*Photo from Gossip Chimp*
Needing an injection of offense, the Detroit Red Wings brought home the local kid. The Red Wings and C/LW Andrew Copp have agreed to a 5 year, $28.125 million deal, according to Darren Dreger of TSN. The Red Wings have confirmed the deal.
Copp said of signing with his hometown team that "I was a big Red Wings fan. Growing up in the era of Yzerman, Shanahan and Lidstrom and then onto Datsyuk and Zetterberg, I think you saw their success. They went to the playoffs like 25 straight years or something insane like that. I concentrated a lot on Michigan too being from Ann Arbor. Between the two of them, to be able to play for both teams is really a dream come true."
The Red Wings struggled last season for a variety of reasons, but one of them was that they needed more punch on the scoresheet. Copp has consistently been a 10-20 goal scorer in his career, and is also strong defensively as a two way player, so the hope is that Copp can do what the Red Wings need him to do.
Last season, split between the Winnipeg Jets and New York Rangers, Copp had a career high 21 goals and 32 assists, with a +15 plus/minus rating in 72 regular season games. Copp added another 6 goals and 8 assists across 20 playoff games last season.
In his 8 NHL seasons, with the Jets and Rangers, Copp has 82 goals and 120 assists, averaging 14:15 of ice time per game while posting a +69 plus/minus rating in 483 regular season games. In the playoffs, Copp has an additional 9 goals and 17 assists in 54 playoff games.
Copp offered his assessment of the team, saying that "Dylan Larkin is one of my close friends, played together at Michigan. Robby Fabbri is a guy that I've played golf with and seen up close and personal when he was in St. Louis. Bertuzzi's been there a while, he's a really good player. I see a lot of good pieces that have been there for a while. And then you see the youth: Raymond, Seider, Zadina, Rasmussen, all those guys that are going to be big parts of the group, I think are ready to take that next step and help this team get into the playoffs."
Copp's new deal with the Red Wings runs through the 2026-2027 season. He gets a hefty pay raise, going from $3.64 million up to $5.625 million, and he has a $1 million signing bonus this season. Copp also has a modified no trade clause for all 5 seasons of the deal, which is a 10 team no trade list submitted by Copp.
The signing of Copp will hopefully bring a jolt of offense and defense to the middle six forward group in Detroit, which includes players like Fabbri, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Michael Rasmussen.
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