Luke Glendening always knew that he wanted to be a Detroit Red Wing. Now that he is one, he saw no reason to pursue change.

Glendening agreed to a four-year contract extension with the Wings on Thursday, eschewing the possibility of testing his value in the marketplace via unrestricted free agency a year from now.

“For me, growing up in Michigan, being a lifelong, truly a fan of the Red Wings and to have an opportunity to stay here with these guys that I’ve started to grow up with kind of, it was just something that I couldn’t pass up on,” Glendening explained. “Obviously, the security is really nice but there’s something special about this group of guys here and I wanted to continue to be a part of that.”

The extension will pay Glendening, who has one year remaining on his current deal at $628,833, a total of $7.2 million over the four years, with an annual salary cap hit of $1.8 million.

“He has way outplayed the current contract,” Detroit general manager Ken Holland said. “He’s really coming into his prime years.

“He became an important player on Grand Rapids’ (AHL) Calder Cup championship team (in 2012-13) and has worked his way up to being an important player on our team. He’s very important on the defensive side of the puck and for his leadership.

“He’s been a role model and a mentor for other players. He’s a very respected player in our room.”

For that reason, the Wings wanted to get Glendening locked up long term as soon as possible.

“He’s a player we want to keep,” Holland said. “The coaching staff and management think he’s important to our team.”

While skating mainly as Detroit’s fourth-line center, Glendening, 27 has netted 20 goals over his first two full NHL seasons. His durability allowed him to play all but one game over that span, enduring through a painful ankle injury last season that he’s been rehabbing since Detroit was eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“I haven’t started skating yet,” Glendening said. “My workouts have been going very well, no pain or anything like that.

“I’m supposed to start skating here on Tuesday, so I’ll see where I’m at but I expect to be 100 per cent for sure.”

Hronek Signs
A lot of hockey people think the Wings may have got themselves a real gem of a pick when they chose defenseman Filip Hronek 53rd overall in the second round of last month’s NHL entry draft, and the Wings were quick to get his name on a contract, signing Hronek to an entry-level deal Thursday.

Some scouts feel Hronek, 18, has the skill to evolve into a high-end NHL defenseman, and his time at last week’s Detroit development camp displayed that he was adapting to his new surroundings well.

“The first practice we’re doing simple D drills and he tripped three times at the boards,” Detroit development coach Jiri Fischer noted. “The ice is way smaller, the surface is way smaller than it is in Europe. He wasn’t used to that. So now he knows.

“When I look at it, how does he bounce back from tripping? Well, you know it was one practice and he didn’t do it again. So he’s quick learner. He doesn’t like to fail. He wants to succeed. He wants to do better. He wants to learn from it.”

One factor that Hronek must address quickly is his grasp of the English language, which currently is virtually non-existent.

“It’s limiting how he can communicate with coaches,” Fischer said. “It’s limited how he can get established within the group. He needs to learn English and if he wants to be part of the team environment, he needs to do that. He knows that.

“So he’s leaving knowing his strength will need to significantly improve, to play the style he likes to play, which is aggressive with his feet and aggressive in battles, generating turnovers and stopping the offense of the opposition and making really good outlet passes.

“In his development I really like what he brings off the ice. I really like his demeanor off the ice. Learning English is going to be a key. There’s going to be lots of people that try to help him out, starting from Ken Holland to (Wings coach) Jeff Blashill and the rest of the staff and he needs to understand what people are trying to tell him.”

Selected by Saginaw of the OHL in the recent CHL import draft, Hronek has yet to decide whether he will play in North America next season but such a move would certainly force him to pick up the pace of his English studies.

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