The Detroit Red Wings are looking to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in seven seasons. For this to happen, it will take another star-caliber season from 35-year-old Patrick Kane. After having hip-resurfacing surgery, Kane joined the Red Wings to play with his friend Alex DeBrincat. Kane shocked the NHL world by scoring 20 goals and adding 27 assists in 50 games played. This season led the Red Wings to re-sign Kane to a one-year contract worth a base salary of $4 million and up to $2.5 million in incentives.
Perhaps the most electrifying goal that Kane scored was the game-winner against his former team, the Chicago Blackhawks, in overtime. The story going into that game was Kane’s return to Chicago, where he had played over 1,100 games before being traded to the New York Rangers. This goal came amid the Red Wings playoff push. The Blackhawks were one of the worst teams in the NHL during the 2023-24 season as the team continues to rebuild its roster. Connor Bedard was drafted by the Blackhawks with the first pick in the 2023 NHL entry draft and could one day replace Kane as the best scorer in the team’s history.
The youngest goalie currently on the Red Wings’ roster, of which there are four, is Ville Husso, at the age of 29. Husso is unlikely to be the starting goalie for the Red Wings during the 2024-25 season, as he came down with a lower-body injury against the Anaheim Ducks in December. Husso came down with the same injury in a game against the Edmonton Oilers in the middle of February. During a conditioning start with the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL, Husso injured himself yet again.
This does not mean that Husso will not try to make his way back to the Red Wings’ lineup. “It was a really tough year injury-wise, and I guess at the end, it was even mentally [tough] too,” Husso said. “It’s hard not to play. And we were trying everything to come back, maybe a little earlier than we were supposed to, but unfortunately it didn’t work. But I’ll be healthy for next year and I don’t think we need any surgeries or anything.”
Alex Lyon and Jack Campbell are two of the other potential starting goalies on the Red Wings’ roster, along with Cam Talbot. All three of these goalies are over the age of 30 and should be able to somewhat stabilize the Red Wings’ goalie situation. This is something that general manager Steve Yzerman said that he wanted to do. Lyon had a record of 21-18-5 in 44 games played for the Red Wings during the 2023-24 season with a 3.05 goals-against average and a save percentage of .904.
Cam Talbot played in 54 games for the Los Angeles Kings in 2023-24 finishing with a 27-20-6 record and had a goals-against average of 2.50 and a .913 save percentage. Campbell, a Port Huron, Michigan native, had limited playing time during this season for the Oilers. Campbell’s one-year, two-way contract worth less than $1 million along with his age makes it likely that he plays the year in Grand Rapids only being called up in emergency cases.
These three goalies are on the roster as two goalies continue to progress through the Red Wings’ organization. Sebastian Cossa is a goalie who played the 2023-24 season with the Griffins, and the team needs to pan out. In 40 games played for the Griffins during the 2023-24 season, Cossa had a 2.41 goals against average and a save percentage of .913. Drafted by the Red Wings with the 15th pick in the 2021 NHL entry draft, Cossa is a large goalie that the Red Wings used a lot of draft capital to move up in the draft to select the Hamilton, Ontario native.
The Red Wings traded the 23rd pick, along with the number 48 and number 138 in the 2021 draft, to the Dallas Stars in exchange for the number 15 overall pick to draft Cossa. The Stars drafted forward Wyatt Johnston with the 23rd pick and defenseman Artyom Grushnikov with the 48th overall pick. While Johnston has already played three seasons in the NHL, Grushnikov and Jack Bar have not made it to the NHL.
All of this is not to say that the Red Wings’ roster is not full of veteran players. Two of the most important players to the 2023-24 Red Wings were forward Lucas Raymond and defenseman Moritz Seider. Raymond almost single-handedly dragged the Red Wings to a playoff spot by putting up a career-high in both goals and assists, with 31 and 41, respectively. These two players are not currently under contract, but Yzerman has said that re-signing them is a priority.
If the Red Wings are going to make it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs these veteran players, as well as the younger Red Wings such as Seider and Raymond, are going to need to produce. It is thought that Edvinsson will join the Red Wings for his first full season with the team. At only 21-years-old there will be bumps and bruises as the Onsala, Sweden adjusts to the NHL level.
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