5 players the Red Wings shouldn’t bring back next season
Yzerman needs to finally cut his losses with Ville Husso
Ville Husso is the classic example of why you don’t trade for a player following just one good season. Luckily for Steve Yzerman, the price to bring in Husso from the St. Louis Blues only cost him a third-round pick, but it also ended up with an AAV of $4.75 million regarding wasted cap space.
Husso is nowhere close to the goaltender who finished seventh for the Vezina following the 2021-22 season, and to be blunt, he’s been terrible throughout his nearly two seasons in Detroit. In 74 starts and 75 appearances, Husso has just 35 wins, an 0.895 save percentage, a 3.22 GAA, and a quality starts percentage of just 0.432. To be fair, he has logged four shutouts, but the consistency is nowhere near worth the price tag - especially with a whopping 22 ‘really bad starts.’
If Yzerman managed to trade him for even a late-round draft pick at this point, he should consider it a win. There are quite a few players in Detroit who shouldn’t return for 2024-25, not because they are bad players, but because Yzerman needs to make room for prospects. Unfortunately, Husso isn’t one of those players, and it’s time to get rid of him.
feed
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference, contract info provided by Cap Friendly)