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As the Detroit Red Wings celebrate their centennial campaign, few figures can say they’ve both played for the franchise and spent decades behind the microphone.
The beloved Mickey Redmond, the first 50-goal scorer in Red Wings history, fits that bill, as he's been a longtime mainstay on Red Wings television broadcasts since 1986.
Soon after Redmond’s playing days ended in 1976, a new face with ties to another Original Six franchise, the Montreal Canadiens, joined the Red Wings. And like Redmond, he's become synonymous with Detroit hockey broadcasts.
Forward Paul Woods, who was originally selected by Montreal in the third round (51st overall) of the 1975 NHL Draft, never appeared in a game for the Canadiens and instead won two Calder Cup championships with their American Hockey League affiliate, the Nova Scotia Voyageurs.
However, it wasn't long before he would be exposed in the 1977 NHL Waiver Draft and then subsequently scooped up by the Red Wings, where he would spend his entire NHL playing career before eventually transitioning into the field of broadcasting.
Woods admitted that he was frustrated that his career didn't seem to be gaining much traction with the Canadiens, but that when he received the news of getting a chance with the Red Wings, he initially believed it to be a prank pulled by one of his teammates.
"I was in Montreal and it was my third training camp there," he said. "I was frustrated that I got sent down, and then a phone call came to me on a pay phone, just showing how much times have changed since then. It was someone from the Red Wings organization, and they asked, 'If we took you today in the Waiver Draft, will you come?'
"I thought it was a prank, but I said, 'Yeah sure, I'll come.' I thought it was one of my teammates that were just fooling around, trying to get me going."
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However, he soon received the confirmation that sent him into full on elation - so much that he needed to pull his car over.
"It came on the radio that I got picked by Detroit in the Waiver Draft," he said. "I stopped the car and got out, and just started dancing around the car, I was that excited."
Woods spent seven full seasons with the Red Wings and became the youngest captain in franchise history at the time, a mark later surpassed by 21-year-old Steve Yzerman in 1986, a role he would hold for 19 seasons.
Woods is one of 37 players in the Red Wings’ century-long history to wear the captain’s “C,” a distinction he’s proud of, though he emphasizes that team success depends on everyone.
"It takes the entire team," he said. "I guess captains are a sign of respect. The coaches decide that, it's just who they picked to do it. I was involved in a lot of things, but it's something to be proud of for sure."
Upon Woods' entrance into the NHL in 1977, the Red Wings' time at historic Olympia Stadium, which they had called home since 1927, was winding down.
As the surrounding neighborhood declined and crime increased, the Red Wings planned to build a new arena in the suburb of Pontiac before a counteroffer from the City of Detroit led to the hasty construction of Joe Louis Arena on the riverfront.
"It was a great building, it wasn't that big, and it went straight up almost," Woods said of Olympia Stadium. "The crowd was always right on top of you, it was a very intense building. The ice was outstanding, it was great."
When the Red Wings moved from Olympia Stadium in December 1979, their new home wasn’t yet fully completed. Although it would go on to host countless nostalgic moments for new generations of fans, it took time for the arena to develop the signature charm that players and supporters eventually came to love.
Woods admitted he wasn’t fully on board with the move to Joe Louis Arena at the time, but he eventually grew to appreciate it like so many others.
"Back in those days, I didn't understand much about economics," he said. "Not that I'm some great scholar of it now, but the point was for me, I didn't think it made sense to be leaving such a great place to go to Joe Louis, which wasn't even completely finished that that point."
"It didn't seem like a good move at the time, but then it did turn out to be good because Joe Louis got its own identity," he said. "And with the championships and the teams we had, it became a great place to play in, too.
But I did love Olympia and the history of it. With (Gordie) Howe, (Alex) Delvecchio, Ted Lindsay, Bill Gadsby, all the different great players who played there, it meant something to me."
Woods played one final season with the AHL’s Adirondack Red Wings in 1984–85 before transitioning into broadcasting, an career move that he never saw coming.
"I'd be the last person who would probably have ever gotten involved in that, but when I was done playing, they gave me a call and asked if I'd be interested in trying it. My plan was to do it for one year, just to say that I did it.
But then I started to understand it a a little bit better over time, and there was way more to it than I thought."
Like any good student of the game, there is plenty of preparation that goes into the work behind the scenes for any given broadcast.
"For me, it's like preparing like back in my school days," Woods explained. "Just like preparing for a test - if you don't do it, you've got that bad feeling when you get there. So I like to keep myself prepared, going over the information of the previous night in the NHL, what's happening and what's going on, and just looking at the different teams and try to come up with a few interesting points.
Woods holds the distinction of being the current longest-serving radio color commentator in Detroit sports history. He initially worked alongside longtime Red Wings commentator Bruce Martyn until his retirement in 1995.
From that point on, Woods has been shoulder to shoulder with Ken Kal, a partnership that has lasted over 30 years.
"Just like the Bruce Martyn, they have great calls and it's exciting," Woods said of working with Kal. "You get dragged into the action when you have that excitement, and you're enjoying just litending to it as you're waiting for your moment to say something that's noteworthy."
"He's a great broadcaster, and so was Bruce. I've been very fortunate to have (worked with) two guys like that."
Woods has been behind the microphone as color commentator for four Red Wings Stanley Cup victories, along with another two appearances in the Stanley Cup Final in 1995 and 2009 that would fall short.
The collective euphoria of the 1997 Stanley Cup win, the first by the Red Wings in 42 years, was shared not only throughout the city but at all levels of the Red Wings organization.
"It's not an easy thing to do, there are so many teams in the NHL that have never won the Cup," Woods said of the 1997 win. "It was a great, great moment and something you never forget...it took us a long time to get to that point when we were winning the Stanley Cup with so many lean years before we got there."
"It means a little bit more too, I think, when you're an Original Six team."
Like the players traditionally do, Woods got his own day with the Stanley Cup, a special privilege that was arranged by the team.
"The Red Wings worked it out so that even the broadcasters could have it for a day," Woods said. "I was coaching my son's team, I had the Stanley Cup in the dressing room there; it affects so many people in different ways."
While his NHL career lasted just over 500 games, Woods has now worked over 3,000 Red Wings games as a commentator, and says coming to the rink never gets old.
"I've enjoyed every minute of it," he said. "Had someone told me when I was a kid that as I got older in life that they'd be paying me to watch hockey and talk about it, I'd take that deal all day long."
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