Don't mistake his tears for tenderness. Keegan Kolesar is as tough as they come. But Vegas was his home. The Golden Knights -- the players, the coaches, the staff -- were like his "family," he said. They traded for him as a prospect in 2017. He debuted for them in 2020. He's never played for anyone else. In a perfect world, never would have.
"It's definitely a shock," he said.
Kolesar is typically the one dolling out hits. But the text from Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon that arrived Wednesday afternoon smacked him square in the chest: "Hey Keegs, I got bad news. Give me a call."
"You see that text and you know right away, OK, I’m out of here," Kolesar said Thursday. "We chatted for a long time, just talking about everything, and then even last night we were texting a little bit more. It’s a lot. It’s a whirlwind."
Just a few weeks ago, Kolesar was a couple wins away from winning his second Cup with Vegas. Now he's gone.
He went on to call his trade from the Golden Knights to the Red Wings "bittersweet." He tried to highlight the positives in being sent to an Original Six team where he might earn a bigger role. He knows an opportunity awaits him in Detroit, where a player of his style and stature is badly needed. Change, he acknowledged, can be good.
"I get to grow my hockey pool a lot more with some new friends. I just told my girlfriend, 'Well, you know, this is just more people we’re going to have to invite to our wedding later on life," Kolesar smiled.
Right now, though, a new beginning doesn't dull a painful end: "I think it’ll take some time to get over just because I’ve made so many great relationships with people in that city. It'll take some time to turn the page -- but that's just the human side of it," Kolesar said. "We're not robots. There’s a emotional side of this that I think sometimes can get overlooked."
When he was asked what he's proudest of about his time with the Knights, Kolesar cracked. He wiped his eyes, composed himself and said, "Winning. That’s a big one. That’s something I’ll always have."
And that's something the Red Wings are trying to resurrect. Kolesar, a bruising forward who's delivered more hits over the last five seasons than all but two NHL players, can help them do it. That's why Steve Yzerman dealt two future draft picks for Kolesar, who's signed for two more seasons.
"Really excited to join a group that, playing against them for years now, they have a tremendous amount of skill and talent in their lineup. Just talking to guys (on the team) now, they felt that there was a missing piece, maybe, an identity of — not the fighting aspect — but more the toughness of being hard to play against," Kolesar said. "Being a veteran presence on the front end, bringing guys into the fight, I think that’s something that I can provide ... I just want to bring whatever I can to form more of an identity for the team."
Victor Arvidsson on joining Detroit: “Growing up watching the Red Wings and Avalanche go at it, Forsberg and Zetterberg and Datsyuk, Yzerman and Draper, talking to Drapes last night, it was almost like, I’m really talking to you. I played as you in video games. Pretty surreal." pic.twitter.com/ArwyGLmK4m
— 97.1 The Ticket: (@971theticketxyt) July 3, 2026
For most of their protracted rebuild, the Red Wings have been the nail. In Kolesar, they've acquired a hammer. And this isn't Klim Kostin, another heavy-hitting forward acquired via trade by Yzerman a couple years ago who lasted half a season with the Wings. Kostin was a spare part. Kolesar, 29, was a key cog for several successful teams in Vegas, a mainstay in the bottom six whose tenacity enhanced his teammates' talent.
"I think guys look to the leaders of the team, and if I can be one of those older guys that comes in and shows guys, like, hey, we’re gonna go in the trenches tonight, and see who wants to follow me, maybe it uplifts the guys a little bit more," he said.
The Red Wings have struggled to stand up for themselves for several years. They have too frequently wilted against heavier teams, which is part of the reason they've collapsed in March -- right when the physicality ratchets up -- each of the last four seasons. They still need more top-tier talent to be a real threat in the East, and the looming trade of Dylan Larkin likely won't help. But they also need more snarl to end a franchise-worst 10-year playoff drought.
"You look at the playoff series that just happened, there are a lot of big hits that, come playoff time, you’re out there trying to take each other’s heads off. And if you can give your team the advantage -- we’re not trying to hurt each other -- but if someone does go down, they get injured, whatever, it helps our team win. That’s an aspect that I try to bring, and I think when you have that in your lineup it makes everyone play a little tougher. You can play a little more confident when you have someone that is going to go in the trenches and do all the dirty work like that," Kolesar said.
The Red Wings finished 29th in hits last season. Their leader in this department was second-year forward Marco Kasper, with 186. Kolesar had 270. The Wings also finished 29th in fighting majors, with 11. Their only player who dropped the gloves more than once isn't coming back, Travis Hamonic, who happens to train with Kolesar in the summer. Kolesar had five fighting majors.
"I’m a prideful guy in that sense and I’ve always felt that as teammates, we look after each other," he said. "There’s bene number of cases in my career where someone’s been taken advantage of, and I’ll go to bat for them, and there’s been times where I was taken advantage of and I know my teammates have had my back. And that just comes from being a brotherhood in the locker rom. It doesn't matter how big the opponent is."
Well, it does sometimes. Kolesar's heavy 6'2 frame -- and rugged style of play -- makes him more than just an enforcer. It lends itself to hunting and holding pucks in the offensive zone, another area in which the Wings have been too light. They haven't always been "hard to play against," as Kolesar's new teammates acknowledged themselves, because they lack the qualities to lean on their opponents and slowly wear them down.
Kolesar does not:
Some teams have different systems in how they forecheck and get pucks back. I’ve always felt that Detroit is a team that likes to skate it in and pass it around, and maybe that’s an element that I can bring that keeps people on their toes, and keeps D-men backing up more. When you have that, when you have a defenseman that’s going back for the puck over and over and over again, looking over his shoulder, sometimes he's going to make a mistake, and that’s when a good forecheck can lead to opportunity in the offensive zone.
Yzerman has lots more work to do to seriously upgrade his team. Most of it hinges on the return in the expected Larkin trade. That remains the Wings' best avenue toward adding top-of-the-lineup talent to a very mid-level roster. But Kolesar fills a pretty glaring void, which, in time, could fill the hole in his heart after six memorable years in Vegas.
