Role Paramount if Red Wings Are to Retain Perron
From The Silky Mitten State: For an extension to make sense, David Perron and the Red Wings will have to walk a delicate line with respect to his role
On the most recent episode of The Silky Mitten State, my co-host Connor Earegood and I analyzed some recent reporting around a few key Red Wing free agents, among them veteran Quebecois winger David Perron.
The 36-year-old Perron scored 17 goals and provided 30 assists in the second and final year of the contract he'd signed with Detroit two summers prior. At his end-of-season press conference, he made clear his desire to remain a Red Wing. Now, The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun reported that Detroit GM Steve Yzerman met with Perron's agent Allan Walsh at last week's scouting combine in Buffalo.
That prompted Connor and I to talk about the exact role that would best suit Perron moving forward. Specifically, I offered my theory that Perron's ferocity on the forecheck and in the corners combined with his skill is a solid encapsulation of the style Derek Lalonde wants his team to play. In this sense, Perron—whether in a game, in practice, or in the dressing room—can serve as almost an avatar for Lalonde amongst his teammates.
With that said, Perron also is probably due for a slight reduction in his role as his age continues to advance. Detroit is probably better off with a top six that doesn't feature Perron in the coming season, and that presents something of a challenge to his leadership.
As he said back in Traverse City at Detroit's training camp last fall, "I don't want to just take on a leadership role and just do that in the room. I want to be a guy that does it on the ice too." That sentiment hints at the challenge of being a leader in the locker room without having a major on-ice role, and, in some sense, the biggest challenge in retaining Perron isn't signing him to a contract. It seems as though all parties are interested in that. The challenge will be in Lalonde, Yzerman, and Perron finding a role that makes sense.
In that same training camp presser, Perron offered an answer that would sound prescient by season's end, in response to a question from THN about the importance of staying abreast of the league standings on a day-by-day basis from early in the season:
"I've never done that before last year. Some of the other teams I was on, we just played the games and it took care of itself. We were in a good spot; you get excited because you see where you are every week. You lose one, lose two; it doesn't matter and you find it back. I do think that for us, whether it's at game 40 or game 60 or game 81 or maybe game one of the first round, it's gonna come where there's a trigger point for us. I just felt like at times maybe we weren't really focusing or aware of this, and it's not in me—even summer hockey, the 3-on-3 league—I gotta find a way to win the games. It's just the way I'm built. I felt like I've won at every level, and I feel like in my heart, if you don't think like that, you're not going to have a chance. I'm not saying that we're contenders to be a top six team in the league; I don't think we are. But at the same time, you've got to feel in your heart and think about it at least and put your best foot forward."
For a team that wound up one point shy of the postseason on the regular season's final day, that sort of attitude from Perron is what Detroit will need more of to make the playoffs in 2025.
You can check out a sample of our chat in the featured video above, and you can find the full episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts:
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