Taken15th overall in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, the Detroit Red Wings had incredible hopes that Sebastian Cossa would be the goaltender of the future. They were so optimistic that they traded up in the draft to grab him. Unfortunately, things haven't turned out the way the organization expected.
Cossa was always expected to be drafted in the first round. In fact, he was one of two goalies in 2021 who were expected to be drafted in the first round that season. His counterpart, Jesper Wallstedt was drafted five spots later by the Minnesota Wild.
Frank Seravalli: Re Sebastian Cossa: That's ending, he's not coming back to Detroit - Canucks Central (6/8)
— NHL Rumour Report (@NHLRumourReport) June 9, 2026
Cossa's development has been bumpy to say the least. So what went wrong? When did it go wrong? And - most importantly - why would the Red Wings seemingly give up on a goalie they were so high on for years?
Cossa's development hasn't been easy
Once drafted, Cossa played one more season with the Edmonton Oil Kings in the WHL, where he helped the team win the WHL Championship in the 2021-22 season. In the 2022-23 season, he was assigned to the Red Wings' ECHL Affiliate, the Toledo Walleye, where he played 46 games and finished the season with a .923 SV% and 2.56 GAA.
Since then, he's played with Detroit's AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, where he holds a .913 SV% and a 2.39 GAA in his three seasons with the team, including a brief stint with the Red Wings that saw him play one relief game that ended in a shootout victory.
So where did it all go wrong? The issues appear to have begun in the 2024-25 season. There was speculation that he would become the backup or at least the Red Wings' third string goalie for the 2024-25 season. Even with Ville Husso ahead of him in the AHL and a tough ending to the 2023-24 AHL season and playoffs, Cossa was seen as the next man up. He finally got his chance when both Alex Lyon and Cam Talbot went down with an injury, and both he and Husso were called up.
RED WINGS WIN & SEBASTIAN COSSA GETS THE W IN HIS 1ST CAREER NHL GAME! #LGRW 🐙 pic.twitter.com/VsswkYFRJ7
— Winged Wheel Podcast (@WingedWheelPod) December 10, 2024
This is where the issues started to show themselves. At the time, the Red Wings head coach was Derek Lalonde; if there's one thing you can say about how Lalonde coached the Red Wings, it was that he was consistent to a fault. He never changed the lineup, he never changed the system, and, unfortunately, he would never change his goaltender.
This, unfortunately, affected Cossa, as Lalonde would run Husso for several consecutive games despite middling-to-poor play. It wouldn't be until a December game against the Buffalo Sabres that he would finally make his debut. He came in to relieve Husso after the goaltender let in three goals on six shots in the first period. Cossa would go on to win the game in the shootout.
Cossa sat on the bench for a full week before Lalonde put him in mid-game because he had no other choice. He wouldn't put him in again during that stint. That would've been the perfect time to see how Cossa would perform at the NHL level; you can't determine a goalie in less than one game's worth of NHL minutes. Unfortunately, that would be all we'd see of Cossa in an NHL capacity outside of the odd one-day emergency call-up.
UPDATE: The #RedWings have assigned Sebastian Cossa to the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins. pic.twitter.com/vBDdNRtG48
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) March 5, 2026
Cossa's lack of deployment played a major issue
The next mistake the Red Wings made was not giving Cossa any games this season. He was called up at least three times in the 2025-26 season, and even though he was practicing with the team, he never got a game. They didn't even give him a shot when the team was out of playoff contention and the Griffins had already locked up their playoff spot. While he was in a bit of a rough patch at the time, he was still one of the best goaltenders in the AHL for the majority of the season.
Now, with the arrival of Michal Postava and Trey Augustine in Grand Rapids, Cossa finds himself as the likely odd man out in the goaltender pipeline. While he hasn't helped himself with his late-season issues the last two seasons, the Red Wings have not given him any opportunity at the NHL level. To make matters worse, his draft counterpart, Jesper Wallstedt, has already played an entire NHL season for the Minnesota Wild. He even started for the majority of their playoff run this season.
The fact of the matter is that the Red Wings mismanaged Cossa's development the last few seasons. Now, they're on the verge of losing not just their best goaltending prospect, but a goaltending prospect whom they traded up in the draft to acquire.
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