The Detroit Red Wings have been a part of the NHL since 1926, and since its inaugural game, hockey has been part of the Detroit scene. Only the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs have won more Stanley Cups than Detroit's 9.

Detroit has its hockey history in the Western Hockey League team, the Victoria Cougars. On May 15, 1926, players were purchased when the entire roster of the Victoria Cougars was sold for $100,00.00. Charles King was named the club's first President and Art Duncan, who let the PCHL in scoring while with Vancouver in 1923-24 was named player-manager. Some of the other original players were Happy Holmes, Frank Frederickson, Jack Walker and Frank Foyston, all stars of the various western hockey leagues.

Due to a lack of a local arena, the Red Wings played their home games in Windsor Ontario, just across the river, making it the first professional franchise to have its home base in a foreign country. In their first year the Cougars, who kept the nickname from their former team, posted a 12W-28L-4T record, which secured them a last place finish in the NHL's then, 5 team American Division.

Changes happened quickly and after failing to entice Lester Patrick away from the New York Rangers, management signed Jack Adams, a former member of the Stanley Cup winning Ottawa Senators, as Manager. On November 22, 1927, the Cougars played their first game in the new Detroit Olympia. The Cougar's Johnny Sheppard scored the first goal in the new arena, as the Cougars lost to the Ottawa Senators 2-1.

In 1930, the Cougars changed their name to the Falcons, but not even a name change could help the club, who had managed to make the playoffs twice in their first 7 seasons. In a desperate attempt to help his team out a slump, Adams once had a goalie cut out of wood and outfitted it with goalie equipment. You see, the Cougars had loaned their second goalie to Seattle of the PCHL and only had one goalie to shoot at. This "second" goalie was used during practice so the players could get more shooting practice.

In 1932, grain millionaire, James Norris purchased the club. A former member of the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association who had its origins in cycling, and had won the Stanley Cup in 1892, Norris adopted a version of their "winged wheels" for his new emblem, and on October 5, 1932, the Detroit Red Wings were unveiled. A new name, and newly added talent helped the Red Wings reach the Stanley Cup semifinals during the first year of Norris' ownership. Still putting his team together in 1934-35, Norris put up $50,000.00 and defenseman Teddy Graham to the St Louis Eagles. In return he got Syd Howe, Ralph(Scotty) Bowman, and Normie Smith. In completing the transitiion Norris managed to convince Frank Patrick to trade Marty Barry and Art Giroux to Detroit for Cooney Weiland and Walt Buswell. This proved to be just the thing Detroit needed and in the 1935-36 season they forged their way to the top of the standings. This set the stage for a record setting game. On March 24, 1936 the Red Wings met the Montreal Maroons for the first game of their series. After 3 regulation periods and 5 overtime periods the teams remained in a scoreless tie. Previously, the longest overtime game had lasted 164 minutes, 46 seconds, set by Boston and Toronto in 1933. At 176:30, "Mud" Bruneteau took a pass from Hec Kilrea and deked Maroon's goalie Lorne Chabot, and ended the longest playoff game in NHL history. Wings goalie Normie Smith also shut out the Maroons in game 2, thereby setting a still standing record as the longest shutout sequence ever recorded of 248:32. The Wings then made short work of the Toronto Maple Leafs and brought home their first Stanley Cup. The next season, the Wings became the first US franchise to win back to back Cups. In that same season Adams dealt away a minor league by the name of Turk Broda to the Toronto Maple Leafs .In 1942, after taking a 3-0 game stranglehold on the Toronto Maple Leafs, and behind the solid goaltending of …Turk Broda, the Maple Leafs became the only team ever to rally from a 3-0 game deficit to win a best of seven Stanley Cup final.

1946 saw the arrival of Gordie Howe, "the best prospect I've seen in 20 years" said Adams. Howe scored his first NHL goal during his first NHL game. In 1949 Ted Lindsay, Sid Abel and Gordie Howe formed one of the most feared lines of that era, the Production Line. They demonstrated their prowess by finishing 1-2-3 in the 1949-50 season. It was during the playoffs against Toronto, when Howe miscalculated a hit on Teeder Kennedy that sent Howe headfirst into the boards and took him out of the series. Despite the loss of their superstar, Detroit managed to defeat the Maple Leafs to capture their 4th Stanley Cup.

During the next couple of years players like Alex Delvecchio, Terry Sawchuk, Red Kelly and Marcel Pronovost were added to the team. In 1952, the Red Wings became the first team to sweep 8 consecutive games to win the Stanley Cup. In 1955, Adams traded Sawchuk to the Boston Bruins, and then traded Ted Lindsay to the Chicago Black Hawks because he(Lindsay) was attempting to start a players union. Following Lindsay, was Glenn Hall and then in 1957 he traded Johnny Bucyk to Boston to get Terry Sawchuk back. All in all, Adams made some bad trades and in 1962 Adams vacated his position to become president of the Central Hockey League.

Gordie Howe retired in 1971 from the Red Wings as the All Time Points leader, All Time Goal Scorer and All Time Assist Leader among his many records. Only Wayne Gretzky has since broken Howe's All Time Points record, and it looks like there are no active players in the near future who will surpass Howe's record of the Most Seasons Played(26). In 1983 Steve Yzerman was selected in the first round draft picks and to this day remains a franchise mainstay, and in the 1989 draft, the Wings turned to Europe and got Nicklas Lidstrom, Vladimir Konstantinov and Sergei Fedorov. These four players played pivotal roles in Detroit's success in the 1990's.

Scotty Bowman was signed on as coach in 1993 and with the acquisition of Mike Vernon, began his assault on the Stanley Cup by reaching the finals for the first time since 1966. In 1995-96 Bowman picked up Igor Larionov, Slava Fetisov, Brendan Shannahan and Larry Murphy, and in 1997 swept Philadelphia to bring the Cup home for the first time in 42 years. The success of that team was marred by the injury of Konstantinov and team masseur Sergei Manatsakanov. To this date, Konstantinov still remains in a wheel chair, determined one day to return to hockey. 1997-98 saw the wings win back to back Stanley Cups. Was it coincidence, they won 16 games, and finished the season on June 16th? Konstantinov's number was 16. Steve Yzerman won the Conn Smythe Trophy and during the Cup celebration, placed the Stanley Cup in Konstantinov's lap. Says Yzerman, " Winning has always been a priority around here."