John Gibson and Cam Talbot can still produce, and they both showed it last season. But they're not the netminders they used to be, and both dealt with injuries throughout 2024-25. For Gibson, it led to 29 appearances. Talbot entered the crease for 47 games, but at 38, it's okay to ask how much ice time he can handle.
If the Red Wings had a tandem like this five years ago, they would have ended their playoff drought, with Gibson and Talbot both at the top of their games. Gibson especially deserved credit then, since the Anaheim Ducks were on a quick decline and he singlehandedly kept them in games.
This isn't saying Gibson and Talbot will underperform, and if Gibson stays healthy and locks down the No. 1 job all year, then Steve Yzerman made an outstanding trade last summer. But if his and Talbot's injury woes continue, or if they can't come in and play close to what we saw from them in their primes, Detroit's in trouble.
Detroit Red Wings need perfection from John Gibson and Cam Talbot
Should Gibson and Talbot avoid injury, they're playing behind a better, but still vulnerable, Red Wings team. Mason Appleton and James van Riemsdyk bring more of a defensive presence to the forward group, and Carter Mazur is another one to watch. But van Riemsdyk's another one past his prime, Appleton is a two-year stopgap, and Mazur has had next to no ice time in the NHL.
There are a lot of question marks up front, even with more potential. And the same goes for the blue line, with Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson slated to take the next step in their development as NHL defensemen.
The third pairing is where things get sketchy, with a part-timer in Travis Hamonic, to underachievers in Justin Holl and Erik Gustafsson, and a wild card in Jacob Bernard-Docker. Not the kind of question marks you want on the bottom pairing, and they're issues that could plague the Wings all season.
With so much uncertainty in the bottom half of the forward group and on the bottom pairing, Wings fans better hope the 2020 versions of John Gibson and Cam Talbot are still in there somewhere. If they want to see their team bust through this playoff drought, they need consistency from those two every time they step between the pipes.
Red Wings fans won't want to think about the worst-case scenario
If injuries strike Gibson or Talbot, the Red Wings could scan the waiver wire and see if they can find a stopgap in the net, but the likelier scenario is that they'll call up Sebastian Cossa. The same Sebastian Cossa who let the Buffalo Sabres score four times on him in the preseason during a game in which he looked outclassed from the initial puck drop.
Injuries could also lead to intense inconsistency in the net, something reminiscent of last season when neither Talbot, Alex Lyon, Ville Husso, nor, later, Petr Mrazek, looked capable of claiming the crease for themselves.
A playoff drought extending to its 10th season is on the radar if fans see another carousel of netminders like they did in 2024-25. For some Wings fans, that could be enough for a growing number of them to start calling for Steve Yzerman's job.