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Detroit Red Wings history
Detroit Red Wings company history timeline
During the fall of 1926, the Cougars’ home arena was in Windsor, Canada.
In 1927, Jack Adams joined the team as their general manager and coach and the Cougars moved to Olympia Stadium in fall of that year.
22, 1927 * Date range indicates first and last games coached during tenure (regular season or playoffs)
With the country mired in the Great Depression, the team was forced into receivership, and to make payroll Adams had to reach into his own pockets. It moved into its new home, The Olympia, which at the time of its opening in 1927 housed the largest rink in the United States.
Even changing the team's name from the Cougars to the Falcons in 1930 did nothing to turn around Detroit's fortunes.
The team won its first Stanley Cup against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1935–36 season, followed by a repeat victory the following year.
Stanley Cup – 1937 The 1937 Stanley Cup Finals NHL championship series was contested by the defending champion Detroit Red Wings and the New York Rangers in their fifth Final series appearance.
These early Red Wings teams featured future Hall of Fame member Syd Howe, who was also part of the Red Wings’ 1942–43 Stanley Cup-winning squad.
By 1942 the league had just six teams—Boston, Chicago, Montreal, New York, Toronto, and Detroit—which would become known as the "Original Six." No new teams joined the NHL for another 25 years.
Howe played hockey from the age of five; he moved to the United States in 1944 and was put on the Detroit Red Wings’ negotiating list that same year.
The Canadiens were appearing in their second straight Finals series, while Detroit was returning after winning the 1950 Final.
In 1950 Detroit regained the Stanley Cup, and in that year one of the team's most enduring traditions was born when a fan threw an octopus onto the Olympia ice.
During the 1952 playoffs, an octopus was thrown on Detroit’s rink during the game.
James Norris died in 1952, several months after the Red Wings won their fifth Stanley Cup, and ownership of the team passed to his children, Bruce Norris and Marguerite Norris.
A year later the Red Wings returned to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1966.
By the time the NHL expanded, doubling to 12 teams for the 1967–68 season, the Red Wings had descended into mediocrity.
After finishing four seasons with the Aeros, Howe moved (1977) to the WHA’s New England Whalers.
The Red Wings moved to a new home, Joe Louis Arena, in December 1979, but even new accommodations were not enough of an attraction to lure fans to watch a talent-starved team.
That team was absorbed into the NHL in 1979 as the Hartford Whalers, and Howe completed his final season (1979–80) with them; he played a full season, scoring 15 goals and 26 assists.
In 1982 Mike and Marian Ilitch, founders of the Little Caesars Pizza chain, bought the Detroit Red Wings from the Norris family and hired James “Jimmy” Devallano as general manager.
In 1983, Devellano drafted a young Steve Yzerman for the team.
The turnaround was not complete until the 1987–88 season, when, along with forwards Bob Probert and Petr Klima, Yzerman led the Red Wings to their first divisional title in 23 years.
Most Goals, Season: Steve Yzerman (1988-89), 65
But the team took a step back during the 1989–90 season when it once again missed the playoffs.
The Red Wings are one of the most popular and successful franchises in the NHL; fans and sports commentators refer to the Detroit area as "Hockeytown", which has been a registered trademark owned by the franchise since 1996.
Greenland, Paul R., Wings of Fire: The History of the Detroit Red Wings, Rockford, Ill.: Turning Leaf Publications, 1997.
Stein, Gil, Power Plays: An Inside Look at the Big Business of the National Hockey League, Secaucus, N.J.: Carol Publishing Group, 1997.
Stanley Cup – 1998 The 1998 Stanley Cup Finals NHL championship series was contested by the Western Conference champion and defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings and the Eastern Conference champion Washington Capitals.
Diamond, Dan, et al., Total Hockey, Kingston, N.Y.: Total Sports, 1998.
McGraw, Bill, "Ilitch's Local Success Is Legendary," Detroit Free Press, June 20, 2000.
The additions to the roster resulted in the Red Wings accumulating a league-best 116 points in the regular season of 2001–02 and the team claiming its tenth Stanley Cup when it defeated the Buffalo Sabers.
A case in point was the Red Wings, which according to Forbes was worth $248 million in 2004, a significant increase over the $11 million Ilitch paid for the club some 20 years earlier.
After negotiations broke down between the players and league in 2004, the owners locked out the players, resulting in the cancellation of the 2004–05 season, the first time that a professional sports league had been forced to cancel an entire season because of a labor impasse.
Lidstrom, goalie Chris Osgood, and left wing Henrik Zetterberg were star players on the team that won the 2007–08 Stanley Cup against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Stanley Cup – 2008 The 2008 Stanley Cup Final was the best-of-seven NHL championship series of the 2008 Stanley Cup playoffs contested between the Western Conference champion Detroit Red Wings and the Eastern Conference champion Pittsburgh Penguins.
During the 2011–12 season Detroit won a record-setting 23 consecutive home games.
As part of an NHL realignment, the Red Wings moved from the Western Conference to the Eastern after the 2012–13 season.
Hockey: My Story, was published in 2014.
In 2016–17 the team’s streak of 25 consecutive postseason appearances (which was tied for the third longest playoff stretch in NHL history) ended.
In 2017 the Red Wings opened the season at their new home, Little Caesars Arena, located in what has become the sports and entertainment district of Detroit, just north of Comerica Park.
Former Red Wing great Steve Yzerman was hired as the team’s general manager in 2019.
A score of 120 means that the team achieved 20% more victories per dollar of payroll compared with the league average during the 2020-21 season.8.
Revenues and operating income are for the 2020-21 season, including postseason and applicable non-NHL arena revenue (excluding the Seattle Kraken expansion fee) and are net of revenue sharing and arena debt service.
Vancouver Canucks now have two players named Elias Pettersson after the 2022 NHL Draft
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Detroit Red Wings competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tampa Bay Lightning | 1992 | $2.1M | 35 | 4 |
| New Jersey Devils | 1974 | $5.7M | 75 | - |
| Minnesota Wild | 1997 | $20.0M | 327 | - |
| POINT 3 Basketball | 2010 | $321,402 | 30 | - |
| South Carolina Stingrays | 1993 | $5.2M | 67 | - |
| Norfolk Festevents | 1982 | $5.0M | 34 | - |
| Greenville Swamp Rabbits | 1987 | $410,000 | 5 | 1 |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | 2000 | $11.0M | 294 | 1 |
| Chivas USA | 2004 | - | 2 | - |
| Louisville City FC | 2014 | $3.0M | 86 | - |
Detroit Red Wings history FAQs
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