excited. I wish I would have played a little better in Detroit but things didn’t work out as well as I thought it would. But that’s hockey.
“I loved the city. The fans are fantastic and they’ve been having a great team ever since.”
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