The Low Bar – Ville Husso plays slightly less, and the Detroit Red Wings reap the benefits.
This kind of campaign would see Husso play less frequently, which ought to prevent him from wearing down like he did a year ago. The Helsinki, Finland, played in just one fewer game in 2022-23 than he did in the previous two seasons combined. That turned out to be too big of an ask for the netminder, and his play trended downward as the months rolled by.
Reimer is the kind of secondary option who could comfortably make around 35 or 40 starts (he’s been known to go on heaters from time to time), which would put Husso in a much more comfortable range. Consider this: through his first 40 games last year, he posted a 21-13-5 record to go along with a .904 save percentage in all situations. After that, he went 5-9-2 and a .872 save percentage. That’s a drastic difference, so the Detroit Red Wings are likely hoping to keep Husso around 40 starts.
Hovering a handful of games over .500 would be a reasonable low bar for him to clear, as would an all-situations save percentage in the low .900s.