Today is the last day for NHL teams to sign college-age draft picks drafted four years ago. Several 2021 draft picks will walk as unrestricted free agents if their NHL rights-holders don’t sign them today, and Wings pick Red Savage appears to be one of them.
As Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes, the Red Wings sounded like they were going to sign 5’11,” 185-pound center and Michigan State University captain Savage to some sort of two-way NHL or AHL contract in July, but as of today, it appears that Savage will test the unrestricted free agent marketplace tomorrow:
The Red Wings made center Red Savage the 114th overall pick of the 2021 NHL entry draft. He was playing with the USNTDP in Plymouth, Michigan, at the time. The son of former NHL forward Brian Savage went on to play college hockey at Miami (Ohio) and Michigan State. He completed his final year of eligibility with the Spartans in 2024-25.
Earlier in the offseason, Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman wasn’t ruling out getting Savage’s name on a contract.
“We’ve had some discussions on potentially Red remaining in the fold on some type of contract,” Yzerman said.
As the clock ticks toward the deadline, it would appear that those talks didn’t come to fruition.
Continued; as of early July, Yzerman suggested that Red Wings assistant GM and Grand Rapids Griffins GM Shawn Horcoff would be in charge of signing Savage, and again, it appeared that the Wings were looking to sign Savage to an AHL deal. That’s unlikely now.
I’m a little disappointed that the Wings probably won’t hammer out a deal with Savage, because he’s a doggedly hard worker bee of a heart-and-soul player, but the Red Wings have several examples thereof in the organization already.
PuckPedia also has a full list of the players who will become unrestricted free agents if they don’t sign with their rights-holders today…
