On Monday all signs pointed to goaltender Chris Osgood re-signing with the Detroit Red Wings for one season and returning to be Jimmy Howard's backup. Just like when Nicklas Lidstrom re-signed, the Red Wings scheduled a conference call with Osgood, and the Detroit Free Press' Helene St. James even reported that the purpose of the call was to announce Osgood's return.
Early Tuesday morning, however, MLive's Ansar Khan reported that Osgood is actually going to announce his retirement on the conference call. Khan also reported that the Osgood has already accepted a job with the Red Wings to work their goalie prospects.
In addition to the news about Osgood, Khan says the Red Wings are expected to sign goalie Ty Conklin at some point this week. Ken Holland has already confirmed that the team has had talks with Conklin about returning to Detroit to be the team's backup goalie. If Osgood does in fact retire, the door for Conklin to return will be wide open.
While nothing will be official until Osgood announces it on the conference call on Tuesday, Khan's report certainly seems to be the accurate one. Not only does he have information about Osgood's plans after he calls it a career, but Khan also spoke to Osgood's agent and learned this:
Rollie Thompson, Osgood's long-time agent, said Monday night that he had not spoken to Osgood or Holland on Monday.
"There has been no contract talks," Thompson said. "There's been no discussions, so I don't know how there would be a contract."
One thing is for sure: Osgood's call just got a whole lot more interesting. Originally the thinking was he would discuss his return and that would be it. Now it looks like one of the Red Wings' all-time best goalies could be hanging up his skates.