The Detroit Red Wings have signed winger Austin Watson to a one-year, two-way contract. Going into training camp Watson went to Red Wings’ training camp on a PTO (professional tryout). An Ann Arbor, Michigan native, Watson is a 32 year old winger who uses his 6’4”, 238 lb. frame to bring physical play to the ice. To make room for Watson the Red Wings made several cuts to their roster that involved sending young players down to the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL.
Max Bultman of The Athletic posted on social media today that the following is likely to be the Red Wings’ opening night lineup against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night. This lineup is like last season’s that saw the Red Wings miss the Stanley Cup playoffs on the last day of the 2023-24 NHL season. The one addition that could put the Red Wings over the top is Vladimir Tarasenko who was signed a two-year contract with an AAV of $4.75 million.
Waston will likely start the 2023-24 season with the Griffins. This will not be permanent as the NHL season is 82 games long and players move into and out of the NHL lineup through both injuries and a dip in play. Perhaps with more time in the AHL players like Carter Mazur and Nate Danielson can get their first playing time with the Red Wings.
Playing in only 19 games for the Florida Panthers as they went on their chase to win the first Stanley Cup in franchise history Tarasenko scored six goals and add eight assists. Tarasenko is also 32 years old and won a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues in 2019. This was after he scored 17 goals and adding 24 assists in 57 games played for the Ottawa Senators prior to being traded. This would be three goals ahead of what Patrick Kane put up in only 50 games played after having hip resurfacing surgery.
Forwards:
DeBrincat – Larkin – Raymond
Tarasenko – Compher – Kane
Rasmussen – Copp – Fischer
Berggren – Veleno – Motte
Defense:
Chiarot – Seider
Edvinsson – Petry
Määttä – Gustafsson
Goalies
Talbot – Lyon
In the press box:
Johansson – Holl
It can be argued that if it were not for a cold spell in scoring for newly signed winger Alex DeBrincat the Red Wings make the playoffs. DeBrincat scored 27 goals and added 40 assists playing in all 82 games for the Red Wings in his first season with the team. This is the kind of player that the team had not been able to add through the NHL draft and thus needed to look for scoring help in free agency.
Comparing Watson to these kinds of players is not fair. Watson has only scored 10 goals or more twice in his career. The veteran may fill a role to be a mentor for the younger players on the Red Wings’ roster. Head coach of the Red Wings Derek Lalonde recently was complimentary of Watson’s ability to energize the Red Wings’ lineup in other ways than scoring.
“I like that,” Lalonde said. “I think it energized our guys. Obviously, Mo’s a very important player for us. We don’t want him to get in any of those type of situations. “I actually liked it a lot.” Seider signed a seven-year contract with an AAV of $8.55 million. Much was made of his defensive deployment alongside Ben Chiarot at the beginning of the 2023-24 season.
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