
Paul Woods will retire after calling the final Detroit Red Wings game against the Florida Panthers on Wednesday. He has been the radio analyst for the team and is concluding his career with this match.
The post Woods to Call Final Red Wings Game on Wednesday appeared first on Detroit Hockey Now.
Paul Woods
Paul Woods will call it a day after he calls the final game of the NHL season for the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday against the Florida Panthers. The radio analyst on Red Wings broadcasts will hang up his headphones following the game and head off into retirement.
Oddly enough, it was a couple of random calls out of the blue that led to the two Red Wings experiences that changed Woodsâ life.
He was a minor-league forward with the AHL Nova Scotia Voyageurs, top farm club of the Montreal Canadiens, in the fall of 1977. Following practice, a team official was pointing him to a pay phone in the arena hallway, informing Woods there was a call for him.
It was the Red Wings on the other end of the line, specifically, Wayne Maxner, coach of the clubâs AHL squad.
âHe says, weâre thinking of taking you in the [NHL] waiver draft,'â Woods recalled. âWould you come if we draft you?â
He took a second to catch his breath and to pinch himself, because his dream was on the brink of coming true.
âI really wanted to beg,â Woods said, âI just wanted to say, âPlease do anything. Just take me.'â
The Red Wings did take Woods, and the rest, as they say, is history.
He made his NHL debut with the Wings during the 1977-78 season. Collecting career highs with 19 goals and 42 points, Woods helped Detroit make the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since the 1969-70 season.
âI wanted to be an NHL hockey player at a young age,â Woods said. âI used to tell people in my hometown that I was going to do that. Theyâd all laugh, and it was the funniest thing they ever heard in their life, you know. But I just kept at it.
âI really did believe it, and I just kept getting better and better, and then next thing you know, Iâm playing the NHL against some guys who were your childhood heroes.â
He stayed with the Red Wings as a player through the 1983-84 season. In 1987, Woods was approached about joining play-by-play man Bruce Martyn in the radio booth to call Red Wings games.
âThey just called me and asked me after I got done playing,â Woods said. âAnd I started thinking about it.
âI said, âYeah, Iâll give that a shot.â At least one day Iâll be able to say, âI did that.'â
Heâs been doing it more often than any broadcaster in Detroit sports history. First with Martyn and then with Ken Kal after Martyn retired in 1995. Woods has called more than 3,000 Red Wings games.
And now, his time to step aside has also arrived.
âTo have gone this far and to have seen so many games, itâs just beautiful,â Woods said. âI loved hockey from the time I was six years old.â
And it all started while wearing the winged wheel.
âThe Red Wings were my first squirt house league team for the first two years,â Woods said. âAnd now Iâm with this franchise for more than half a century. Itâs been an amazing run, and Iâm very, very thankful.â
The post Woods to Call Final Red Wings Game on Wednesday appeared first on Detroit Hockey Now.
Paul Woods' last game as the Red Wings radio analyst is on Wednesday against the Florida Panthers.
Paul Woods has served as the radio analyst for Detroit Red Wings broadcasts.
Paul Woods is retiring after calling his final game, marking the end of his career as a radio analyst for the team.
Paul Woods will be calling the final game against the Florida Panthers.

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