Quebecer David Perron has mourned the Blues after 11 seasons in St. Louis. He now wants to play a mentoring role in Detroit.
The break with the Blues hurt the 34-year-old left winger.
“It was disappointing, agreed Perron, on the sidelines of the Gagné-Bergeron Pro-Am, a few days ago. I had been there for several years. My children grew up in St. Louis. We were used to it, we loved it. It’s difficult, I deserved a contract that would have made sense for the team and for me.
The main interested party, however, looks forward.
“It’s time to turn the page,” he agreed. I’m excited to go to Detroit. I had conversations with [le directeur général] Steve Yzerman. The team is in the process of rebuilding. […] I am the oldest in the team, I want to play a leadership role.
“Not the Detroit Golden Knights”
Perron wants to put his experience of 973 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) to good use. With the Blues, he faced adversity, before winning the Stanley Cup in 2019. With the Golden Knights, in the organization’s first year in Las Vegas in 2017, he saw the team surprise to reach the final.
Perron believes he has the tools to adapt quickly with Michigan State training.
The various hirings of the Red Wings, which have notably acquired Ben Chiarot, Dominik Kubalik and Ville Husso, will allow the team to aspire to success quickly, according to the principal concerned.
“I want to make sure the guys come out together and there’s a team spirit as early in the season as possible so we have an identity,” he said. The year in Vegas, finding an identity was the first thing we did. We ended up in the Stanley Cup final. We won’t be the Detroit Golden Knights, but we have a lot of good parts to have a winning team.
In St. Louis, although he didn’t have an assistant or captain’s letter on his jersey, Perron was one of the players in the leadership group of five or six players on the team. He expects to play a similar role with his new roster, which has promising youngsters like forward Lucas Raymond and defenseman Moritz Seider, the latest Calder Trophy winner.
The Quebecer played his first game at 19 on the Bettman circuit. It’s her turn to help the younger ones.
“I consider myself lucky to have a long enough career that allows me to see both sides of the coin,” said Perron. I will play an important role with the young people. When I started, Keith Tkachuk helped me. He was hard on me, but he was “fair”.