The Detroit Red Wings have signed forward Tyler Motte to a one-year deal worth $800K. The 29-year-old spent last year with the Tampa Bay Lightning, tallying six goals and three assists in 69 regular season games and a single goal in five playoff games.
The journeyman will join his seventh NHL organization and continues to find work in the league despite being a light scorer and undersized. A fourth-round pick in 2013, Motte has just 49 career goals and 41 assists in 400 NHL games. His best offensive season came in 2022-23 when he split time between the Ottawa Senators and New York Rangers, Motte finished the year with eight goals and 11 assists in 62 games.
Signing with Detroit marks a homecoming for Motte as he is from St. Clair, Michigan and he played his college hockey with the University of Michigan. Motte spent three years in the NCAA with Michigan and had an offensive breakthrough during the 2015-16 season, posting 32 goals and 24 assists in 38 NCAA games.
Motte’s one-year deal marks his third straight trip through unrestricted free agency that has resulted in a one-year deal as last summer he signed a matching one-year $800K with Tampa Bay, while in September of 2022, he signed a one-year $1.35MM with the Ottawa Senators. Motte will be a free agent once again next summer.
Wow, this signing will move the needle..for Grand Rapids! I trust Stevie Y but surprised he has yet to make a major move other than re-sign Patrick Kane. Wonder what he’s waiting for????
He’s not waiting for anything. He didn’t miss the boat either, he’s about to crash it in the rocks. What is wrong with you fans? Stevie Y was a great player, but not a GM. Tampa Bay won after he left, because he didn’t build it. He was obviously asked to leave. Now he shows his true colours without the great staff that TB has. He’s literally running in circles.
I get that we are all impatient and we want the Wings to make the playoffs and win Cups again but come on. Stevie built Tampa Bay, he drafted Kucherov, Point, Vasilevsky, Palat and Cirelli. He signed Tyler Johnson and Yanni Gourde and traded for Sergachev, Cernak and McDonagh. Tampa doesn’t win 2 Cups without those guys. It took Tampa Bay 10 years to win the Cup even with Stamkos and Hedman as building blocks already in place. Detroit hasn’t had a #1 or #2 pick to build around.
I don’t agree or like every move Stevie has made since taking over Detroit but the team has improved every year. People are complaining that he hasn’t done enough this off season. Well look around. Has Ottawa gotten better? Has Buffalo gotten better? Has Pittsburgh gotten better? What about Philly or the Islanders? Those are the teams that Detroit is going to have to beat to make the playoffs. Only Washington has gotten better so far and they are $4 million over the cap even with LTIR.
What do you want Stevie to do? Sign Stamkos to a 5 year deal at $8 million a year? Sign Matt Roy to a 7 year deal at 6? That is what it would have taken to beat the offers they got. The complainers can’t have both sides. You can’t complain when “Stevie overpaid” for Chiarot, Copp, Compher and Holl and then act like he made a mistake not overpaying for someone else.
Didn’t build it? Hedman, Kutch and Vislovsky all Yzerman drafted… keystones for Tampa’s success were because of Yzerman. Tampa fandom went through the roof the last decade because of their success, no wait drafting Kutch in late 2nd round and building a perennial powerhouse for Tampa wasn’t his doing huh?
HockeySense baiting boomers on god no cap
Hockey sense….NOT!! LOL
LoL
He just admitted in a recent interview that as a GM he “does not” draft players.
Red Wings Drafts Under Yzerman
“Yzerman does not make every decision pertaining to the draft. Draper handles most of it – especially in the later rounds.”
That was straight from the horses mouth. It also goes back as far with TB, when he left the work to his staff.
Now he takes players that his staff drafts, develops them to a point of trading. Hronek, Walman, etc.
He’s running in circles.
Yzerman used to be my favourite player growing up. I even have a signed rookie card from the man. So believe me, I was on the Stevie Y train for years. He’s a pretty good GM, but absolutely no genius that everyone likes to make him out to be.
If he was that GM genius…don’t you think he would have stayed on that juggernaut of a team, ready to win cups?
Nevermind his decisions on coaches. That’s a genius?
Come on people lol
Who’s genius gm. Give us an example
It’s almost like you don’t pay attention, have very limited hockey knowledge, or a solid combination of both. Re your uninformed Tampa babbling, Radar501 nailed it in an earlier post below. Read it and learn from it. Maybe it will help you stop living up to your name.
Bill Zito and Jim Nill are just a couple…
I’m not a Homer so much as probably you are, so I don’t look through rose coloured glasses. I’m more of an overall NHL enthusiast, so I’m sure that I can see the real truth a lot more than you. Nothing against being the way you are…
I didn’t say he was a terrible GM, I just say that he isn’t living up to his hype as a genius GM, or even one of the top. When’s the last time he received the Top GM award? When’s the last time he made the playoffs? I think he’s just a bean counter.
I just think that Tampa Bays success came more from the whole, then just him as GM. More success after proved that. He doesn’t have the same kind of staff, therefore no success (year after year).
His hype is blown way out of proportion.
Jill Nill has had 11 seasons in Dallas and hasn’t won a Cup yet. How long will you give Stevie?
Bill Zito is in year 4 in Florida. Stevie is in year 5. Detroit was drowning when Steve started, Florida was not. I do not discount that Zito has been very good but again Florida had #1 and #2 overall draft picks to build around when he got there. Who did Yzerman have to build around? Larkin? Don’t get me wrong I love Larkin but Larkin, Bertuzzi and Mantha with zero help coming on defense and in goal doesn’t get the job done. Yzerman has had to draft the foundation of the team because it wasn’t there.
Yes great points…I just think he hasn’t earned his reputation. I do hope this year they make a leap and finally jump into the playoffs. I do hope it starts working … but we’ve been talking like that for a couple/three years now. Show something…
Zito and Nill are up there but Stevie inherited the worst team in the NHL.
if the player has a connection to either Michigan or Sweden and is still unsigned, rest assure that the Red Wings are considering signing them.
I am hoping Kyle Connor, Ekblad (Windor), Zachary Werenski and Connor Hellebuyck come to Detroit!
I’ve been willing on a Werenski move to Detroit for a few years now.. seems he keeps getting injured. Big if on the health… plus side to a move now – Cbus would be selling really low at this point, and are not close to competing yet so he’d be as attainable as ever, one could assume.
Perhaps something like: Salary Filler, Viro/Johansson & pick(s) for Werenski w/ some retention?
Wings really got scooped by Nashville
What would have even one scorer added?
Big difference
What makes you think the Wings even wanted those players?
They are too old for that much term!
I mean… It’s not like Detroit was a desired destination for players in the years prior. Mostly underwhelming FA but i guess it’s more of the same
Wings were in a deep, deep hole just a few years back. Talent level on ice was at best 40%, and coaching was under 10% if in fact there was any coaching being done the last few years of Blashill’s reign Like an iceberg, the teams are just the tip of the organization we can see. There is a whole lot of action below the surface that has to be straightened out before it can yield a competitive team not to mention one consistent enough to make a playoff. All they’d need to do is blow the cap space on a few players and one or two go down to injury, and the whole thing slides back at least 2 years. Patience and building foundations are what gets solid performing teams. We’re getting there, at leas the Wings are back to being competitive.
YzErPlAn
See everybody is starting to ask {quoted by a known source} “There’s no point to trying to understand Steve Yzerman. Why do the Wings have four goaltenders? Why did they pay to send Jake Walman out? Why did they pay to send Robby Fabbri out? A lot of that will go towards Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider, but when you have a $4.75M Ville Husso and a $3.4M Justin Holl that could have been dealt with instead the decisions are confusing at best.”