(Photo: David Guralnick, The Detroit News)
Detroit — He was important enough that his name became a verb. And yet for Niklas Kronwall, the soft-spoken Swede who became such a big hit in Detroit, the legacy was always going to be harder to define than that.
Because when he was playing at his peak, the Red Wings’ roster always boasted bigger names and flashier stars. And then when it finally was his turn to lead, well, we all know what follows the end of a dynasty.
Frustration, mostly.
Kronwall, like so many others in this proud franchise, felt plenty of that in recent years, as his body began to betray him and the losses became numbingly routine.