Cup of Khan: On Mrazek’s recent play

MLive’s Ansar Khan tends to post feature articles at 6 AM. This morning, he discusses several Red Wings-related topics, including the fact that Petr Mrazek’s making a stand in the Wings’ crease:

The Red Wings will look to move one of their goaltenders — Jimmy Howard or Mrazek, whoever garners the better return – but that might not be possible with few playoff-contending clubs seeking help in net.

Mrazek is 4-1-1 in his past six starts and has a 1.30 goals-against average and .958 save percentage over his past seven appearances. Howard has played better than Mrazek most of the season, but suddenly, Mrazek (2.75 GAA, .914 save percentage) has better overall numbers than Howard (2.82 GAA, .911 save percentage).

If Mrazek continues to play well, he’ll not only get the bulk of the starts, he’ll likely get qualified. If the Red Wings aren’t able to move either goalie between now and training camp, they could start 2018-19 with the Howard-Mrazek tandem again.

Khan continues, discussing the Bruins’ dominance over the Wings, as well as possible trades with the Islanders and Capitals.

 

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, when MLive hired me to work their SlapShots blog, and I joined Kukla's Korner in 2011 as The Malik Report. I'm starting The Malik Report as a stand-alone site, hoping that having my readers fund the website is indeed the way to go to build a better community and create better content.

12 thoughts on “Cup of Khan: On Mrazek’s recent play”

  1. The problem is who do the the Wings have other than Howard and Mrazek? I think the best thing for all is to move Howard in the off season and take away the pressure of having a proven starter waiting to take Mrazek’s job away. I think that might be what he needs to straighten out his head and then the Wings have a solid starter to get through the rebuild and maybe beyond.

    1. That’s the question I have as well. Coreau is at least an NHL back-up despite his rocky rookie season, but is he a starter? And where do the Wings go after there? McCollum and Machovsky aren’t overwhelmingly stellar, and the rest of the Wings’ goaltending prospects are years away.

  3. I think a good course of action, if Mrazek continues to play well, would be to sign him to a short one or two year deal and see if he can demonstrate consistency over the course of an entire season. If so, then offer him the four year deal when he is 27 or 28.

  4. I said several weeks ago that Kenny won’t trade either goalie. Howard is coming back. And Kenny will leave the next GM to decide whether or not to qualify Mrazek. Obviously at this point you MUST qualify him, buying yourself another year to evaluate him and decide whether you want to sign him to a longer extension. What that means is $6M Green is replaced next year by a $1M prospect (Hronek, Cholowski?) because with another $10M tied up in goalies (thanks Kenny!) we’ll need to allocate most of Green’s money to re-sign our RFAs. Dumping Nyquist or Tatar would help, but trades are hard!

      1. Keep money if necessary but trade Nyquist if he’ll agree to move. He should have been traded before his clause kicked in last summer. No need to have both Nyquist and Tatar.

        Both are in the way of younger players who have to play now, not over-ripen and never find their grooves, but one is needed to help bridge the age gap. If Tatar is the player teams want, then trade him. At this point I have no preference.

        One thing KH proved without question is how much of a failure his over-ripening strategy has been for this team. Players come in too old to adjust before they hit their primes and never have a chance to grow at the NHL level into their projected talent.

        At least Larkin, Mantha, Athanasiou and Bertuzzi are playing in Detroit instead of GR, but it’s time to make room to start getting good looks at other prospects with next season in mind. Just trading Green isn’t enough, though if he can’t be moved at least Booth can be sent down, so there’s some positive there.

  5. I surely hope the FS conjecture on keeping both goalies doesn’t happen. But KH has demonstrated somewhat convoluted thinking.
    No really “right” answer, but the JH cap space can probably be utilized better.

  6. Mrazek “Suddenly”STARTS PLAYING BETTER.????

    No Games (IceTime)
    Media rattling his cage (see HSJ) Rumours/BS

    Howard will be 35 next year. KH waiting until he breaks down. Side to side is far too slow

    This is a Rebuild like it or not, Mrazek is young and can be part of it,,,Howard Doubtful.

    “Well, TSN’s Bob McKenzie is saying that Tatar and Nyquist may be available…” One of them said KH has been shopping them for a couple, no suckers…Goose might be looked if he continues his good (small) play. Tats , sorry, far too inconsistent.

    Trading one would be of great Cap Reduction (another 10 team NTC)

  7. TB beat writer says Detroit scouts were at the TB/Edm game last night with 7 other team scouts.

    Wonder what team/players they were watching.

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