Brendan Smith

Red Wings sign long-coveted defenseman Mike Green

Published Jul. 1, 2015 4:56 p.m. ET

foxsports

Red Wings General Manager Ken Holland isn't fooling around.

Though he insisted that he was perfectly comfortable standing pat rather than gambling on another unseemly free-agent deal, he somehow was able to coax one of the most sought-after players on the market -- offensive defenseman Mike Green -- to a perfectly reasonable and somewhat surprising pact.

Green signed a three-year contract worth $18 million. Because he's just 29, he was expected to command more term, if not even more money -- and in fact he may have had such offers on the table.

As Holland has been saying a lot lately, though, "If it's only about the money, then Detroit probably isn't the place for you." Perhaps, too, that after swinging and missing on big-name free agents the past several years, Holland's luck is changing and Hockeytown once again is being seen as a destination club.

Or maybe there was something to those whispers that some players passed on offers from the Wings because they didn't want to play for Mike Babcock, who's now in Toronto.

At any rate, Holland and the Wings scored a huge victory today, the first day of NHL free agency.

The Wings for years have had their eyes on Green, the 6-foot-1, 207-pound defenseman who has 113 goals among 360 points in 575 NHL games, all with the Capitals. He gives them a much-needed right-shot triggerman on the power play.

The move doubtless sets up at least one more move likely to be made before training camp, since the Wings suddenly have a glut of defensemen. With Green likely to join Niklas Kronwall on the top defense tandem, Jonathan Ericcson could be paired with Brendan Smith if first-year coach Jeff Blashill sticks with the Danny DeKeyser-Kyle Quincey unit as the team's top shut-down defensive pairing.

That leaves Jakub Kindl, Alexey Marchenko and Xavier Ouellet vying for the last one or two spots on defense.

Green, a native of Calgary, Alberta, had 10 goals among 45 points in 72 games this season. A two-time NHL First-Team All-Star, Green ranks only behind Chicago's Conn Smythe-winning Duncan Keith as the NHL's highest-scoring defenseman since the start of the 2007-08 season.

Green has led all NHL defensemen in goals on four occasions, 2008-10 and 2013. He scored a career-high 31 goals in 2008-09 to become the only defenseman to reach the 30-goal plateau since Kevin Hatcher did it for the Capitals in 1992-93.

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