Why Detroit Red Wings carrying three goaltenders is Steve Yzerman's best move this season
Signing Patrick Kane was a great addition for the Detroit Red Wings, but Steve Yzerman's best move this season is carrying three goaltenders.
Ville Husso, James Reimer and Alex Lyon give the Wings three NHL-tested goalies, and their combined cost is only $7.15 million. Husso earned the right to start the season in the top spot on the depth chart because of how well he played most of last year. Reimer started in the No. 2 spot, but after a mediocre performance in Stockholm against the Ottawa Senators, Lyon and Husso have rotated starts.
While making sure all of them get their repetitions in practices is challenging, having three quality goalies readily available is a significant benefit.
"It's not ideal, but I think it’s been a luxury of ours not being a cap team," coach Derek Lalonde said.
Husso, 28, is in the second season of a three-year deal that carries a $4.75 million cap hit; Reimer, 35, is on a one-year, $1.5 million deal, and Lyon, 31, is in the first season of a two-year, $1.8 million contract that carries a $900,000 cap hit.
The Wings decided to make room for three goalies after the circus of last season, when Alex Nedeljkovic's struggles forced the team at times to overwork Husso, and bringing in Magnus Hellberg didn't solve anything because he struggled, too. Now the Wings have three capable goalies.
Lalonde is right to call it a luxury; consider the Edmonton Oilers, who have the best player in the game in Connor McDavid, but are faced with an uphill battle to make the playoffs because of poor goaltending. Consider the Senators and Buffalo Sabres, Atlantic Division opponents who both have drafted higher than the Wings in recent years but sit below them in the standings in part because of goaltending issues.
As Yzerman put it when he signed Kane: Making the playoffs still will come down to goaltending holding up, and health.
Entering Saturday, Husso had a 3.65 goals-against average and .886 save percentage in 14 games; Reimer had a 2.30 GAA and .917 save percentage in six games, and Lyon a 1.61 GAA and .947 save percentage in five games. Husso has had some rough stretches at times, but he has also been abandoned by teammates some of that time, such as Thursday when the Wings skaters gifted the San Jose Sharks one odd-man rush after another and were so sloppy with the puck during a Detroit power play that the Sharks scored twice. Husso was also the reason the Wings weren't trailing by two or three goals after the first period, as the Sharks barraged him from the get-go.
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The three have stalls side-by-side in the locker room at Little Caesars Arena, with Husso in the middle. There is an easy camaraderie among them — "We all understand the situation," Reimer said. "You compete on the ice, but you're not slashing guys' tires off the ice." — which isn't necessarily a given.
Yzerman may appreciate this more than most: He was a player in 2003-04, when the bad blood between Dominik Hasek and Curtis Joseph was so tangible that Manny Legace had to sit in the middle as a buffer.
"Every day you have to come in and work hard and you like to push each other to be better," Husso said. "It’s good competition for us."
That echoed Lyon's thoughts: "We have a very healthy relationship between the three of us, which is important. I think there’s a very healthy line of you have to compete and push each other while also maintaining support for each other. Because at the end of the day, when one person is succeeding, it helps the others succeed. We’ve all been through it — it’s just very difficult when things aren’t going that well, so we are out here to support each other, push each other, and at the end of the day, the three of us are competing against ourselves. You’re always competing against your own individual person and just trying to be better than you were the day before."
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Reimer conceded not getting a start for two weeks has been disappointing, saying, "Any time you’re on the outside looking in, it’s not ideal. But it’s the old adage, control what you can control. You can control your attitude and your work ethic and so you just try to ace those."
That is what Lyon did through the first month-and-a-half of the season, relying on a career spent mostly in the minor leagues. (He had played 39 career NHL games prior to Detroit.) He really is a remarkable story: Two-and-a-half years ago, he thought his career was over after playing only 10 games combined in the NHL and AHL during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season. He considered going back to Yale to finish his degree (he estimates he's about five credits short). But he stuck with it and turned a stellar, if short, stretch last spring with the Florida Panthers — he earned the right to start their 2023 playoff on the strength of going 6-1-1 with a 1.87 GAA and .943 save percentage down the stretch run — into a multiyear deal with the Wings.
"As we all know, having a goalie that can play quality NHL minutes is very valuable in 2023," Lyon said. "I had a good market this summer. It’s funny because after the COVID year, I thought my career was over. I thought I was going to fizzle and go back to school. I’m excited to be here and happy to be in the moment and keep grinding."
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her @helenestjames.
Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.
Next up: Stars
Matchup: Red Wings (14-7-4 entering Saturday's late game) at Dallas (15-7-3).
Faceoff: 8 p.m. Monday; American Airlines Center, Dallas.
TV/radio: Bally Sports Detroit; WXYT-FM (97.1).
More online: Saturday's home game against Ottawa ended after this edition went to print. Visit freep.com/sports for the game result.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why Detroit Red Wings carrying three goalies is Yzerman's best move
