Exploring the Detroit Red Wings future Goaltending Options

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The Detroit Red Wings are open for business this trade deadline with Jimmy Howard and Gustav Nyquist headlining the rumors. What does this mean for the Red Wings netminders of the future?

As February 26th NHL trade deadline gets closer and closer, the rumors are only going to heat up around the league. The Detroit Red Wings have already set the asking price for their trade rumor headliners. As fellow Octopus Thrower contributor recently wrote, the price for both Gustav Nyquist and Jimmy Howard; the at a first round pick.

Howard’s future is uncertain at the time, after February 26th, there is a decent chance he will no longer be donning a winged wheel jersey, he is under contract through this year and will become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Through 32 starts, Howard is 13-13-5 with a Goals Against Advantage (GAA) of 2.78 and Save Percentage (SV%) of .915% for the Red Wings this year. Howard’s counterpart Jonathan Bernier has started in 18 games and has a record of 5-12-2 with a GAA of 3.52 and SV% of .892 for the Red Wings. Obviously, Bernier is not having the best statistical year, but he is under contract for the next two years until the conclusion of the 2020-21 season.

There are a ton of possibilities for the Detroit Red Wings goaltending situation, here are the six that seem the most practical and possible given the Red Wings front office track record, as well as feasibility of each of the option. The six options are…

Option 1: Trade Howard, make Bernier starter

As mentioned above, Howard is definitely on the table, and the Detroit Red Wings are more than willing to move him for the right price. (i.e. at least a first round pick, maybe more) If Howard gets moved, Bernier is going to move into the starting role, which means that he is going to need to get his game under control and try to turn his numbers around for the second half of the season. Assuming we keep Bernier around for the full extent of his contract, that would mean we have two years to groom one of our minor league goalies into an NHL capable starter. Bernier is definitely not capable of being an everyday starter but if we were to bring a goalie up from the AHL team, we could possibly groom them slowly into that role as time goes on.

If we commit to Bernier he will have two years to make a name for himself, though he is 30 now he could potentially turn his game around and become a starter which would allow more time for the young goalies like Kaden Fulcher, Filipp Larsson, and Keith Petruzzelli to age and develop.

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Option 2: Trade Howard, let Bernier walk after two years, commit to a prospect as a starter

Moving Howard and letting Bernier walk will leave us in a position where we’ll need to visit our Grand Rapids Griffins Roster. Currently, the goalies for the Griffins are Patrik Rybár and Harri Säteri. They have each started in almost the same amount of games with Rybár posting a 10-6-5 record, GAA of 2.30, and a SV% of .913. Säteri has a better record at 13-7-2 but he has the worse GAA at 3.08 as well as SV% at .894 for the Griffins.

Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News wrote an article analyzing the Red Wings top twenty-five prospects, Here’s what he had to say in regards to Rybár’s abilities.

Rybar, 24, was signed this spring after impressive play in the Czech Republic, then at the world championships. He looked good in training camp and continues to show potential at the pro level with Grand Rapids.

Säteri was brought in this offseason after spending a year with the Florida Panthers and three years in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) prior to that. Not Currently on the Griffins Roster is prized prospect Kaden Fulcher, who is currently on the Toledo Walleye in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL). Fulcher may be NHL-ready after two more years of development, so if you’re hoping the Red Wings take this direction, Fulcher could be considered along with Rybár and Säteri. Looking pretty deep into the future, there are names like Larsson and Petruzzelli who could be ready for a go at NHL hockey.

Option 3: Trade Howard for a second 1st round draft pick, take a goalie to groom for the NHL club by the time Bernier’s contract ends

Assuming the Detroit Red Wings can acquire an extra first-round draft pick at this year’s trade deadline, they would have at least two first-round draft picks in this summers NHL Entry Draft. If the Red Wings wanted some insurance in case any of their current goalie prospects don’t pan out, they could go after a promising goalie in the first round and fast-track him on a route to the NHL for the 2021-2022 season when Bernier’s time in Detroit is up.

Looking at the 2019 draft class, the Red Wings would have a decent amount of names to choose from with the top three being Hunter Jones who is currently in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Spencer Knight who plays for the United States National Development Program (UNDP), and Mads Søgaard who is in the Western Hockey League. It would essentially come down to the Red Wings having to decide which of the prospect goalies could be ready to compete against NHL level talent, two years after being drafted. Based on minimal reading done on the Elite Prospects Draft Center page, I would speculate that Knight or Jones would be the most capable of making the jump. This jump would not be easy for anybody and would be incredibly risky, but it is an option the Detroit Red Wings could possibly explore, though is definitely not a recommended one.

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Option 4: Trade Howard, let Bernier walk after two years, spend money on a goalie in free agency

Draft picks aside, another option the Red Wings have is to wait around for the 2021 free agent class. This class runs pretty deep, the only negative here is that the Red Wings will be looking at Dominik Hasek 2.0, and we could only hope that whoever we bring in could be successful like Hasek was.

The following is the list of goalies who will be unrestricted free agents in the 2021 offseason from Sportac.com

Henrik Lundquist-39
Tuukka Rask– 34
Pekka Rinne– 38
Frederik Andersen– 31
Jake Allen– 31
Devan Dubnyk– 35
Antti Raanta– 32
Scott Darling– 32
James Reimer– 33
Phillip Grubauer- 29
Carter Hutton– 35
Charlie Lindgren– 27

Looking at this list, it seems like signing someone like Andersen or Allen to a nice 3-4 year contract would do wonders for the Red Wings. That is of course if they have not been extended by their current teams already. If the Red Wings find a way to be competitive in the next two years and simply want a stopgap until the young goalies are ready, it sure seems like they could get a solid 2 years out of someone like Rask, Rinne, or Devan Dubnyk.

Option 5: Keep Howard, re-sign him in the offseason

Perhaps, the easiest option of all six listed here comes in the form or doing nothing. Howard now 34, will hit the market at the age of 35 this offseason assuming the Red Wings do not trade him. If you haven’t noticed, all the options seem to tie back to the prospects we currently have and it would seem like bringing Howard back on more of a short-term deal like a 2-4 year deal would simply allow us to keep a solid goaltender (providing Howard plays the way he has been) as well as even more time for the players to develop. Essentially, if the Red Wings are dead set on using one of the goalies they have within their system, the answer may lie here, holding off on trading him and then re-signing him this offseason. If they are able to bring Howard back, they can most likely be assured that at least one of their prospects will be ready by the team Howard’s new contract ends.

Option 6: Keep Howard, let him walk in the offseason, commit to Bernier and possibly extend him

This option is by far the worst option that could possibly unfold but I felt that it should be included since… this is the Red Wings and they are run by Ken Holland for the time being. This option is relying heavily on the hypothetical game. Assuming we do not trade Howard and then proceed to let him walk in the offseason would be devastating, and make GM Ken Holland start to look a lot more like Former Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli. But for all intents and purposes, it is a feasible option and could happen, let me continue, Howard’s gone and Bernier is our new hope. It sure seems like, at the age of 30, Bernier is not going to get much better than he is right now. However, you never know, and he could possibly re-invent himself slightly and that could lead to him holding down a starting job with some help from younger backups.

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To continue playing worst case scenario, assuming the Red Wings roll with Bernier, talks of extension roll around and the two-year contract Bernier has right now, turns into three or even four which again, just buys the Detroit Red Wings more time to develop the younger goalies.

The odds of this being the reality are extremely low, the thing is that this is a 100% feasible and possible scenario that we could see. In my personal opinion, all I can say is that I can only hope that if this happens, Steve Yzerman comes and saves the day by taking GM Ken Holland’s job.

In conclusion, each of these options can be right or wrong or even may have pieces of them that could require tweaking over time. These six are not the only options, but these four are the four I feel could be most possible as well as most likely with the way the Detroit Red Wings front office operates. Hopefully, the Detroit Red Wings have a front office run by a certain someone by the name of Steve Yzerman in the near future, but that’s a whole different topic for another time.

Next. Jimmy Howard could play his way out of Detroit. dark

There are many options, and it can be understood that these six are not the only six possibilities that the Red Wings have for their goaltending future, however, it would seem that these are the four most practical outcomes with the given situation.

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