DETROIT >> If there’s a common thread among many of general manager Steve Yzerman’s personnel moves this summer, it’s the fact Yzerman has wanted to get players who are tougher to play against.

The need to get a little bigger, a tad nastier, and generally just agitate opponents was a necessary ingredient.

When the Wings signed free-agent defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker, they added another gritty piece.

“Just being hard to play against, being annoying and kind of always on guys and trying to be physical when I can,” Bernard-Docker said last week, during a Zoom call with Detroit media, when describing himself as a player.

The Wings signed Bernard-Docker to a one-year contract worth $875,000. Bernard-Docker became an unrestricted free agent when Buffalo didn’t extend a qualifying offer, thereby setting Bernard-Docker free to test the market.

Bernard-Docker, 25, is a 6-foot-1, 198-pound right-shot defenseman who was a first-round pick (26th overall) in 2018 by Ottawa.

A defensive-minded player who has played 144 games in the NHL, Bernard-Docker will give coach Todd McLellan an option on the third pairing and penalty kill, a particular area of strength in Bernard-Docker’s resume.

“Jacob Bernard-Docker on defense gives us a little bit of depth,” Yzerman said. “Kind of not a big-name signing or whatever, but (he) has been an effective player in his time in Ottawa and particularly plays hard and competes.”

When Bernard-Docker heard from his agent the Wings were interested after free agency began, there was a surge of excitement.

Having played for a young team that matured and found itself last season in Ottawa, then playing for another up-and-coming Atlantic Division roster in Buffalo, Bernard-Docker views the Wings roster and sees a little bit of Ottawa in it.

“They have a really good, young core of guys there, a team that I feel like is just on the bubble,” Bernard-Docker said. “A couple of seasons ago they just missed out on making the playoffs. There’s a lot of potential there, and it’s a team on the right trajectory. I’m super excited to go in there and show what I got and hopefully be a contributor.

“In a way it’s a similar group to where I was in Ottawa, with a real good young core, (just like) Buffalo had a real good core. They’re (the Wings) on that edge of breaking out. There’s a lot of real good players on the team.

“I’m just pretty pumped about the fit there.”

Not being tendered a qualifying offer by Buffalo surprised Bernard-Docker, who played well with the Sabres after a trade that sent him and Oxford native Josh Norris to Buffalo for Dylan Cozens and Dennis Gilbert. Bernard-Docker had a goal and three assists in 15 games with Buffalo, with a plus-3 rating. In 25 games with Ottawa, Bernard-Docker had a goal and three assists with a plus-2 rating.

Bernard-Docker had four goals and 10 assists, with a minus-7 rating, in 72 games with Ottawa the season before.

With the Wings, Bernard-Docker feels there’s an opportunity to find a role that has thus far been difficult to nail down in the NHL.

“For me, it’s just trying to find a spot where I can come in and carve out a role,” Bernard-Docker said. “I guess Buffalo didn’t quite see that, I guess with the D-men they have there or whatever, so I’m hoping to come in and be someone that can be a guy that is relied upon every night and just be real solid, physical and play my game.”

The Wings needed depth on the right side, and Bernard-Docker definitely fills that need.

“That went into my decision,” Bernard-Docker said. “They have some great D-men, but I can hopefully fit on that right side and be a guy who is a good penalty killer, and a good solid player that is tough to play against.”

“That’s my game.”

Bernard-Docker feels killing penalties is in area where he can help a team but has yet to get a large opportunity to do so. On a Wings team that ranked 32nd out of 32 teams on the penalty kill, anyone who can help improve the unit definitely will get an opportunity.

“That’s one area where I was really looking to develop and show kind of how I played in the minors and, maybe I haven’t showed as much as I’d like to in the NHL yet,” Bernard-Docker said. “It’s an area that I really think is a strong part of my game. I’m willing to block shots and I’m pretty good on my stick, areas that I’d really like to show.”

Having faced the Wings often the last several seasons in the Atlantic Division, Bernard-Docker is glad to be joining them and getting away from some irritating matchups.

“They’re a team that is hard to play against, they have a few players that you don’t like playing against,” Bernard-Docker said. “It’ll be really nice to be on the team with those guys now, and I’m looking forward to it.

“I guess it’s a good thing when you don’t want to play against them and hopefully a few of them had the same opinion of me.”

Kasper honored

Marco Kasper was Thursday named the Wings’ Rookie of the Year by the Detroit Sports Media.

Kasper, 21, played in 77 games and ranked among the NHL’s rookie leaders with 19 goals (tied for fourth), 18 assists (eighth), and 37 points (seventh). Kasper recorded the most points by a Wings rookie in a single season since Lucas Raymond (57 points) and Moritz Seider (50 points) both reached the 50-point mark in 2021-22.

The DSM Red Wings Rookie of the Year Award dates to the 1948-49 season. Previous recipients of the award include current Wings’ captain Dylan Larkin and four Calder Trophy (NHL rookie of the year) winners: Seider, Roger Crozier, Glenn Hall and Terry Sawchuk.