Opinion: Alex Lyon is the Best Goalie on the Detroit Red Wings Roster

Alex Lyon has played himself into the position of being the best goalie on the Detroit Red Wings roster right now. However, the team still needs to find the goalie of their future. The Red Wings have six goalies signed to the team. Lyon has made several saves recently as the team has struggled on the power play. During a game against the New York Islanders, Patrick Kane scored his first goal of the season on the first shot of the game. After a statistic correction the following day, the Red Wings were credited with 10 shots during this game, the fewest shots in a win by the team since the 1959-60 season.

After not being drafted into the NHL, Lyon signed with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2020. In his first season with the Flyers, Lyon played in 11 games, starting seven, and had a record of 4-2-1. In these 11 games, Lyon gave up 22 goals on 232 shots for a .905 save percentage and he had a goals-against average of 2.75. In the next three seasons with the team, Lyon played in the same number of games for the Flyers before signing with the Carolina Hurricanes in July of 2021. Lyon was part of the Florida Panthers team that won the Stanley Cup in 2023.

Lyon also had an impressive AHL career with the three franchises he played for from 2016-24. While playing for the Chicago Wolves during the 2021-22 AHL season, Lyon won the Harry “Hap” Holmes Memorial Award, given to the goaltender(s) on the team which allows the fewest goals against per game in the regular season.

Lyon is in the second year of his two-year, $1.8 million contract that he signed with the team on July 1, 2023. Ville Husso is another goalie on the Red Wings roster who earned the start on the opening night of the team’s season against the Pittsburgh Penguins. After this game, general manager of the Red Wings, Steve Yzerman, placed Husso on waivers to send a message to the team. Husso cleared waivers and was assigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins of the American Hockey League.

Before the start of this season, Yzerman said that in an ideal world, Husso would start 50 games for the Red Wings. For the time being, Husso will remain in Grand Rapids. During a recent game against the Manitoba Moose, Husso made 22 saves in a 1-0 win. If nothing else, this game reminded Husso that he is a capable goalie who is not the player who lost to the Penguins on the first night of the season.

Head coach of the Red Wings, Derek Lalonde, liked the effort that his team put forth against the Islanders. The habits that the team is displaying are what Lalonde wants to see on a night-in and night-out basis. “That was greasy and gutty. There’s going to be nights throughout your season that you’re not going to have legs, and I knew it early on we didn’t. I tried to manage it. I thought we at least managed the puck a little bit better.

All these goalie moves have been made as the Red Wings goalie prospect Sebastian Cossa progresses through the team’s prospect pipeline. What can be called into question is the amount of draft capital used to draft Cossa. Cossa was drafted by the Red Wings with the 15th overall pick in the 2021 NHL entry draft. So, what wound up with the picks that were traded to draft Cossa?

Whether Lyon remains the Red Wings’ number one goalie for the remainder of the 2024-25 season hinges on whether the team can prevent the opposition from outshooting them by such a wide margin. According to StatMuse, the Red Wings have given up almost 34.5 shots per game so far this season, which is the second-most in the NHL. Lyon started four games for the Red Wings during the first week of the 2024-25 NHL season.

The Red Wings had two first-round picks in 2021. The second was acquired from the Washington Capitals in the Anthony Mantha trade at the 2021 trade deadline. In this trade, the Capitals also received left-winger Jakub Vrana from the Red Wings. This draft pick was sent to the Dallas Stars for the 15^th overall pick. The Stars drafted right-shooting center Wyatt Johnston with the 15^th overall pick, who scored 24 goals as a rookie in 2022-23 and 32 goals in 2023-24.