Alex DeBrincat and Steve Yzerman discuss the decision to bring DeBrincat back to his home state and his new four-year, $31.5 million contract

"It was a great fit for every aspect of our lives," said Alex DeBrincat, a Farmington Hills native and the newest Detroit Red Wing, of the trade that sent him from Ottawa to Detroit yesterday evening and his subsequent contract extension.

As he spoke to the local media for the first time via Zoom, DeBrincat wore a Detroit Pistons cap, decorated with the teal horse head emblem of the 90s (an aesthetic he admits pre-dates his memory but which he enjoys all the same), atop his head. He spoke from the home in Metro Detroit where he's spent the summers since his first few seasons in the NHL.  

Yesterday evening, DeBrincat was having a "chill day" at that home with his wife Lyndsey and one-year-old son Archie when the family learned that their off-season house could remain their in-season house for at least the next four years.  "I don't think anyone's happier than my parents," said DeBrincat of the busy day; the trips to watch their son play and grandson grow up will be short and frequent.

For Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman, the deal met a major off-season demand by bringing in a rare asset in the NHL, a player who "anytime they shoot it, it looks like they have a chance to go in."  A "medium-term" extension, as Yzerman called DeBrincat's new four year, $31.5 million ticket, works for both parties.  

The Red Wings won't be locked into seven or eight seasons of a player who has yet to prove his fit in Detroit, while DeBrincat will get the chance to return to free agency in his (late) 20s, when the cap should have swollen and he will still have valuable years left to offer.

That DeBrincat hails from Farmington Hills provided some extra value for the Red Wings as well.  "To have some local ties is great for these players and for our market as well," said Yzerman.  He added that free agents with more connection to their new home than just dollars and cents tend to be "more invested" in the project they're joining.

DeBrincat's hockey career began playing for Farmington Hills Fire at Farmington Hills Ice Arena, thirty minutes from his new home building at Little Caesars Arena. 

He wasn't quite old enough to recall much of Detroit's 2002 Stanley Cup triumph, but he described the '08 Cup champions as a "big reason I play the game."  His favorite player growing up, like just about anybody born in Metro Detroit in the late 90s, was Pavel Datsyuk.

After a year in Ottawa, DeBrincat didn't demand a trade, but he didn't feel comfortable committing to a long-term extension. One year hadn't provided enough time for him to develop sufficient feel for the organization to lock in a multi-year deal. 

From there, the Sens' aversion to the thought of losing DeBrincat for nothing next summer meant a trade was the only next step. At that point, DeBrincat (and Yzerman and Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion) knew where he wanted to go.

"There really wasn't a pitch," said Yzerman, when asked what went into selling DeBrincat on spending the next four years with a team that hasn't finished better than fifth in its own division since 2015-16. Per Yzerman, DeBrincat is "an astute young guy who can look at our organization and see the players within it" to form his own assessment of Detroit's direction of travel.

Yzerman mentioned that a golf outing for DeBrincat and Dylan Larkin earlier in the summer helped on the recruitment front, and that it "didn't take long" for Yzerman and DeBrincat's agent Jeff Jackson to establish a fit and hammer out a new contract.

Next season, DeBrincat will have to move on from the number 12, which he has worn throughout his professional career, since it is retired in honor of Sid Abel of the famed "Production Line" that starred for the Red Wings of the 40s and 50s.  The new digits aren't official yet, but DeBrincat intends to go back to the 93 sweater he once wore playing for Victory Honda in Plymouth back in his AAA days, which doubles as his elder brother's birth year.

For the entire DeBrincat family, Alex's move to Detroit marks a welcome homecoming.