DETROIT, Mich. — For the past few years, as the Detroit Red Wings have begun to turn from an NHL rebuilder into playoff hopefuls, there has been a particular skill set that has eluded them.
Detroit has been able to inject more skill and scoring into its lineup through trades and free agency. The team has managed to bring in some veteran leaders and culture changers. It has taken steps toward being harder to play against.
But on too many nights these last few seasons, the Red Wings have been just a bit too easy to push around. Opponents have gotten away with too many liberties on their stars, particularly their captain Dylan Larkin. Frankly, Detroit just hasn’t had many answers for teams who have played them that way.
And as a new season gets set to begin in October, you can argue they still don’t.
There is an under-the-radar player in Red Wings training camp, though, who might just have something to say about that. Or at least, he hopes to — playing this preseason on a professional tryout contract that guarantees him nothing beyond some shifts in exhibition play.
That player is Austin Watson, and Red Wings fans should be plenty familiar with him.
Red Wings NHL group skating first this morning — all the regulars plus PTO Austin Watson pic.twitter.com/rUI2ltQQwU
— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) September 24, 2024
A 10-year NHLer, at this point Watson has been around the block in this league, starting with the Nashville Predators. He spent 2020 through 2023 playing for Detroit’s division rival Ottawa Senators, which means, yes, he was on the other side of the now-infamous two-game set in late February 2022 when the Red Wings got completely pushed out of a pair of games in Ottawa that helped to send the two teams in vastly different directions at the ensuing trade deadline.
In those two games, Watson had a combined 11 hits — a stat emblematic of the way Ottawa hounded Red Wings defensemen on retrievals, giving up nothing without a fight.
But there’s probably something you’ve forgotten about those games that Watson certainly hasn’t.
“I remember I scored two goals in the last one,” Watson joked Wednesday, ahead of the Red Wings’ first preseason game against the Blackhawks.
Watson is not typically known for his scoring, with 60 career goals in 515 games. But he is right: he tallied a pair of goals against the Red Wings that night in February 2023 — and also scored in two other games against them earlier that season. In fact, across seven games against the Red Wings when he was in Ottawa, Watson actually posted six goals and an assist, just against the Red Wings.
It’s a small sample, of course. But the fact Watson had that kind of success against the Red Wings also probably isn’t a complete coincidence, either. He plays the game in the type of abrasive manner recent iterations of the team have struggled with.
And that’s why it was so interesting to see Watson announced as a training camp participant on that tryout deal.
Part of it, to be sure, is simple self-belief from Watson.
“I’m not done playing by any means, and it’s an opportunity for me to earn a one-way (contract),” Watson said Wednesday. “I fully believe that I’m an NHL hockey player, and the PTO is an opportunity to come in here and show that, one, you can play at the pace that some of these young guys are playing at, and also show some of those intangible things that, over time, I’ve learned to play in this league, and be an effective player in it.”
Of all the places he could have tried to go, though, it’s worth noting the Red Wings don’t appear to have any obvious open roster spots, at least as long as they carry eight defensemen and three goaltenders. They currently don’t have the cap space for even a league minimum contract (although that could change if they were to move or waive a contract). And they have several young highly-drafted forwards looking to make the team as well.
Add in that PTOs can be notoriously hard to turn into actual contracts, and Watson is certainly looking at an uphill battle over the next two weeks in Detroit. But having seen this team up close, from the other side of the ice, he believes he can help them.
“Very familiar with playing against this team, seeing the skill, seeing the high-end players and the growth that this team has taken over the last few years,” Watson said. “But also knowing that a little bit of that physicality, a little bit of that — pardon my French, but a little bit of that ‘F— you’ attitude, a little bit of that toughness, that meanness, is something that looked, potentially, like I might be able to come in here and help provide.”
Watson is quick to note he doesn’t feel he’s made his career as a so-called enforcer. He doesn’t view himself as “the toughest guy in the world.”
“But I’ve not backed down from anybody, ever, either,” he said. “I’m pretty active if you look at the fight card every year, and I take pride in being a loyal teammate and always looking out for guys. But that, I think, comes with playing the game hard: getting in on the forecheck, being fast up the ice, back in the own zone, really taking pride in that 200-foot game.”
Clearly, the Red Wings found that at least worth exploring over the course of the exhibition season.
“We want to have a little of that element,” Lalonde said. “But at the same time, we need the player to help us.”
Watson’s goal is to show that he can — just as he did in a similar circumstance last year in Tampa Bay, entering camp on a PTO but playing his way into a contract.
One of his biggest areas of emphasis this summer was pace of play, working on his stride. He feels if he can play at a high pace, the other elements he brings can “shine through.”
The goal scoring he showed against the Red Wings the last few years isn’t likely to be the bedrock of his case for a contract. The foundation of his game is that hard-hitting, heavy forechecking, tough defending approach that has led to him never being on the ice for more than 2.5 expected goals against per 60 in any season of his career. For context, only two Red Wings forwards were below that mark last season: Austin Czarnik and Klim Kostin, who both played less than 35 games.
Still, it wouldn’t hurt Watson to show he can put the puck in the net a couple of times this preseason. He had a primary assist in Detroit’s exhibition opener Wednesday night, setting up Tyler Motte at the back door just 1:10 into the game. And though Detroit also isn’t particularly hurting for penalty killers anymore, Watson has a track record of doing that as well.
Realistically, if Watson can earn a roster spot with all the current forwards healthy, he would most likely start as a 13th forward, which can be a tricky role to play without much game-to-game rhythm. But he got a taste of it in with the Lightning last season. And while it wasn’t always easy for a player who had become accustomed to being a nightly regular for most of his career, he took something away from that experience.
“I think I learned a lot last year in just how to handle that, how to continue to be upbeat, be positive, be what I kind of take pride in, which is being a guy’s guy,” Watson said. “Like, I have these guys’ back in all situations: on the ice, off the ice, and to just be able to kind of take your own lumps as you go along, continue to work, continue to have that energy. And that positivity that really can be uplifting for the team, even if you’re not in the lineup every night.”
Again, it’s an uphill climb Watson is undertaking in his position. But Lalonde has said both Watson and fellow PTO player Alex Chiasson will get “a lot of opportunity in camp.”
Now, with the preseason underway, Watson will be looking to take all those little elements and put them together, hoping to turn his tryout into something more.
(Top photo of Austin Watson courtesy of Allison Farrand / Detroit Red Wings)
