The Detroit Red Wings brought back a familiar face Thursday, acquiring David Perron in a trade with the Ottawa Senators.
Detroit parted with a conditional 2026 fourth-round draft pick to swing the deal for Perron, who spent the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons with the Red Wings.
Perron, who has 10 goals and 25 points in 49 games, is currently on injured reserve. He last played Jan. 20 in the Senators' 4-1 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
When Perron is cleared to play, he'll join a team that is trying to reach the playoffs -- an objective the Red Wings struggled to achieve during his first stint.
He was part of the St. Louis Blues team that won the Stanley Cup in 2019. Perron scored seven goals and had 16 points in 26 games to help the franchise win its first title.
The Red Wings signed Perron to a two-year deal in 2022 as a free agent before he left two years later to sign another two-year deal with the Senators.
He is in the second season of that two-year deal, which is worth $4 million annually. His arrival is a cost the Red Wings can manage with what PuckPedia projects to be $55.432 million in deadline salary cap space.
The 11-time Stanley Cup champions entered this season with the aim of reaching the postseason for the first time in nine years, which is the longest playoff drought in franchise history.
Detroit (35-20-7) came into Thursday in third place in the Atlantic Division. The Red Wings were three points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for the division lead and sat four points clear of the Boston Bruins for the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot.