Watson Willing to Put Punch Into Red Wings

Anyone watching on Monday knows that Austin Watson was a big hit for the Detroit Red Wings. The veteran forward was dishing out a game-high 12 hits as the Red Wings were edging the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1.

In training camp on a professional tryout offer, Watson knows his chance to make his mark with the Wings is a limited time offer.

“There’s only so much you can do on a PTO,” Watson said. “You just do what you can and let the cards fall where they may.”

A year ago, in a similar training camp scenario with the Tampa Bay Lightning, the cards fell Watson’s way. He was earning a contract with the Lightning.

In the Red Wings, Watson sees similar DNA to Tampa Bay. They’re a highly-skilled bunch who could do with a little bit of muscle to ensure they get the required room to shine.

Watson Willing To Lead Red Wings Protection Racket

“Having played against this group for a while in Ottawa (from 2020-23), you saw the core group of guys, the high-end talent,” Watson said. “You see the young guys coming up, you see this team just getting better and better.

“For me, being able to bring that element of some physicality, jam, being hard to play against, sticking up for guys when that’s necessary, I thought that could be a good fit for both sides.”

In NHL circles, you could say that Watson is among those who run a protection racket. Last season with the Lightning. he delivered 85 hits in 33 games while averging just 7:16 of ice time per game. It was the first time in seven seasons that Watson didn’t register 100 hits.

Man, apparently Austin Watson is wearing #24 for the Red Wings, Bob Probert's number. Takes some stones for an NHL fighter to make that choice. pic.twitter.com/MfzSTQF3dM

— Lightning Review (@ReviewLightning) September 24, 2024

He also fought seven times and took on many of the NHL’s heavyweights, including Nicolas Deslauriers, Zack MacEwen and Pat Maroon.

It was while he was toiling in the minor leagues that Watson, a skill player in junior, was opting to make the switch to fighter.

“You get tired of playing in the minor leagues,” Watson explained. “I like playing in the NHL and I prefer that to riding buses.

“It becomes part of your identity. I changed a bit coming out of the minors way back 10 years ago to finding a way to help the team to stick around in the NHL, whether that be hitting, blocking shots, penalty killing, sticking up for teammates, fighting when need be. Those sorts of things.

“I feel the game evolves but that kind of stuff is always at a premium and I’ve been good at it for a while now. No point in changing now.”

Watson Can’t Be A Detriment

While he’s certainly capable of being a deterrent, the Red Wings braintrust is more concerned about whether he’ll be a detriment. Watson’s 5-on-5 analytics data over the past two seasons is, to be frank, dreadful.

His 5-on-5 SAT for Tampa Bay last season was 41.8%. That was 17th out of the team’s 18 forwards. The previous season in Ottawa, his 5-on-5 SAT was 19th out of 20 forwards at 45.7%.

Signing Austin Watson to an nhl-deal: a thing that you can do if you are a manager of an nhl team. pic.twitter.com/vcJa0OwPIk

— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) October 9, 2023

Certainly, those numbers are of concern to Detroit coach Derek Lalonde.

“We expect the hard from him,” Lalonde said. “We expect him to win battles, wall battles. But one important viewing for us was he’s got to be able to help us five-on-five and through two games so far, he’s done that. He’s done that well.

“It’s helped our team in the two games he was in.”