No Chris Osgood. No Kris Draper. Kirk Maltby wasn’t around anymore last season.
Times are changing around the Red Wings locker room. So many familiar faces retiring, not going to be around as much anymore.
Draper will make it official tomorrow. Osgood, of course, announced his retirement last week.
Osgood, Draper and Maltby were basically youngsters when I began covering this team the start of the 1998-99 season. So long ago, yet it has gone by in a blur.
Darren Helm and Justin Abelkader and Jimmy Howard and Jonathan Ericsson. Get used to those names, now, for many years.
But it’ll be different without Draper and Osgood. Few Wings cared about the crest more than they did. They were proud to be part of this organization, and it showed.
Hopefully the younger players watched and learned these past few seasons.
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