Green Goes Red

The Detroit Red Wings came away as a winner on Wednesday, as they signed one of the big defense prizes in Mike Green, giving him a 3-year, $18 million deal on opening day of free agency.

Green should complete a very interesting blueline in Detroit, which already features some decent puck movers and hard hitters, so a little bit more play-making ability should be welcome to the fold.

It has been a few years since Green really popped up on the hockey pool season, dominating all blueline scoring back in 2009 & 2010, but he was able to produce some decent numbers in 2015, making his free agent deal quite lucrative.

With the Capitals last season, Green played in 72 games, scoring 10 goals and 45 points, which ranked him 18th among all blueliners in scoring and 147th overall.  With defensemen being the flavour of the year in free agency, it was no wonder that he could generate a deal in the $6 million per season range.

The Capitals and Red Wings had offenses that were only 7 goals apart in the 2015 season, so there is a fine chance that Green can take that difference and apply it to his new team, which didn't really dazzle from the back end.

Even under a new coaching staff in the 2016 season, the Red Wings should still be able to use a lot of that natural talent they have, especially off the rush and on the power play, to generate scoring chances and then capitalize on them, so Green's numbers shouldn't stray too far from his 2015 total.  I think with a few more patient players on that top power play group, it could really open up some space for Green and his goal total might be very impressive.