At this point it is unclear if Mike Modano is going to retire or play for at least another season. If he does decide to come back, however, one thing that does seem pretty likely is that he will play for the Red Wings. Although this once seemed like nothing more than a pipe dream, Modano playing for the Wings is becoming more and more likely by the day.
"Ken (Holland) had shown a lot of interest. It's been exciting talking to him and getting his whole feel on the thing," Modano said. "It's just a matter of with me, I'm trying to process whether or not to play.
"Detroit has shown a lot of interest, so I'm going to come up for a day, sit down with them face-to-face, take in a ballgame. It's a great team, great opportunity, great coach. There are a lot of positives."
That day is today, as Modano is scheduled to fly to Detroit this morning and meet with Red Wings general manager Ken Holland this afternoon. What will come of that meeting remains to be seen, but there's no doubt Modano is interested in joining the Wings.
"It's such an intriguing place,'' he said of Detroit. "They want to win and they can win now. They have great players and a great system. They believe they can find a way for me to fit in. It's flattering that they think I could help them, and I really want to see if that's possible.''
"It's a big decision, and I know it would be for them too, so we'll talk about it and see if this works for both sides,'' he said. "I'm excited. I'm looking forward to hearing what they think.''
Based on the comments Holland has made in the last week, the Red Wings want to sign Modano. I would assume their hope from meeting with Modano today is for him to decide to play another year and just go ahead and sign with Detroit. Things may not happen quite that fast, but at this point I would be surprised if Modano ends up anywhere but Detroit if he does come back for another year of hockey.