The 2025-26 NHL Season has officially begun for several teams, and for the Detroit Red Wings, it will commence on Thursday evening against the Montreal Canadiens at Little Caesars Arena.
For the Red Wings, it's their centennial campaign in the National Hockey League and the organization has already promised a season with multiple in-game promotions, events and alumni appearances to commemorate the historical occasion.
Head coach Todd McLellan is also set to begin his first full season behind the Detroit bench after making his return to the organization last December to take over for the dismissed Derek Lalonde.
McLellan, who served for three seasons from 2005 through 2008 as an assistant coach under Mike Babcock and won the Stanley Cup with Detroit, believes that being part of an Original Six organization like the Red Wings is nothing short of a special experience for anyone involved.
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"Any time that you get to be a part of the Red Wings organization, it's special," McLellan said on the eve of the Red Wings' season opener. "It's not just Todd McLellan or anybody else. As I said before, this is an Original Six franchise with 100 years of history. The players who have come and gone and left their mark on the franchise and on the city, it's incredible."
Multiple young rookies have made the Red Wings’ roster for the upcoming season, including Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, Axel Sandin-Pellikka, and Emmitt Finnie. All three were born in 2005, meaning Detroit’s only Stanley Cup victory in their lifetime came when they were just barely or almost three years of age.
While it was beyond their control not to have been around for the Red Wings’ Stanley Cup victories in 1997, 1998, and 2002, McLellan believes that a bit of an old-school history lesson could help them and other young players in the organization better appreciate Detroit’s rich hockey tradition and the countless legendary players who have worn the Winged Wheel over the years.
"Maybe one day we should sit down with the players who are here now and take them through a history class, because I'm not sure everybody knows exactly what's happened here prior," McLellan said. "And the individuals who have been walking around - like, we see (Nicklas) Lidstrom and (Niklas) Kronwall, these types of players come back through the locker room now. But my first go-around, it was Mr. (Gordie) Howe, Mr. (Alex) Delvecchio. It was these kind of individuals walking through the locker room, and that was for me really special."
"Anybody that understood the history, to have them walk through, Gordie would walk by and throw his elbow out. Even seeing Vladdy (Konstantinov) the other night on the big screen, I remember that would happen at our games all the time. They bring him and he'd watch and be cheering, and now to see him 20 years later, it's incredible.
That's just how I feel about being a Red Wing. It's special."
Both Howe and Delvecchio are no longer with us, as are many other Red Wings hockey icons from their generation of players including Ted Lindsay, Sid Abel, and Terry Sawchuk. But it was clear that the impression their mere presence around the dressing room during McLellan's first tenure with the Red Wings was significant.
Red Wings Honor Legend Alex Delvecchio With Jersey Patches For Upcoming Season
The <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/detroit-red-wings">Red Wings</a> will honor Alex Delvecchio this season with #10 patches on jerseys and helmet stickers on Centennial jersey nights.
As the Red Wings embark on their centennial season, the magnitude of being part of the organization that has won the Stanley Cup more times than any other NHL club based in the United States clearly resonates with McLellan, a feeling he wants the young players in the organization to share.
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