55 Fun Facts About Detroit Red Wings

Under what name did the Detroit franchise enter the NHL in 1926?

Cougars: the Detroit group bought the players of the Victoria Cougars of western Canada and kept the name, until the struggling club became the Falcons in 1930.

The Red Wings' winged-wheel logo was inspired by the emblem of which club?

The Montreal Amateur Athletic Association's hockey team, the Winged Wheelers, won the first Stanley Cup in 1893; Detroit's new owner had once been a member and borrowed its emblem in 1932.

Detroit's 2008 championship brought the Red Wings' Stanley Cup total to what number?

11: the 2008 title was the fourth in a run that began in 1997, yet before that run the club had gone 42 years without a Stanley Cup.

Where did the franchise play its first season in 1926-27 because no Detroit rink was ready?

Windsor, Ontario: with the Olympia still unbuilt, the team spent all of 1926-27 across the river at the Border Cities Arena and did not play a home game in Detroit until November 1927.

What nickname is registered as a trademark of the Red Wings for the Detroit area?

Hockeytown has been a Red Wings trademark since 1996, though tiny Warroad, Minnesota, had been calling itself Hockeytown USA first.

What sea creature do Red Wings fans throw onto the ice during the playoffs?

The octopus tradition began in the 1952 playoffs, when an octopus's eight legs matched the eight wins then needed to claim the Stanley Cup.

What was the name of the giant mascot raised to the rafters before Red Wings home playoff games?

Al is named for Al Sobotka, the team's longtime Zamboni driver, who whirled the fans' offerings above his head as he carried them off.

Which Journey song do Red Wings fans sing along to at home games?

Don't Stop Believin': the recording is turned down so the crowd can sing the line about being born and raised in South Detroit by itself.

Which coach and general manager ran the Red Wings for more than three decades from 1927?

Jack Adams coached Detroit to three Stanley Cups, though his 1942 team became the first to lose a Final after leading three games to none; the NHL's coach-of-the-year award bears his name.

What was the famous 1940s-50s trio of Gordie Howe, Sid Abel and Ted Lindsay called?

The Production Line, a nod to Detroit's car factories, finished first, second and third in NHL scoring in 1949-50: Lindsay, Abel, then Howe.

Which Red Wings goaltender joined Howe, Abel and Lindsay for the 1952 sweep to the Cup?

Terry Sawchuk did not allow a single goal on home ice in the 1952 playoffs, posting four shutouts as Detroit swept both series in the minimum eight games.

Who became the first woman to head an NHL franchise when she took over the Red Wings in 1952?

Marguerite Norris took charge after her father died in 1952 and in 1954 became the first woman with her name on the Stanley Cup, but her brother Bruce ousted her a year later.

Tony Leswick's Cup-winning overtime shot in 1954 went in off which Montreal defenseman's glove?

Doug Harvey, who went on to be named the NHL's best defenseman seven times, tried to glove Leswick's shot and instead tipped it past his own goalie, ending Game 7 at 4:29 of overtime.

Ted Lindsay was traded to Chicago in 1957 largely for doing what?

Helping start a players' union cost Lindsay his place in Detroit in 1957; no union took hold then, and a permanent players' association only arrived a decade later.

Gordie Howe was born in which Canadian province?

Saskatchewan: Howe was born in a farmhouse at Floral, tried out for the New York Rangers at 15, went back home, and signed with Detroit the following year.

Gordie Howe won six scoring titles and which other trophy six times?

Hart Trophy: Howe was named most valuable player six times between 1952 and 1963, yet he topped 100 points in an NHL season only once, at the age of 40.

What is a 'Gordie Howe hat trick'?

A Gordie Howe hat trick is a goal, an assist and a fight in one game; Howe himself managed it only twice, both in the 1953-54 season.

Gordie Howe retired at 52 after a final NHL season with which team?

Hartford Whalers: Howe had retired from Detroit in 1971, came back two years later to play beside his sons Mark and Marty, and in 1979-80 played all 80 NHL games, scoring 15 goals.

What derisive nickname was given to Detroit's long slump from 1967 to 1982?

The Dead Wings made the playoffs only twice in 16 seasons, in 1970 and 1978, a slump that ended once new owners began rebuilding through the 1983 draft.

Which pizza chain founder bought the Red Wings in 1982?

Mike Ilitch bought the Red Wings in 1982 and, a decade later, bought baseball's Tigers from a rival pizza mogul, Domino's founder Tom Monaghan.

From which junior team did the Red Wings draft Yzerman in 1983?

Peterborough Petes: the 18-year-old was the first draft pick of Detroit's new owners, went fourth overall, and led the team in scoring as a rookie with 87 points.

Steve Yzerman led Detroit's 2002 Cup run in scoring despite playing through severe damage to which joint?

Knee: Yzerman, Detroit's captain since 1986, topped the team with 23 playoff points on one good leg, then had the joint surgically realigned and missed most of the next season.

Yzerman's 155 points in 1988-89 trailed Gretzky and whom?

Mario Lemieux took the scoring title with 199 points to Gretzky's 168, yet NHL players voted Yzerman, with 65 goals, the league's most outstanding player that season.

Which coach, hired in 1993, led the Red Wings to three Stanley Cups?

Scotty Bowman is the only coach to win the Stanley Cup with three different teams, and he went out on top: he retired right after Detroit's 2002 title, his record ninth.

The 62-win 1995-96 Red Wings lost the conference final to which team?

Colorado Avalanche: in their first season after moving from Quebec, the Avalanche beat a Detroit team that had won a then-record 62 games, took the series in six and went on to lift the Stanley Cup.

Detroit ended a 42-year Cup drought by sweeping which team?

Philadelphia Flyers: Detroit won all four games and held Flyers captain Eric Lindros to a single goal, scored with 15 seconds left in the series; Darren McCarty got the Cup winner.

Which goaltender won the Conn Smythe Trophy in Detroit's 1997 Cup run?

Mike Vernon went 16-4 in the 1997 playoffs to earn the Conn Smythe, then was traded to San Jose that summer, handing the net to Chris Osgood.

Which defenseman's career ended in a limousine accident six days after the 1997 Cup win?

Vladimir Konstantinov suffered severe brain injuries in the June 13, 1997 crash; the next spring his teammates wheeled him onto the ice to touch the Cup after sweeping Washington.

What was the nickname of the Red Wings' 1990s group of Soviet-born players that included Fedorov, Larionov and Fetisov?

The Russian Five, completed by forward Slava Kozlov and a second Soviet-trained defenseman, first took the ice as a full five-man unit in October 1995 and won the Stanley Cup together in 1997.

Whose hit from behind on Kris Draper in the 1996 playoffs sparked a bitter Red Wings rivalry?

Claude Lemieux's check drove Draper face-first into the boards, breaking his jaw, nose and cheekbone; Darren McCarty took revenge on him in a brawl-filled game in March 1997.

Which Red Wing flattened Patrick Roy with a body check when the goalie skated out during the 1997 brawl?

Brendan Shanahan intercepted Roy in an open-ice collision when the goalie left his crease to join the brawl; Roy then squared off with Detroit's own goaltender.

Which team did the Red Wings beat in the 2002 Stanley Cup Final?

Detroit beat the Carolina Hurricanes in five games in June 2002; Game 3 in Raleigh went to triple overtime before Igor Larionov won it.

Which team did Detroit beat in Game 6 to win the 2008 Stanley Cup?

Pittsburgh Penguins: Henrik Zetterberg's third-period goal proved the Cup winner in Game 6 and he was named playoff MVP, but the Penguins took revenge in a seven-game rematch a year later.

Nicklas Lidstrom made history in 2008 as the first what to captain a Cup winner?

European-trained player: Lidstrom, a Swede, was the first captain born and trained in Europe to lift the Cup; two 1930s winning captains were born in Europe but grew up in Canada.

Which Red Wing was nicknamed 'the Magic Man' and won four straight Lady Byng trophies?

Pavel Datsyuk was drafted only 171st overall in 1998, yet added three Selke Trophies as the NHL's best defensive forward before going home to Russia in 2016.

How many consecutive seasons did the Red Wings make the playoffs before the streak ended in 2017?

25: the streak ran from 1991 to 2016, and what followed was the reverse, as Detroit missed the playoffs in each of the next ten seasons.

Where did the Red Wings play their home games from 1979 to 2017?

Joe Louis Arena was the city's answer to the owner's 1977 plan to move the team to suburban Pontiac: a riverfront rink on generous terms, which opened in December 1979.

Which building became the Red Wings' home in 2017?

Little Caesars Arena opened in September 2017 and pulled basketball's Pistons back into the city as well, ending their decades in the suburbs.

Steve Yzerman returned to Detroit as general manager in 2019 after building which team into a contender?

Tampa Bay Lightning: Yzerman ran the club for eight seasons, and the roster he built won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021, after he had left for Detroit.

Who was named Red Wings captain in January 2021?

Dylan Larkin got the C after Detroit had played two full seasons with no captain at all, the role left empty when a back condition ended Henrik Zetterberg's career in 2018.

Which former Red Wing had his number retired by the team in January 2026?

Sergei Fedorov's 91 went to the rafters in January 2026; he had slipped away from the Soviet national team in Portland in 1990 to join Detroit, and chose the number as the reverse of his captain's 19.

By what nickname was Gordie Howe known through his 25 seasons with the Red Wings?

Mr. Hockey: two years after retiring from Detroit, Howe came back in the rival World Hockey Association and, at 46, was named that league's most valuable player.

Where did the Red Wings open the 2009-10 season, losing twice to St. Louis?

Stockholm hosted Detroit's first two games of 2009-10, a homecoming for Swedish stars such as Nicklas Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg that fell flat: St. Louis won both, 4-3 and 5-3.

What NHL record did the Red Wings set during the 2011-12 season?

23 consecutive home wins: the streak ran from November 2011 to February 2012 and beat a record of 20 that dated to 1930, yet Detroit went out in the first round of the playoffs.

Which Red Wing collapsed on the bench in cardiac arrest in 2005, forcing the game against Nashville to be postponed?

Jiri Fischer was revived at the bench after his heart stopped; the game was called off and replayed in January 2006, but the 25-year-old defenseman never played in the NHL again.

Which coach left the Red Wings for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2015?

Mike Babcock, who had coached Detroit to the 2008 Cup, signed an eight-year, $50 million deal with Toronto in May 2015; Jeff Blashill replaced him.

The Red Wings played the second NHL Winter Classic in 2009 at which ballpark?

Wrigley Field: Detroit trailed the Blackhawks 3-1 after one period, then scored five straight goals to win 6-4 on New Year's Day 2009.

Why was no game of the 1950 Detroit-Rangers Cup Final played in New York?

A circus booking: the circus had Madison Square Garden, so two Rangers 'home' games moved to Toronto and the rest were in Detroit, where Pete Babando won Game 7 in double overtime.

Chicago millionaire James E. Norris bought the team in 1932 and renamed it the Red Wings after making his fortune as what?

Grain merchant: Norris ran Norris Grain from Chicago and wanted an NHL team there, but the Black Hawks' owner shut him out, so in 1932 he bought struggling Detroit instead.

In 1938 the Red Wings and which team became the first NHL clubs to play games in Europe?

The Montreal Canadiens and Red Wings played nine exhibition games in England and France in spring 1938; Detroit went as a fallen champion, having missed the playoffs a year after its second straight Stanley Cup.

Which college coaching great, hired in 1970, faced a players' revolt after 38 games and was promoted to general manager?

Ned Harkness had won NCAA titles at RPI and Cornell; when Detroit's players petitioned to have him fired, the owner backed him, the general manager left and Harkness got that job.

Who started the Red Wings' best-known playoff tradition by throwing something onto the ice in April 1952?

A fish market owner: Pete Cusimano, who kept a shop with his brother Jerry at Detroit's Eastern Market, threw it on April 15, 1952, the night Detroit completed a perfect playoff run.

Which six-time Vezina Trophy winner did the Red Wings trade for in 2001, a year before he won his first Stanley Cup?

Dominik Hasek won the 2002 Cup in his first Detroit season and retired, then came back and won another in 2008, playing only four playoff games behind Chris Osgood.

Whom did the Red Wings draft fourth overall after their 17-win 2019-20 season?

Lucas Raymond: Detroit's 17-49-5 record was the league's worst, yet the draft lottery dropped the club three places to fourth, where it took the Frolunda winger.

Who replaced Derek Lalonde as Red Wings head coach after he was fired on December 26, 2024?

Todd McLellan, an assistant on Detroit's 2008 Stanley Cup staff, took over a 13-17-4 team and went 26-18-4 the rest of the way, yet the Red Wings still missed the playoffs.