OTTAWA

Daniel Alfredsson wasn't on the Red Wings' radar screen.

Shopping on the NHL's free-agent market during the 48-hour window to interview players last summer, Detroit GM Ken Holland did what he always does: He touched base with the top agents to see what clients they might have available.

A phone call to J. P. Barry in Calgary came with a surprising result.

"In the past years, free agency hit at noon (on July 1) and you started to make the calls," Holland told the Sun Monday from his Detroit office. "This year, we had the 48-hour window and we made the rounds.

"Certainly, when I called J.P. Barry, I wasn't calling on Alfie, I was calling J.P. to see who he had that was unrestricted, and J.P. brought up Alfie's name. He just said to me, 'For the first time in his career, he's entertaining thoughts of moving and would you be interested?'

"I said, 'Absolutely.' First off because he's Daniel Alfredsson and we've had good success here with older players. Age is not a number that has scared us through the years. We need a right-winger that we thought could produce offence and play at the point on the power play."

The Wings knew they could use a guy like Alfredsson, but they didn't think he would leave Ottawa after such a long career here, even after a 45-minute call with coach Mike Babcock, Holland and Alfredsson on July 4 went well.

"Was I surprised (he left)? Yeah, I was. Anytime you've got a player who has accomplished what Alfie has accomplished and he's been in one spot his entire career ..." said Holland.

"After talking to Alfie, and J.P. Barry was up front with me, he told me Alfie was entertaining thoughts of leaving, but he might stay in Ottawa. (Barry and Alfredsson) had conversations about moving and if he did there were two teams at the head of the class, and we were one of them (with Boston).

"We had a really good conversation. I've been at the game a long time. Did I think we had a really good shot after the call? Yeah. Did I think there was a real chance? Quite often I hear that a guy who has been in one spot for a long time is thinking about leaving and then you get off the phone and they say, 'I'm not sure about leaving.'

"Certainly, my feeling, when I got off the call was that Alfie was seriously going through the mental gymnastics to make a decision. We made our presentation and his questions were about family: Places to live, his boys playing hockey. He wasn't just asking about what line he would be on ... I just felt we were a legitimate landing spot for him."

Holland said the Wings didn't do a hard sell by having Swedish players such as Henrik Zetterberg, Jonathan Ericsson and former great Nicklas Lidstrom pick up the phone.

"I didn't call any of our Swedish players to get them to call Alfie," said Holland. "Out of respect to Alfie, and out of respect to the Red Wings, my feeling is with a 40-year-old they've got to want to come to you.

"If you've got to sell somebody on coming to you I'm not sure if it's in their best interests, or your best interests. Sometimes they wake up in the middle of November and say, 'What did I do?' My feeling in this go-around was: Given Alfie's age, what he's meant to the City of Ottawa, the franchise and what he stands for, we did our sales pitch.

"If Daniel Alfredsson wanted to be in a Red Wing uniform, I wanted it to happen not because I had the entire organization lobbying away, I wanted him to be a Red Wing because that's what he felt he wanted to do with his career. He needed to go through what he needed to go through to make that decision, not be bombarded with phone calls."

Under the terms of his one-year deal, Alfredsson collected a $2 million bonus on top of his $3.5-million salary Monday when he suited up for his 10th game with Detroit. Babcock is still trying to find out where he fits in the lineup.

With a goal and eight assists in nine games, Alfredsson has been exactly what the Wings expected when they signed him.

"We're a work in progress that we're trying to find chemistry," said Holland. "We're still trying to find where everybody fits, but Alfie creates scoring chances.

"He's fit in. We've got a team with a lot of Swedes. He's a competitive guy. He's been a captain, which speaks to leadership skills. We've got a guy here who is coming to our team and has a lot of respect in our locker room."

Twitter: @sungarrioch