Tomas Holmstrom decides to return to NHL only for Detroit Red Wings or ‘nowhere’
Sweden’s Tomas Holmstrom has denied the reports coming out of his country, which said the Swedish player would play for some other team than Detroit Red Wings next season.
His two-year contract worth $3.75 million with Red Wings had ended after the end of last season. And it appeared as if it would be the end and Holmstrom will say, “It's enough”, after playing 15 seasons.
But the 39-year-old is training very hard in the off-season as if he is going to return for his 16th season in the National Hockey League (NHL) and according to Holmstrom, if he did, it would only be for Detroit Red Wings. When Detroit News asked
him about what Sweden’s newspaper had said, his exact words were,
"Not true at all. It's playing in Detroit, or nowhere else."
He also said that he has not decided yet whether he will return for one more season and will decide it after checking and assessing if he is capable of doing so or not. Holmstrom will check if his knees, his fitness allows him to play for one more season
before taking a decision.
Piteå, Sweden born said, "I appreciate Kenny giving me this time to think about things. I'm training, I'm working out. But a lot of it depends on my health, my knees."
Holmstrom’s statement also proves that Ken Holland, General Manager of the Detroit Red Wings, has given Holmstrom time and would accept him for one more season even though they signed young forwards, another Swede Mikael Samuelsson and Canadian, Jordin Tootoo,
both of them during the free agency.
These signing also took Red Wings’ forwards count to 15 in the roster, even without Holmstrom.
Talking about new signing’s Holmstrom said,
"It's great to see Sammy (Samuelsson) back, he's going to help our team. And you need a guy like Tootoo, a disturber, a guy who can get in the other team's face. Those guys will help."
Tomas Holmstrom first played for Detroit Red Wings in 1996-1997 season and has skipped just one season since then, when he went to Sweden’s Lulea HF to play in 2004-2005 season. Last season he had also completed his one thousand games in NHL, becoming only
the sixth Red Wings’ player to achieve the feat.
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