The Free Press’s Ryan Ford offers a list of 12 free agent goalies that the Red Wings could consider to replace Jimmy Howard. Among them:
Thomas Greiss: Greiss took a step back this season, with a .913 save percentage and 2.74 GAA after posting a .927 percentage and 2.28 GAA in 2018-19. But the 34-year-old German knows how to share time in net; he started 39 games for the Islanders in 2018-19 as he and Lehner finished with the league’s lowest GAA, then started 28 times in 2019-20 while splitting the job with Semyon Varlamov. Greiss, 34, has just one season as a No. 1 goalie, going 26-18-5 with a .913 save percentage and 2.69 GAA in 2016-17 over 51 games with the Isles.
Jacob Markstrom: For his first six NFL seasons, Markstrom was a solid backup, with a 2.91 GAA and zero shutouts in 109 games with the Panthers and Canucks. But he has stepped it up — a 2.74 GAA and five shutouts in 163 games — since taking over the No. 1 spot in Vancouver in 2017, perhaps not coincidentally overlapping with the Canucks’ streak of three straight top-two rookie of the year finishes. Markstrom, 30, established his market with his first 10 starts of the playoffs, in which he went 7-3 with a .929 save percentage and only 25 goals allowed as the Canucks eliminated the Wild and the defending champion Blues. The Swede’s four games in the second round against Vegas were less impressive: 15 goals allowed.
Braden Holtby: The Capitals goalie has individual and team bona fides — he won the Vezina Trophy in 2016 and was runner-up in 2017, followed by a Stanley Cup victory in 2018. But he turned 31 in September and posted the worst numbers of his 10-season career in 2019-20 with a .897 save percentage, 3.11 GAA and no shutouts. Still, he has made the past five All-Star teams and had 25 wins in 47 starts in 2019-20; he could be looking for one last big paycheck, coming off a five-year $30.5 million deal with Washington.
