What to Expect From the Red Wings New Goalie Tandem?

The Red Wings Goalie Competition

The Detroit Red Wings are becoming a goalie dispensary over the past couple seasons and it is pretty crazy how true that statement actually is. Since 2020, the Red Wings have traded for Alex Nedeljkovic, drafted Sebastian Cossa with their first selection in the 2021 NHL entry draft, and traded a fourth-rounder to the St. Louis Blues to acquire goalie, Ville Husso.

That competition between Nedeljkovic, Cossa, and Husso begins now. With Cossa reportedly impressing at camp, it’s possible they may give him a look, but it’s doubtful with Nedeljkovic and Husso on 1-way contracts. Furthermore, they are making a combined $7,750,000 which stands to reason that they are both going to be playing this season. But what should we expect from them?

Alex Nedeljkovic

Alex Nedeljkovic was acquired by the Detroit Red Wings a year ago in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes. Nedeljkovic, who in his final season with the Hurricanes had a breakout year, was projected to be the savior in net for the Red Wings. However, as we all know, it hasn’t played out like that to this point.

Now, I know that it’s hard to say that he hasn’t been the player we need him to be given the team in front of him, and the coaching scheme didn’t favor him, but we all expected more from him. He was a top player competing for the Calder trophy with Kirill Kaprizov only a year or so ago. His talent is there, it’s the consistency in his game that makes him a average goalie at best.

Towards the end of the season we saw Nedeljkovic really turn a corner but it was too late to salvage the Red Wings season. It wasn’t all on Nedeljkovic, but the goaltending didn’t help keep the Red Wings matter.

Going into this season, you know that Derek Lalonde will look to help out the goalies by playing a much tighter game in the defensive zone. He mentioned how he wants the defense to step up and close gaps before they happen. Play a tight and physical game. Make it harder to find passes. If they succeed, then the Red Wings could be looking at a good season from Nedeljkovic. However, it could be considered unfair to say that when he hasn’t proven to be a goalie in this league other than one season.

That said, it could imply that Nedeljkovic is destined to take the back-up role this season which leads us into Husso.

Ville Husso

Ville Husso is coming off a terrific season with the St. Louis Blues and that apparently caught the eye of Steve Yzerman. During day two of the 2022 NHL entry draft, the Red Wings announced they were trading for Husso which brought upon a lot of excitement.

This past year Husso started the year as the goalie two behind Jordan Binnington. But after a Binnington collapse in the regular season, and then him getting hurt, Husso got the chance to win the starting job and he never looked back. He put the St. Louis Blues on his back and led them to the Stanley cup playoffs.

The 2022 regular season went by quick for many of us but Husso got the chance to play in the playoffs and helped his team compete. But, although he was bested by the Colorado Avalanche, Husso still finished with great stats during the regular season.

During this past season, Husso finished having played in 40 games(38 started). In those 40 games he played in he finished with a 25-7-6 record along with a 2.56 goals against average(GAA), and a .919 save percentage along with two shutouts.

Now, I know those stats look good, but what’s even better is seeing that his goals saved above average is a 15.0. In the 2021 regular season, he finished with a -6.6 goals saved above average. So now the question that we should be asking is: Which goalie are we going to get? Well there are two options.

First, we get the Husso from two seasons ago. The one who had a .893 save percentage and a 3.21 goals against average. The one who wasn’t comfortable with the fast play of the NHL and didn’t have the confidence in himself to play at this level. Or we have the second option-

Secondly, we get the Husso from this past season who made a tremendous jump in his second season playing in the NHL.

We won’t know until the season starts, but I know we are hoping for the second option.

Who Starts?

If I had to take a guess at who starts, I would have to assume that It’ll be Nedeljkovic. Nedeljkovic has been with the organization and finished the remainder of the 2022 NHL season incredibly strong.