In Sunday's win over the New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings goaltender Cam Talbot made 18 saves and allowed just a single goal. In the Wings' 6-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Nov. 13, Talbot made 10 saves in 11 shots playing in relief of John Gibson.
Talbot has allowed four or more goals just twice this season across 10 games of action, eight of which have been starts. Overall, he's 7-2, with a 0.896 save percentage and a 2.71 GAA, plus a 0.625 quality starts percentage. Those are solid numbers for a goaltender in his age-38 season, and they're strong indicators that the Wings need to make him the number-one goaltender going forward.
Talbot has put up some epic performances so far this season, including a 38-save outing on Oct. 13 against the Toronto Maple Leafs and a 36-save effort on Oct. 30 against the Los Angeles Kings. He also held the Florida Panthers to one goal on Oct. 15.
Meanwhile, John Gibson is wearing the 'trade bust' label
Ideally, John Gibson would have picked up in Hockeytown where he left off last season in Anaheim. But Gibson, so far, is 4-5-1 on the season, with a 0.875 save percentage, a 3.31 GAA, and a 0.364 quality starts percentage. That alone is bad enough, and it's worth mentioning Gibson's role in Saturday night's meltdown vs. the Buffalo Sabres.
The Red Wings built a 4-1 lead, but couldn't hold the depleted Sabres in check. While it takes a team effort to blow a three-goal lead, it was up to Gibson to ultimately make sure the Red Wings held on, and he ended up allowing three unanswered goals before watching a fourth goal go into the net in overtime to seal the win for the Sabres.
Gibson has allowed four or more goals for the sixth time this season, and if you're doing the math, that's 54.5 percent of his starts. If you want your team to make the playoffs, you can't keep rolling with him. He's not a number-one goaltender, and right now, he looks like an awful fit for the Red Wings.
Injecting Cam Talbot as the number-one goaltender could help John Gibson
In 2024-25, Gibson enjoyed a resurgent season, with a 0.911 save percentage, a 2.77 GAA, and a staggering 0.679 quality starts percentage across 29 games. The decrease in workload seemed to help Gibson, who saw time in at least 45 games a year between the 2021-22 and 2023-24 seasons. In that span, he ended with a 0.898 save percentage, a 3.57 GAA, and a below-average 0.487 quality starts percentage.
While Gibson played for a rebuilding Ducks team, his numbers show that he struggled to help keep them in games. When the Ducks started showing signs of life in 2024-25 and Gibson took the eventual back seat to Lukas Dostal, he started playing decent hockey again.
Until Cam Talbot starts showing some wear, the crease needs to be his. Talbot is one of the league's oldest goaltenders, but he has been way more consistent than Gibson. Should he start at least two games a week and leave Gibson to rotate in for just one game, it could work in Gibson's favor, given the performance he managed last season in Anaheim.
This will give Talbot roughly another 40 starts in 2025-26 while Gibson takes the remaining 21 games. It's a timeshare that few in Detroit saw coming when the Wings first traded for Gibson, but following the first quarter of a season that is looking like the Wings are in contention, they need to go with the hot hand in Talbot.