Month: July 2026

The NHL’s unrestricted free agent period begins at 12 PM EDT today, and this morning, both the Free Press’s Helene St. James and Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff make suggestions as to which players the Red Wings should sign.

St. James believes that Detroit needs to sign a scoring winger and a back-up goaltender, first and foremost, but she also suggests that the Red Wings need more “team toughness,” too.

Here are three of her main targets…

Viktor Arvidsson, F, Boston Bruins

The 33-year-old is a veteran of 682 NHL games (with 219 goals among 443 points), most recently contributing 25 goals, 29 assists and a plus-20 rating in 14:35 of ice time per game for the Bruins in 2025-26. He has also appeared in 91 playoff games (46 points). Arvidsson (5 feet 10, 181 pounds) has a quality the Wings don’t have enough of among their forwards: He is tenacious and consistent about going to the net, plays with pace and is a 200-foot player.

Continue reading HSJ, Duff weigh in regarding potential Red Wings free agency targets

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman offers some late-night, pre-free agency thoughts and predictions, including the following:

Dylan Larkin: Steve Yzerman would rather make no trade than what he thinks is a bad trade.

Jason Robertson: Wants Dallas to budge. Don’t see it now. My guess is they go to arbitration. Unless Yzerman decides he’s the best option for Larkin. 

Continued, briefly (hey, it’s the night before a very busy day for Elliotte and the rest of us)…

Former Red Wings defenseman Brian Rafalski appeared on the “Ozzy and Keats” podcast recently, and the episode was posted on YouTube this morning:

According to Frank Seravalli, Red Wings forward David Perron will test the free agent marketplace today at 12 PM EDT:

Sounds like David Perron will hit the market at 12 noon on Wednesday.

Talks continue with #LGRW and he remains open to signing there, but does not seem likely to materialize in a deal at this point in time.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) July 1, 2026