Notes: Gagner practices with Wings, ready to play Thursday

DETROIT -- It's been a whirlwind for Sam Gagner but he is now in Detroit and ready to play.
Acquired Monday as part of the trade that sent Andreas Athanasiou to the Edmonton Oilers, Gagner practiced with the Red Wings at the BELFOR Training Center Wednesday.

"I think surprise but there's always a possibility," Gagner said. "When you're a UFA and the team's trying to improve, there's always a possibility. I think initially I have a lot of emotions towards Edmonton and playing there. Once I wrapped my head around it, I think I got pretty excited. I think there's a great opportunity for me here to show what I'm capable of. I'm just excited to get going here."
Gagner was originally drafted by the Oilers in the first round, sixth overall, in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.
Gagner played the first seven seasons of his career (2007-2014) there before being traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who quickly traded him to the Arizona Coyotes.
After one season (2014-15), he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers (2015-16) and then was traded back to Arizona. After signing as a free agent with the Columbus Blue Jackets for one season (2016-17), Gagner then signed a three-year deal as a free agent with the Vancouver Canucks.
The Canucks traded him back to his original team, the Oilers, on Feb. 16, 2019.
"I've been around enough that the transition's always easier," Gagner said. "Obviously coming from Edmonton, where I was pretty comfortable, that's a tough thing to do but at the same time, you're playing hockey. The guys here have been really good so far in helping me get comfortable. I just want to go out there and make sure I'm competing, and working hard and showing my teammates that I'm here to help them win and to compete. Hopefully it's a seamless transition."

During practice, Gagner was on a line with Tyler Bertuzzi and Valtteri Filppula but coach Jeff Blashill did not say whether that is where he would definitely be Thursday against the Minnesota Wild.
"I've heard great things about him as a person and as a teammate and competitor," Blashill said. "I knew him as a young player but I don't really know him. My message is be a great pro, No. 1. We need great pros around here. No. 2, you're going to get opportunity. There's opportunity to be had, certainly on the power play. We don't have any right-shot power-play forwards.
"Luke's (Glendening) our only right-shot forward and he's not a natural power-play guy, so (Gagner) is going to get that opportunity for sure, he's going to get an opportunity to play on a good line, certainly until (Filip) Zadina gets back. By a good line, I guess I should say a line with guys with some skill, that would match his skillset a little bit. So make the most of it."
Gagner has spoken to executive vice president and general manager Steve Yzerman.
"I just talked to him actually right after the trade. Kenny (Holland) put me on the phone with him and I was able to talk with him," Gagner said. "He just said there's opportunity for me here, and I just gotta come in and take it. I feel like I've felt really good this year. I felt like I've played well. I'm excited to get some power-play time and show what I'm capable of there. I feel like I've been through this process before with some other teams. I can kind of fill a leadership role and help the guys kind of get through it. That's what I'm hopefully here to do."
Gagner's three-year contract concludes at the end of this season so he is among many on the team who have a lot to play for in the remaining 17 games.
"I think it's important for everybody," Gagner said. "You have to find something to play for. I've been through this with some teams in Edmonton where it's kind of tough sledding down the stretch. You realize when you go through it that there's always opportunity to get better and to grow. I think when it does turn here, the guys that really put their best foot forward during these times are gonna be here for that. That's kind of where your mindset has to be.
"I know personally I have a lot of motivation. I have obviously bounced around a little bit. I still feel like I can be a really effective player in this league and I can help a winning team. I want to help establish that while I'm here the last part of the season, and hopefully find a fit."
As a London, Ontario native, Gagner has not played for the Red Wings before but he certainly knows about them.
"Obviously it's a storied franchise. I grew up not far from here," Gagner said. "I understand what being a Red Wing is all about. When I first came to the league, the Joe was one of the hardest places to play. You knew it was gonna be a tough test every night, and there was a certain aura about being a Red Wing and having that culture. I understand all that. I'm excited to be a part of it."
Gagner did have a few friends waiting for him in Detroit when he arrived.
"Cody (Goloubef) that just got picked up the other day, I grew up with Cody in Oakville, Ontario," Gagner said. "We've been friends since we were 10 years old. Alex Biega, I played with him in Vancouver. There's a few other guys that I just kind of know from being around the league, and playing on different teams. Everyone has really made me feel comfortable, which has been nice. Hopefully, I'll get in there tomorrow and don't look back."
Goloubef, who was picked up off waivers from the Ottawa Senators five days ago, was happy to see his friend across the dressing room.
"It's good, it's fun," Goloubef said. "We had a little stint together a few years ago but to be reunited again, it's pretty special, it's pretty rare. So it's something we're looking forward to."
Of course, moving to another team means upheaval for a young family as Gagner and his wife, Rachel, have three children, two boys and a baby girl born five months ago.
"Yeah, it's tough," Gagner said. "We have three kids under the age of four. My wife being from Edmonton, that's the tough part of it. I think the great thing is, she's so supportive and she understands kind of how much this means to me, finding a way to extend my career and be an important part of things. She flew out here the day I flew out here, too. That kind of helped me transition. It's always great to have that support for sure."
YZERMAN AND BLASHILL BOND: Over the course of the last several weeks, Yzerman has been effusive with praise when commenting on the job Blashill has done behind the Wings bench this season.
On Monday, during his trade deadline day press conference, Yzerman told the assembled media at Little Caesars Arena how much he has enjoyed getting to know and working with Blashill as the Wings meander through one of their most challenging campaigns in recent memory.
"I've enjoyed working with him. When I came in last summer we talked about our team, what my expectations were, it's unfair to judge Jeff Blashill on our team's record, really it is," Yzerman said Monday. "Jeff has done a very good job, he and his staff with these players. It's been a very difficult season and I think they've managed it very well and coached the team very well under very difficult circumstances.
"I'm not going to make any decisions on anything until the season is over. We're going to sit down and go over it, but I think Jeff has done a good job. I've enjoyed working with him and as of right now, I don't plan to make a change, so you read into that what you want."
Blashill has called this the most difficult season of his coaching career, yet if there is a positive, it's the relationship he and Yzerman have forged.
Until this season, they may have traveled in the same circles, but they didn't really know one another.
"When Steve took over, we were acquaintances. I knew him a little bit through my time with the Red Wings. He had just left for Tampa, I think, when I came on as an assistant, right around that same time," Blashill said after Wednesday's practice. "Then certainly when he hired Jon Cooper, Coop's one of my good friends. I had some interactions but it would be minimal. So this year's been a year where we have gotten to know each other as people and as co-workers and as GM and head coach.
"Relationships in those situations are always different. Certainly we've had to forge it in some tough times but that's good, that's okay. You find out lots about each other when you're in those situations. So I've enjoyed my time with Steve, like I've said lots. He's very direct, we talk about a lot of different things.
"I've got a lot of respect for both what he sees as a manager and as a player. I have a lot of respect for the fact that he lived kind of what we're going through so being able to talk to him about some of those situations and how those were handled then -- if you haven't been through this type of experience, it's hard to know. So it's been good to glean some of that information off him."
It doesn't take a soothsayer to figure out Yzerman and Blashill are on the same page. They're realists who are aware of the Wings' predicament and know there isn't a magic elixir that will suddenly turn things around.
Perhaps Yzerman has found his coach and hopefully together they'll build an elite level team.
BERTUZZI SPEAKS/INJURY UPDATES: After Tuesday night's late third-period fracas, which saw New Jersey's Jack Hughes go knee-on-knee with Robby Fabbri, forcing him out of the game, and then Bertuzzi getting cross-checked in the face by John Hayden after a clean hit on Hughes, Bertuzzi finally spoke.
"Obviously it's not what I wanted, to get a cross check but like I said, it's part of the game," Bertuzzi said. "Obviously they're trying to protect him after his hit on Fabbs. Obviously we're gonna try to get him back for that. Things solve themselves."
The NHL Department of Player Safety had its own solution, fining Hayden $2,106.13.

"I don't really care honestly," Bertuzzi said. "It's part of the game. Whether it was dirty or not, he's sticking up for his teammate. I'd probably do the same thing."
Although it appeared to be Fabbri's right knee, not his twice surgically repaired left knee, Fabbri did not return to the game.
"I would say Fabbs is questionable for tomorrow," Blashill said. "I don't think anything long-term. We think he's going to be okay overall, but I would still put him as questionable for tomorrow."
Adam Erne, who did not play Tuesday, practiced Wednesday and said he was ready to go for Thursday.
Blashill said defensemen Filip Hronek (upper body), who practiced in a regular jersey Wednesday and Gustav Lidstrom, who did not practice Wednesday, were both questionable for Thursday.
MINI-GAME WINNER: At the end of practice, the Wings sometimes have a mini-game, with Team Red against Team White.
Tied 2-2, the game went to a seven-round shootout, with Goloubef scoring the winning -- and only -- goal on Jimmy Howard.
"I won't fool you, that will happen again," Goloubef said.
Although at first he said he would just do it in practice, Goloubef seemed open to a bigger challenge.
"I can take it in a game," Goloubef said. "I was the anchor in the American League maybe like, six years ago, my last year in the American League. I want to say I was like, 4-for-7 or something. I was the fifth shooter. Same move every time. Wasn't the move I scored on today."