New Red Wings forward Keegan Kolesar introduced himself to the Wings’ media corps on Thursday, discussing his desire to bring a physical element to his new team’s “bottom six.”
This morning, the Free Press’s Helene St. James offers more from Kolesar’s introductory press conference, noting that Kolesar’s having a somewhat difficult time dealing with the first trade of his NHL career:
Kolesar sounded both wistful and wishful the day after he was traded from the only NHL team he has known to the Detroit Red Wings. One the one hand: He’s used to winning, and to being in the playoffs. On the other hand: It’s nice to be wanted.
“It’s tough when you hear news like that because your whole life changes,” Kolesar said on Thursday, July 2. “But I also look at it as like I’m in the NHL, on an Original Six team. Life’s good.”
As St. James also notes, Kolesar brings the toughness to the back half of the Wings’ forward lineup that Detroit’s lacked over the past half-dozen seasons:
The Wings hope the 29-year-old can make life better for them, or at least worse for their foes, which is to say, make the Wings tougher to play against. Kolesar (6 feet 2, 216 pounds) was acquired via trade from the Vegas Golden Knights for a 2027 seventh-round pick and a 2029 third-round pick; he comes carrying a contract with two years left at a $2.5 million average annual value. It’s an easy contract to absorb for a forward whose forte the Wings lack: Kolesar finishes his checks and wins battles along the boards. He was credited with 270 hits in 2025-26, seventh-most in the league, and nearly 100 more than the Wings’ leading hitter, Marco Kasper (186).
Kolesar will drop the gloves, too, having racked up 31 fights over the past five seasons. Bringing that kind of physical presence has earned him 439 career games in the NHL since being selected in the third round (No. 69 overall) of the 2015 NHL Draft.
“That’s an aspect that I try to bring,” Kolesar said. “I think when you have that in your lineup, it makes everyone play a little bit tougher. You can play a little bit more confident when you have someone that is going to go in the trenches and do all the dirty work like that.
“I’m a prideful guy in that sense. I’ve always felt that as teammates, we look out for each other. I think there’s been a number of cases in my career where someone’s been taken advantage of and I’ll go to bat for them. And there’s been times where I was taken advantage of and I know my teammates have had my back. I think that just comes from just being a brotherhood in the locker room. It doesn’t matter, you know, how big the opponent is. If you show up to play and you strike out or whatever, at least you gave it your shot.”
According to Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff, Kolesar, a Brandon, Manitoba native, took an unusual route toward playing NHL hockey for a living…
His father, Charles Peterson, was a highly recruited high school quarterback who instead chose baseball after being the first-round selection of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1993 MLB draft. Kolesar’s stepdad, K.D. Williams was a linebacker in the NFL and the CFL.
In his NFL debut for the Oakland Raiders, Williams picked off future Hall of Fame QB Brett Favre of the Green Bay Packers. In the CFL with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Williams set a league single-game record, recording six tackles for loss.
The gridiron was looking like it would be Kolesar’s destiny as well. As a youngster, he was an inside linebacker for the North Winnipeg Nomads. Then one fateful day, almost by happenstance, he would end up at a hockey rink.
“My parents wanted me to stay in shape for football,” Kolesar said. “They said, ‘Well, let’s put him on ice skates to see if he can play.’ I just did a complete 180 on them, and just said, ‘Hey, I don’t like football anymore.’
“All I honestly wanted to do was just to play with my best friends. You know, 20 years later, now here I am. It’s fun. I’m just a Canadian kid who wanted to play hockey. That’s all it is.”
And now, Kolesar brings both toughness and leadership to the a Red Wings team that’s notorious for being “too quiet”:
“You try to bring guys into the fight every night,” Kolesar said. “I think guys look to the leaders of the team.
“If I can be one of those older guys that comes in and shows guys, you know, hey, like, we’re going to go in there to the trenches tonight and see who wants to follow me, maybe it uplifts the guys a little bit more.”
Kolesar isn’t the kind of top six scoring forward that Viktor Arvidsson gives the Red Wings, but he won’t be called “just a jersey” by coach Todd McLellan this upcoming season.
Instead, he brings a very necessary element to the lineup, and, in my opinion, he’s just what the doctor’s ordered for the 3rd and 4th lines.
