Wings sign Dallas Drake
The Detroit Red Wings have signed veteran forward Dallas Drake to a one year contract.
Drake could be a good fit on the third or fourth line as checker and agitator. He’s got bad numbers from the previous two seasons he spent the Blues, racking up a minus-14 rating last season in 60 games and a minus-13 in 62 games in 2005-2006, but that needs to be weighed against how bad the Blues were defensively as a team. Drake, 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds, can hit and aggravate, but his offensive skills have dropped off.
The Wings originally selected Drake with the 116th overall pick in the 1989 entry draft, and he played for Detroit in 1992-93 and 1993-94 before being traded to Winnipeg in 1994.
In 944 career NHL games over 14 seasons Drake, 38, has racked up 174 goals, 297 assists and 844 penalty minutes.
To be honest, I’m not quite sure what I think of this signing. Obviously, we didn’t sign a top free agent, but he has plenty of experience and probably wouldn’t have put up such horrible numbers had he been on a better team. I guess I’m waiting to see how much he’ll be making this season before I give my final opinion.
“We’re very pleased to have Dallas join the Red Wings,” said Holland. “He’s a very physical player who will add grit to our lineup and make our team even more difficult to play against. He’s a veteran player and you can never have enough experience and leadership on a team.”
Apparently, the Wings have been eyeing Drake for awhile now according to Ansar Khan.
He’s spent the last six seasons in St. Louis and served as the team’s captain. The Wings have been trying to reacquire Drake for the last couple of years. Drake signed a two-year, $2.2 million deal with the Blues last summer.
Update: Drake is only costing the Wings $550,000 for this season making this signing much more attractive. He’s a physical player and it’s costing us $100,000 over the league minimum. Not too shabby Mr. Holland.
They’re still seeking a top-six forward and a defenseman (no priority, Holland said, just the best player at the best deal). He said he likes some of the players still available but right now their price is too high and/or they’re looking for a longer term than the Wings are willing to give. He said he’d be comfortable taking his current roster and some extra cap space into training camp and seeing who becomes available during the season.
Just a hunch, but they might be keeping some money free to sign Peter Forsberg midway through the season, if he wants to continue playing and they’re convinced his foot is OK. Or maybe they’re keeping their eye on Sergei Fedorov, who’s likely to be dealt midway through the season or at the trade deadline once Columbus falls out of playoff contention.
Related Posts
2 Responses to “Wings sign Dallas Drake”
Leave a Reply
January 1st, 2008 at 6:19 pm
[…] Skeletor or the Crazy Czech) re-signed for another year. GM Ken Holland continued his busy week by signing former Red Wing Dallas Drake for just […]
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:42 am
[…] Wings then added veteran forward Dallas Drake, who should play on the fourth line. If you recall, Drake played for Detroit back in […]