The Red Wings’ media corps weighed in on the Red Wings’ acquisition of Ville Husso from the St. Louis Blues, and here’s MLive’s Ansar Khan’s take on the deal…
[GM Steve Yzerman] expects Husso, 27, and Alex Nedeljkovic, 26, to form a strong tandem.
“We certainly like the season that Ville had,” Yzerman told media at the draft. “We think he can come in and solidify the tandem with Alex. We think we’ve got two guys we can put in net every night and give us a reasonably good chance to win.”
Husso (6-3, 209) went 25-7-6, with a 2.56 goals-against average and .919 save percentage for the Blues. He wasn’t as effective in the playoffs, however, going 2-5 with a 3.67 GAA and .890 save percentage.
“We feel comfortable that he’ll make us a better team,” Yzerman said. “We had the cap space, and the contract isn’t seven years or anything like that. It’s a very reasonable term for us. There’s not a lot of goalies out there and we felt we better get one. We need depth at that position. We thought it was a worthwhile decision to make.”
The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan’s take on the trade…
“There are more teams that need goalies than actual goalies available,” Yzerman said. “That’s the purpose of the trade.”
Husso is 27 and Nedeljkovic 26, with Nedeljkovic under contract for another year with a $3 million salary cap hit (Nedeljkovic can be an unrestricted free agent next summer). The Wings aren’t overpaying for two capable NHL goalies, can still extend Nedeljkovic if they desire next summer, and 2021 first-round draft pick Sebastian Cossa has time to develop.
“We have two guys who we feel can play in the league and have two guys, albeit based on somewhat of limited action in the NHL, they’ve shown they can win games,” Yzerman said.
Husso, 27, is 6-foot-3 209 pounds, and this past season took over the starter’s job in St. Louis during stretches in favor of slumping Jordan Binnington.
Husso was 25-7-6 with a 2.56 goals-against average and .919 save percentage in 40 games. In the playoffs, Husso was 2-5 while starting six of the seven games he appeared in, with a 3.67 GAA and .890 SVS.
And The Athletic’s Max Bultman offered the most substantive take on the Wings’ decision to add Husso to their goaltending mix:
New head coach Derek Lalonde said the two will share the net, and that he has an open mind coming into this goaltending situation. And, given the nature of the position, that makes perfect sense. The exact split of games can change over the course of the year due to hot hands and injuries.
“We think we’ve got two guys that we can put in the net every night and give us a reasonably good chance to win,” Yzerman said.
But the reality is, Husso is now making more than 150 percent of what Nedeljkovic is. Even acknowledging the situation will assuredly be fluid over the course of the year, it makes you wonder if the new guy now enters camp as the slight favorite — though I did find it interesting Yzerman went out of his way to note: “It doesn’t prevent us — signing (Husso’s) contract — (from) at some point extending Ned’s contract at all. We’re in a position to do that.” There’s currently one year on Nedeljkovic’s contract, so perhaps that comment indicates Detroit does indeed see this as a true tandem situation going forward.
I also wonder how this motivates Nedeljkovic, who is a true competitor between the pipes. Lalonde noticed that after speaking with him in the last week, and said Nedeljkovic isn’t happy with how his season went last year. And his new coach thinks there’s still room for growth in him.
Suffice to say: There’s now a lot of intrigue in Detroit’s crease.
