Red Wings sign D Mike Green to 3-year contract

Mike Green skates with the puck during the game with the Minnesota Wild on March 19, 2015 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings have signed free agent defenseman Mike Green to a three-year contract.

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The deal is worth $18 million and pays Green $6 million a year, according to multiple reports.

Green is a veteran defenseman whose played in 575 NHL games. He's spent his entire career up to this point with the Washington Capitals, who drafted him 29th overall in 2004.

The 29-year-old is known as an offensive-minded defenseman with a knack for scoring. In 2008-09, he scored 31 goals with the Capitals. The next season he followed up with 76 points. This past season he scored 10 goals and 35 assists in 72 games with Washington.

Related: Red Wings sign veteran F Brad Richards

Green has the elusive right-handed shot from the point that the Red Wings have been wanting. He will join a Red Wings defensive group including Niklas Kronwall, Jonathan Ericsson, Danny DeKeyser and Brendan Smith, who the Red Wings signed to a new two-year contract on Tuesday.

The NHL free agency period started at noon Wednesday. The biggest move of the day has been the Toronto Maple Leafs' trade of Phil Kessel to the Pittsburgh Penguins.