TRAVERSE CITY, MICH.

As Daniel Alfredsson sat on the bench during his first official scrimmage as a Red Wing, he was unaware of a large lime green advertisement that was plastered high over his right shoulder on the wall of the Centre Ice complex here in Traverse City.

The word on the sign?

“ALFIE.”

Was this just another way that Wings general manager Ken Holland was trying to make the former Senators captain feel at home in his new surroundings?

“I had nothing to do with it,” laughed Holland. “I hadn’t even noticed it. But it’s fitting, isn’t it?

“I think it’s promoting a local company.”

Holland is on the mark. “Alfie” is a Traverse City-based business that produces “logo gear for work & play.”

Coincidence? Seems that way. But with Alfredsson in the house on Thursday, it truly was a “sign” of the times.

Holland chuckles at the light-hearted joke that the “Alfie” sign might have been a part of his attempt to recruit Alfredsson to the Red Wings.

Truth be told, he had no idea that Alfredsson was even considering leaving Ottawa over the summer.

“When you look at a guy in his upper 30s who’s been in the same spot for 17, 18 years, I don’t think you are really planning on free agency that the player is going to hit the open market,” Holland said on Thursday. “I can’t make a comment on why he hit the open market. My expectation was that he was going to stay in Ottawa.”

But on July 3, 48 hours prior to the opening of free agency, Holland was chatting with agent J.P. Barry when Alfredsson’s name unexpectedly came up.

“J.P. told me that, for the first time in Alfie’s career, he would consider moving and that we were one of the teams on his list,” Holland recalled. “I asked J.P. if he could set up a conversation with Alfie between Mike Babcock and me on July 4.”

The next day, as Americans celebrated their country’s birthday, Holland and Babcock made their pitch. They told Alfredsson they were gunning for a Stanley Cup. They sold him on what a great market Hockeytown was. Holland explained what great schools and youth hockey programs there were for Alfredsson’s four sons in suburbs such as Livonia, Birmingham and Northfield, where many Wings officials and players reside. And they stressed what a rich history the Red Wings franchise has enjoyed.

Alfredsson bought what the Wings were selling. On July 5, he shocked the hockey world by inking a one-year, $5.5 million US deal with Detroit.

On Thursday, sitting in the team’s management box at the Centre Ice complex, Holland watched Alfredsson participate in his first official on-ice workout as a Red Wing. And even though he has brought in big name free agents such as Marian Hossa, Brett Hull, Curtis Joseph and Dominik Hasek over the years, Holland said the novelty of watching a star acquisition such as Alfredsson in Detroit red never gets old.

“To see them in your uniform playing for your team after you’ve played against them for so long, without a doubt it’s exciting,” Holland said.

“Certainly, it was pretty neat to see him in a Red Wings uniform today and it’s going to be a tremendous year.”