The Red Wings signed free agent winger Dominik Shine to a two-year, two-way deal Monday, per a team announcement. It’s effective immediately and will carry him through the 2025-26 campaign. He joins the active roster in place of Patrick Kane, who the team subsequently announced has been placed on injured reserve retroactive to Jan. 21.
Shine finally gets his first NHL contract in his ninth season in the Detroit organization. The 31-year-old has been under contract with AHL Grand Rapids since his professional career began in the 2016-17 campaign, now ranking third in franchise history with 462 games played.
The 5’11” forward has primarily been a role player among the Red Wings’ prospects throughout his minor-league career, evidenced by his 0.37 points per game average. But the hometown kid has exploded this season, leading the team with 21 assists and 32 points in 40 games. Just yesterday, PHR listed Shine among the top 10 unsigned AHLers to look for in terms of landing an NHL contract.
That jump in production earns him a contract and recall nearly eight years after a standout senior season at Northern Michigan University, where he led the WCHA club with 20 goals and 30 points in 33 games in 2016-17. He landed with the Griffins immediately following that effort and never looked back.
Shine has been steadily building up to this moment since the COVID-19 pandemic, which marked a turning point for his career for the better. He went his first four full seasons without scoring double-digit goals or topping 16 points, but after things came to a head with just four points in 29 games in 2020-21, he finally broke through with 17 goals and 32 points in 71 games in 2021-22.
Shine doesn’t shy away from conflict, twice recording over 70 PIMs in an AHL season. He’s on pace for 65 this year to complement his 20-goal, 58-point pace.
He’ll make his NHL debut tonight against the Kings if Vladimir Tarasenko, who’s questionable due to illness, can’t play. J.T. Compher is also day-to-day with an undisclosed injury and has been ruled out, head coach Todd McLellan told Ansar Khan of MLive.com.
Kane has missed Detroit’s last two games after aggravating the upper-body injury that held him out of five games back in November and December. The IR placement only rules him out of tonight’s game, but McLellan told Khan that Kane isn’t close to returning to practice.
The future Hall-of-Famer had a rough start to the year after signing a one-year, $4MM extension, only managing five goals and 14 points through his first 30 games. He’s exploded over the past month, however, ranking 13th in the league in scoring since Dec. 29 with 16 points (6 G, 10 A) in 12 games.
That’s the type of depth scoring Detroit needed to get back in the playoff picture, and they’re now at least back over the .500 mark with a 23-21-5 record. That still only gives them an 11% chance at the playoffs in a tight Eastern Conference race, though, so they’ll need to continue to make up ground without him.
Good call on Shine signing from AHL.