Update (1:07 PM): Great point by James via comment:
Isn’t entirely possible that it’s not the result of his family not wanting to move to be with him in Michigan, but that the custody situation surrounding his stepdaughter does not allow the family to move out of state? It’s possible that his wife would lose all custody if she moved out of state, as that is very common.
I’m just speculating, I don’t know the details, but just thought I would share a possible point of view. And if this is the case, that makes it all the more difficult until the stepdaughter turns 18.
Given that she’s in high school already, that date may not be that far off. Who knows. - Matt
Ansar Khan writes today on the question facing Brad Stuart this season: whether or not to re-sign with the Wings. The issue, as we know, is family. Stuart’s wife and kids remain in California, as they have since he arrived in Detroit in 2008:
… his wife and kids, two young sons and a stepdaughter in high school, live in San Jose, and that is where they must stay.
The concern of Brad and his wife here is probably that of not wanting to disrupt the lives of their kids. They’ve already had a pretty hefty kind of disruption by splitting the family up as long as they have, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Brad opts not to re-sign. That he signed with the team once already, after his traded contract expired, isn’t necessarily an indication of where he’ll land this time. Maybe at the time, he envisioned a different outcome for the location of his family.
But if the Stuarts have held off moving to Michigan for the sake of the kids, it seems to me the next logical step would be to get Brad back out West once his contractual obligations here are up.
As a Wings fan invested in the future success of this team, I hope I’m wrong. I consider Stuart to be the most steady defenseman on the team after Nick Lidstrom and losing him would be a major blow to the blueline. But as I count down the months to the birth of our first child, I won’t be able to sit here as a father and be upset with him if moving on due to family considerations is his choice.
If Stuart and his family can find a way for him to stay in Detroit and make it work for them, awesome. Otherwise, there are more important things in life.