Former RoughRider Abdelkader signs 7-year extension with NHL’s Red Wings

CEDAR RAPIDS - Justin Abdelkader will make an appearance in town for a Cedar Rapids RoughRiders game Dec. 12 as a very financially secure man.

The Detroit Red Wings forward signed a seven-year contract Thursday with the team. His annual average salary will be $4.25 million.

Abdelkader, 28, was a second-round draft pick of the Red Wings in 2005. He played on the RoughRiders' 2004-05 USHL Clark Cup championship team.

'Really thrilled,” Abdelkader told the Detroit Free Press. 'It brings me back to the day I first put the Red Wings sweater on, how excited I was to play my first game as a Red Wings player.

'Now to sign an extension to, hopefully, end my career here in Detroit is a dream come true for me. It is something that, as a kid growing up in Michigan and being a Red Wings fan - it has been very special to me.”

Abdelkader grew up in Muskegon, Mich. He has four goals in 15 games this season.

He had a career-high 23 goals last season and would have been an unrestricted free agent had the Red Wings not signed him to this extension.

'Any time you do a deal, I don't think it's exactly the deal, probably, Abby wanted, and probably not exactly the deal I want,” Detroit General Manager Ken Holland told the Free Press. 'We had to find a solution that he could live with and find a solution that we could live with.”