Detroit, MI

Red Wings photographer given special moment after tragic loss

Published

3 weeks ago

December 17, 2025

Red Wings photographer given special moment after tragic loss

Dave Reginek’s voice broke as he spoke about a letter he had just found from his daughter. In it, she spoke of never wanting to hurt him. He saw that part when he tried to mop up a tear that had fallen on the paper.

It is a letter that is almost heartbreaking now, as the Reginek family copes with the loss of Danielle “Reggie” Reginek, who passed away Dec. 8 due to heart failure. She was 41.

Reginek and Reggie used to bond over photography. His interest in the field began when he was 11 years old and got a Yashica camera from his mom, who got it from a bar patron in lieu of paying his tab. Reginek turned an early hobby into the job of a lifetime when in 2002-03, he was hired as the team photographer by the Detroit Red Wings. It was a passion he cherished sharing with his daughter.

“She was a huge, huge sports fan,” Reginek said. “She could go toe to toe with just about anybody. And it was just something that her and I always had together. Sports and taking pictures. She was great at taking pictures.”

From Thanksgiving to tragedy

Reginek is part of the photo team that shoots the Detroit Lions’ annual Thanksgiving Day game, which means celebrating the holiday with family − his wife, Colleen, Reggie, son David and his wife and their children − means postponing it a day or two. This year, they celebrated on Nov. 29.

“We were playing cards with her aunt and my daughter-in-law, some other games, laughing and having fun and it was all good,” Colleen said. “She was here for a couple, three hours.

“It was nice that we did get that.”

The next day, they got a phone call, the start of a nightmare.

“Sunday morning, my son called me and said that her boyfriend had called, something was wrong,” Reginek said. “They’re giving her CPR and taking her to Trinity Health in Livonia. We got over there as quick as we could. They were working on her for almost two hours. They finally got a pulse, but after four minutes of no oxygen to your brain, your brain starts to die.”

Reginek describes that Sunday, Nov. 30, as the day “we lost her beautiful soul.”

Five days later, they took her off life support. They tried to honor Reggie’s generous spirit and wish to be an organ donor by working with the Gift of Life program. Having never gotten to walk Reggie down the aisle for a wedding, the Regineks instead walked her down two corridors at the hospital, to the operating room.

“He thought this was his last chance for him to walk with her,” Colleen said. “So as much as he doesn’t like wearing suits, he got all dressed up in a suit and I was in a dress and we were all dressed up to walk down that path. And he held her hand the whole way.”

Hundreds of people lined the hallways. The Regineks stopped to thank every one of them.

“That was very tough,” Reginek said. “They had two floors and we had to take an elevator down and both floors were lined up. It was very emotional. As I walked by every one of them, I looked at them and I said, thank you, and there had to be 150, 200 people. I told them, you are all living angels.“

There were complications with the internal organs, but her skin and her eyes were harvested.

Reginek describes Monday, Dec. 8, as the day “we lost her body.”

Unimaginable grief

The Regineks are determined to go forward with a pre-planned holiday party. It’s what Reggie would have wanted.

“We have grandchildren and this is Christmas time,” Colleen said. “We have our Christmas party at my son’s house, and he’s like, do we cancel? Should we not have it?

“And it’s like, no. Reggie taught us more than anything that family is what is important and we have to move on for the kids. She would have wanted us to have it.”

As they try to figure out how to move forward, the Regineks are dealing with the other pain that can come with losing a loved one: Sorting out their affairs. Reggie did not have a will, and they don’t have her passwords to her phone, credit cards, and other accounts. On top of the grief, there is so much paperwork.

And there is going through her belongings, which can bring both overpowering sadness − and gratitude.

It was while sorting through her desk that the family found a letter Reggie had written two years ago, after a disagreement with her dad over something she did that he didn’t like.

“My son found it and brought it to us the other day,” Reginek said, emotion breaking his voice. “It’s so sweet. It’s so touching. She felt like she needed to write it down and she did. It was hard to read. It was so heartfelt. And while I was reading it, a tear fell from my face and it hit a part, the part where she said, I don’t ever want to hurt you and mom.

“That’s where that tear landed. I didn’t even read down that far. I couldn’t. But that’s how I saw it. My tear.”

The Red Wings family

Reginek is used to having great access to the team, but he usually only gets called into the locker room after a game if a player is celebrating a milestone.

Tuesday was different. Early in the day, he received a phone call from a staff member asking him to come to the locker room after the game, regardless of outcome. The Wings were blasting music to celebrate their 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders, but as soon as Reginek entered, the music was turned off, and captain Dylan Larkin stood up.

“He made a comment about my daughter passing while they were on the road trip,” Reginek said. “He says, ‘you’re always taking our pictures. We want to do a team picture with you.’ So he gave me the game puck and I did the best I could, kind of thanked him and told him how grateful I was.

“The win was the biggest win of my life with the team. They dedicated it to her. That was overwhelming.”

Afterward, one by one, players hugged Reginek. Todd McLellan, the coach, offered his condolences. “He said if we need anything, to please reach out,” Reginek said. “They were all very sincere about it.”

In the hallway outside the locker room, general manager Steve Yzerman was waiting.

“I seen Stevie making a beeline towards me,” Reginek said. “We talked for like 10 minutes. He’s got three daughters and I know he felt my pain or could see it. I think he understands the devastation that we’re going through. Not that he could truly understand the pain, you can only imagine it, you can’t put it into words.”

Reggie’s legacy

As news spread of their loss, the Regineks were overwhelmed with messages of love and condolences. They knew Reggie was special, that her energy and smilie and infectious joy had touched so many. Now they saw it.

“My wife kind of made a list of things, bullet points of things, that people kept saying over and over again,” Reginek said.

There were so many.

“It was ‘her big, welcoming heart, her bright light, her big, beautiful smile,’” Colleen said. “‘A truly amazing person, loyal friend. What a kindhearted, beautiful person she was. How you could pick her laugh out of a hundred people in a room. A friend who would always be there for you. How genuine she was.’”

Now that joyful and loving person is gone from Reginek’s life, but never from their hearts. Never from their souls.

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com.

Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her books: “The Franchise: Detroit Red Wings, A Curated History of Hockeytown,” and “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” and “The Big 50: The Men and Moments that made the Detroit Red Wings” are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

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Detroit, MI

Debating Mike McDaniel’s fit for Detroit Lions OC job

Published

6 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

Debating Mike McDaniel’s fit for Detroit Lions OC job

But we also can’t ignore the drastic fall-off from the Dolphins’ offense. Partially because of injuries to Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill over the past two seasons, the Dolphins have finished 22nd and 25th in scoring offense in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Injuries can be used as an excuse, but the greatest coordinators find a way through the adversity.

Beyond that, there are questions about his philosophical and schematic fit. While the Lions have built their offenses on grit and physicality, McDaniel seems to favor speed and finesse. But maybe that’s exactly what the Lions need. Detroit has two speedy players in Jameson Williams and Jahmyr Gibbs, who could probably be utilized more creatively, and it’s hard to imagine anyone better than McDaniel to do so.

McDaniel also has a very long coaching history with a lot of different coaching influences and schemes—including his closest coaching guru: Kyle Shanahan. The 49ers head coach has a scheme that is both more congruent with what the Lions do and much more adaptable.

On this EMERGENCY PODCAST, our crew debates the fit of McDaniel in Detroit, along with our thoughts on the Lions’ other known candidate: Commanders quarterbacks coach David Blough.

Before that, Erik Schlitt, Ryan Mathews, and I discuss our biggest takeaways from Lions general manager Brad Holmes’ end-of-season press conference, including the future of David Montgomery, whether Holmes really took accountability for his mistakes, and our confidence in him moving forward.

You can catch our discussion in the embedded podcast below or on any podcasting platform you’d prefer. Just search “Pride of Detroit.”

You can also catch video of the show over on our YouTube pages. Here are the links:

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Detroit, MI

Tarik Skubal, Tigers can’t agree on 2026 salary. Here’s what happens

Published

19 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Tarik Skubal, Tigers can’t agree on 2026 salary. Here’s what happens

The Detroit Tigers and left-hander Tarik Skubal did not agree to terms on a one-year contract for the 2026 season before the 8 p.m. deadline Thursday, Jan. 8, to exchange salary figures in the arbitration process.

Skubal filed at $32 million; the Tigers filed at $19 million.

It’s a difference of $13 million.

An arbitration panel will review the case during a hearing scheduled for late January or early to mid-February. The arbitrators must determine whether Skubal is worth more or less than the $25.5 million midpoint. If he’s worth more, they will select his $32 million proposal; if less, they will select the Tigers’ $19 million proposal. The panel isn’t allowed to choose a salary in between $19 million and $32 million.

The Tigers operate as a file-and-trial club in salary arbitration under president of baseball operations Scott Harris, meaning there won’t be further negotiations with Skubal regarding a one-year contract. A multi-year contract could still be negotiated, but it’s highly unlikely.

Skubal – represented by agent Scott Boras – reaches free agency after the 2026 season. The 29-year-old is positioned to become the first pitcher in MLB history to receive a $400 million contract.

If the two sides were to reach an agreement before a hearing, it would likely be a one-year contract with a player option, thus maintaining Skubal’s path to free agency in the 2026-27 offseason.

The reigning back-to-back American League Cy Young winner was projected by MLB Trade Rumors to receive $17.8 million in his third and final year of salary arbitration. He previously earned $2.65 million in 2024, then $10.15 million in 2025.

Why couldn’t the Tigers and Skubal agree on a salary for 2026?

The arbitration case for Skubal is unusually complex, thanks to a rarely used provision highlighted by ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Because Skubal has more than five years of MLB service time, he isn’t limited to comparing himself only to past arbitration-eligible players. Instead, he can compare himself to any player in baseball.

Those unique rights allow Skubal – who has five years, 114 days of service time – to point to MLB’s highest-paid pitchers (such as Max Scherzer’s $43.3 million per year from 2022-24 or Zack Wheeler’s $42 million per year from 2025-27), arguing that his elite performance warrants a salary in that range – not in the $17.8 million range, as projected by MLB Trade Rumors.

That’s what pushed the Tigers and Skubal to an arbitration hearing.

[ MUST LISTEN: Make “Days of Roar” your go-to Tigers podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) ]

The current record for the largest one-year arbitration contract belongs to outfielder Juan Soto, who agreed to $31 million with the New York Yankees for the 2024 season.

If Skubal wins the arbitration hearing, he will surpass Soto and claim the new record with his proposed $32 million salary. If Skubal loses, then he will earn the $19 million salary proposed by the Tigers.

There are two other arbitration records on the line.

The highest-paid arbitration-eligible pitcher belongs to right-hander David Price, who earned $19.75 million with the Tigers in 2015 – his fourth year in the arbitration process as a Super Two qualifier. The largest raise for an arbitration-eligible pitcher belongs to right-hander Jacob deGrom, who surged from $7.4 million to $17 million – an increase of $9.6 million – with the New York Mets in 2019.

Those records for pitchers will belong to Skubal – but only if his proposed $32 million salary is selected by the arbitration panel. He will fall just short of the records if the panel selects the Tigers’ proposed $19 million.

Skubal is the best pitcher in baseball.

More notably, he is on a Hall of Fame trajectory.

In 2025, Skubal registered a 2.21 ERA with 33 walks (4.4% walk rate) and 241 strikeouts (32.2% strikeout rate) across 195⅓ innings in 31 starts. He made the All-Star Game for the second time in his six-year MLB career.

Skubal became the first back-to-back AL Cy Young winner since right-hander Pedro Martínez in 1999-2000, leading the AL with a 2.39 ERA in 2024 and a 2.21 ERA in 2025.

The Tigers haven’t been to an arbitration hearing since right-hander Michael Fulmer in 2019.

Fulmer lost the case, receiving the Tigers’ proposed $2.8 million salary rather than his requested $3.4 million. Before that hearing, the Tigers hadn’t participated in an arbitration hearing since 2001 – and the Tigers haven’t lost a case since 2000.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

Listen to our weekly Tigers show “Days of Roar” every Monday afternoon during the season and Tuesday afternoon during the offseason on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Detroit, MI

Former Detroit Tigers starting pitcher is Rockies’ first signing of winter

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Former Detroit Tigers starting pitcher is Rockies’ first signing of winter

DETROIT — Former Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen has signed a one-year, $8 million contract with the Colorado Rockies.

It’s the first signing of the offseason for the Rockies under new president Paul DePodesta. The deal includes a $9 million club option for 2027.

It’s the fifth straight winter that Lorenzen has signed a one-year deal following a seven-season tenure with the Cincinnati Reds.

Lorenzen, who turned 34 this week, signed a free-agent deal with the Tigers before the 2023 season. He made 18 starts and was selected for his first appearance in the All-Star Game before being dealt to the Philadelphia Phillies at the trade deadline for infield prospect Hao-Yu Lee.

After a strong start with his new team that included a no-hitter, Lorenzen was moved to the bullpen and pitched sparingly in the postseason.

He found a quiet reception on the free-agent market, agreeing to a discounted one-year deal with the Texas Rangers before the 2024 season. He was traded to the Royals at the deadline and pitched well down the stretch, going 2-0 with a 1.57 ERA in 28 2/3 innings with his new team.

He re-signed with the Royals in 2025 and put together another solid season, posting a 4.64 ERA in 141 innings with 127 strikeouts and 39 walks.

Colorado is known as an unforgiving home for pitchers, and the Rockies lost a league-worst 119 games in 2025.