Evening news: On managerial moves, dekeing DeKeyser, ‘weighing’ the Winged Wheel and Evan McGrath

Of Red Wings-related note this evening:

1. In the land of lists, The Score’s Sean O’Leary penned a list of the best and worst moves of each and every one of the NHL’s 31 general managers, and Ken Holland’s moves come from his time with the Red Wings:

Ken Holland, Detroit Red Wings (1997-2019)

*Current GM: Steve Yzerman

Best move: Drafting Pavel Datsyuk – Holland’s Red Wings career spanned parts of three decades, so there’s plenty to choose from here, but Datsyuk takes the cake. Plucked in the sixth round of the 1998 NHL Draft, the Magic Man played 14 seasons for Detroit, winning two Cups, three Selke trophies, and four Lady Byngs while adding 918 points during a Hall of Fame career.

Worst move: Signing Stephen Weiss – The arrival of the salary cap made it more difficult for Holland to swing for the fences as he did when he was building Cup contenders in the ’90s, but he still didn’t shy away from doling out big-time money in free agency. He proved as much with a five-year, $24.5-million contract for Weiss in 2013. The forward played 78 games for Detroit, and his buyout is on the Wings’ books until 2021.

You’ll have to read on for Yzerman’s best and worst moves…

2. Speaking of heavy contracts, Yahoo Sports’ Ryan Lambert gave a graduating Red Wing a dig a dig in his latest “31 Takes”:

Detroit Red Wings: Danny Dekeyser earned his degree over the weekend. It’s the first thing he’s passed that wasn’t picked off by an opposing forward in years.

Zing.

3. I don’t know how to explain this one, so just read it: The Vancouver Courier’s Daniel Wagner chose to “weigh” NHL team names, and his theories suggest that a Detroit Red Wing is not “heavy”:

22 | Detroit Red Wings, 20 lbs

How much does a red wing weigh? I have no idea. I could go with a red-winged blackbird, which weighs 0.187 lbs, and try to estimate the weight of one wing, but a red-winged blackbird’s wings aren’t even entirely red.

Instead, let’s go with the weight of part of their logo: a car tire. The Red Wings name derives from the Winged Wheelers, a Montreal hockey club, and was used as an homage to the Detroit auto industry. The average passenger car tire is around 20 lbs.

Yeah, but the airspeed velocity of a laden Red Wing is, erm..OH NO!

4. And here’s a blast from prospects past, per CBS Sports:

McGrath won’t return to EIHL Sheffield next season, calling it a career.

McGrath was selected in the fourth round of the 2004 NHL Draft by the Red Wings, but was never to break into the NHL with the club. After four seasons in the AHL, the 33-year-old moved overseas, playing in Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and finally England.