The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan offers a set of bullet-pointed notes from Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s post-free agency day press conference:
► Signing [Dominik] Kubalik, who became an unrestricted free agent when Chicago surprisingly decided to not give a qualifying offer to the restricted free agent, making Kubalik unrestricted Wednesday: “He’s big, can skate, has a great shot and the contract we think is very reasonable. It’s a guy who has a lot of upside, and another player that gives more scoring depth. We reached out to him through Jiri Fischer and he expressed an interest in coming here. We’ve very pleased.”
► Yzerman expects the Wings to be tougher to play against: “Harder to play against isn’t necessarily running guys through the glass. It’s being more dogged on the puck, being more responsible with the puck, tighter and diligent defensively, competing harder. We want to be harder to play against because we’re better defensively and we’re more competitive and we have more depth up front. We can match up better.”
► Yzerman was pleased to sign [Andrew] Copp, who appears to fill a big need at second-line center, but can play all three forward spots and both special teams: “At 28 years of age, he’s a very good athlete, very versatile, a good face-off man and at I’m comfortable giving (that kind of player) a five-year contract. That’s not a concern for me.”
► Signing [David] Perron also helps the Wings in a variety of ways: “He’s a pretty competitive guy. We like he’s a (right-handed) shot, a natural winger with a right shot, very good on the power play and he’s been through a lot of playoff runs. He’s very experienced and excelled in the playoffs, played on St. Louis’ Stanley Cup team (in 2019). He really fills a need for us, I like the veteran leadership he can provide.”
► Rebuilding the left-side defense with [Ben] Chiarot and [Olli] Maatta: “Defense-first defensemen, bigger bodies, they get in the way and are kind of hard to play against. I would expect those two guys will play with Moritz and Filip (Hronek), they’re good complements for them. They’re big guys, good length, block shots and are a little harder to play against.”
