IT’S OFFICIAL: Red Wings Re-Sign Mike Green

It’s now officially official, Mike Green will be staying in Detroit. The 32-year-old defenseman signed for two years, at $5.375-million per year.

Green was just coming off a 3-year, $18-million dollar contract with the Red Wings, after becoming a free agent in the summer of 2015.

Originally drafted 29th-overall by the Washington Capitals, Green has been steadily known as an offensive defenseman that can put up some numbers while playing important minutes for your team.

In his previous three years with the Red Wings, Green has played 212 games, scored 29 goals and 104 points. Certainly, his goal-scoring touch has soured a bit, especially after his 31-goal campaign with the Capitals in the 2008-09 season, but Green can still run a pretty good powerplay unit.

He ended last season on an extremely sour note, requiring surgery for an injury he had sustained at the beginning of this year. That injury caused him to be unmoveable at the deadline for some much-needed future assets for the Wings.

Green obviously loves Detroit, as it was rumored that many other teams would be interested in signing him to a longer-term deal than the two years he got from the Red Wings. Especially after John Carlson re-signed with Washington, and Green appeared as the next-best thing to help the right side of the blueline on any team.

The contract itself is not damaging at all to the Red Wings. Many feared that he would want those extra years of security to return, but it looks like he was comfortable enough to take a small paycut as well, to stay in Detroit.

As for the evident logjam on defense, Green is a fine signing if Holland is able to move someone out, or he knows something we don’t know.

Trevor Daley, Jonathan Ericsson, Danny DeKeyser, and now Mike Green will be for sure on the blueline when the Red Wings play their season opener in October. But I am personally wondering if Niklas Kronwall makes his return, and/or Holland ships out Nick Jensen for some future assets. I guess we’ll see in the next month or so.

As for young defensemen, Filip Hronek is the most-likely candidate to take an NHL job next season, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he started the season with the Griffins.