Detroit Red Wings missed out on getting Linus Ullmark

The Detroit Red Wings came within 1 point of making the playoffs this season for the first time in many years. You could look back at the season and find many missed opportunities to get that one point. The biggest opportunity that was missed in my opinion was when they blew a 4-goal lead against the San Jose Sharks, the worst team in the league. Ville Husso was in net that night and gave up 6 goals including the overtime winner. Although the team didn't help him much, he should have stopped at least one of those goals.

Husso came to the Red Wings to be the top netminder and had a hot start in his first season with the team. As the season went on he definitely fell off. Looking at Red Wings goalie stats on hockey-reference.com he ended the 22-23 season with a .896 SV% and 3.11 GAA. The 23-24 season did not go much better as Husso spent a lot of time injured and ended up with even worse stats posting a .892 SV% and 3.55 GAA. There is still 1 season left on his contract and with his recent injury trouble, it's hard to see him as the top goalie going into the 2024-2025 season.

In what turned out to be a brilliant move, Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman entered the season with the team carrying 3 goaltenders. Alex Lyon and James Reimer were both picked up in free agency last summer. I figured near the trade deadline, one of them would be moved to pick up a skater for a playoff push. Lyon ended up emerging as the number-one goalie after Husso's injury. He came on strong and put in some great performances.

The Red Wings ended up playing him too much in my opinion and his numbers started to taper off as the season wore on. This was his first season in the NHL playing more than 15 games and he ended up with 44 games played. Reimer was hot and cold, he had 2 shutouts and some other great games that would be followed up by games that were a disaster. He even blew another point for the Red Wings when he ducked a puck coming at him, which allowed a game-winning goal. It was hard to know which goalie you were going to get on any given night. Although these guys did a good job, the Red Wings need some help in net with Husso being so unreliable both in his play and his health.

Linus Ullmark would have been a solid goaltending addition for the Detroit Red Wings.

Linus Ullmark has been part of a very solid goaltending tandem for the Boston Bruins over the last few seasons, including their record-setting 2022-2023 season. He still had one year left on his contract with the Boston Bruins, however, the Ottawa Senators were able to acquire him in a trade this week giving Boston Joonas Korpisalo, Mark Kastelic, and a 2024 first-round draft pick. Neither Korpisalo nor Kastelic had a good season last year, they both had some pretty sad stats and I'm not sure why Boston accepted them in the trade.

I would like to think that the Red Wings could have landed Ullmark for Ville Husso, Jake Walman, and a first-round draft pick. They just let Walman and a second-round pick go to the San Jose Sharks for absolutely nothing, so I feel like this would have been a better deal. Ullmark had solid numbers last year and fantastic numbers in the 22-23 season posting a .938 SV% 1.89 GAA. In fact, he has never had a sub .900 SV% and only 2 seasons with a GAA at or above 3.00 in his 9 NHL seasons.

With Ullmark as the top goalie and Lyon as a backup, the Red Wings would have been in good shape for goaltending this season. Maybe they even could have kept Reimer on for one more year if the cap situation allowed. I'm just having a hard time believing in Husso at this point. Maybe there is something else big coming in the goalie department this year in free agency. With the baffling trade of Walman, all I can hope is that this is part of some master plan that I just can't figure out at the moment.