While Red Wings fans should be critical of Steve Yzerman’s ill-fated trade for Ville Husso from all the way back in 2022, a signing he made one season later is proving to be one of his best. That signing came by the way of an underrated goaltender named Alex Lyon, whose numbers until July 2023, well, weren’t that good.
Between 2018 and 2023, Lyon saw action in just 39 NHL games and started 31 of them, with his best season coming in 2022-23 with the Florida Panthers. But then again, that campaign came with one of the NHL’s better units that has since transformed into an elite team, so you can argue Lyon should have been putting up better numbers.
Still, a career 0.903 save percentage, one shutout, a 0.516 quality starts percentage, and a 3.05 GAA in that span weren’t inspiring numbers. Not bad, but not impressive, so if you weren’t expecting much out of Lyon last season, I don’t blame you.
Still, he notched two shutouts, posted a 3.05 GAA, and a 0.904 save percentage for a team that never seemed to have an answer defensively for opponents. Fast-forward to this season, and Lyon has done nothing but shine through four starts.
Alex Lyon is turning into one of Steve Yzerman’s best acquisitions
Steve Yzerman has made several blockbuster acquisitions in recent years, so it’s curious that anyone would include an underrated netminder like Alex Lyon in that fold. While it’s just a handful of starts and appearances for Lyon so far in 2024-25, right now, he’s looking like a dark horse for the Vezina Trophy if he keeps this up.
Through those four games and three starts, Lyon has an unprecedented 0.955 save percentage, 1.46 GAA, and a shutout. And if he continues this high-profile play, the Red Wings won’t need to score between four and five times a game just to keep pace with opponents.
No, Lyon shouldn’t be a full-time starter on the Wings, not with Cam Talbot there to provide supplementary work. But he should be given a higher priority over the aging Talbot, who in his age-37 season, is sporting a 3.31 GAA and a 0.907 save percentage. The latter isn’t a bad number, but we could all agree that we need to see more out of the longtime netminder.
That said, this is and should be Alex Lyon’s team for at least the near future. He’s hardly been anything short of outstanding, and what a find for Yzerman.