I thought this was kind of interesting: NHL.com’s fantasy hockey staff is rather bullish on the Red Wings’ offseason moves, issuing an optimistic prediction in its “Fantasy Spin” column:
The Detroit Red Wings acquired goalie Ville Husso from the St. Louis Blues and signed him to a three-year contract, giving them a much stronger goalie tandem with him and Alex Nedeljkovic this season. Husso, one of the fantasy breakout goalies of last season, loses some fantasy appeal from the move but remains among the fantasy top 25 rankings at the position for this season.
Husso was 25-7-6 with a .919 save percentage and two shutouts this regular season, tied for the sixth-best even-strength SV% in the NHL (.919; minimum 40 games) and had a shutout in the Blues’ playoff opener against the Minnesota Wild. Even though Husso lost the starting job to Jordan Binnington in the postseason, he still has plenty of staying power at 27 years old and is now ranked ahead of Nedeljkovic in the fantasy top 250 after the trade to Detroit.
The Red Wings, who hired new coach Derek Lalonde on June 30, are rebuilding but have a strong young core, led by elite center Dylan Larkin and rookie standouts from last season in Calder Trophy winner Moritz Seider and forward Lucas Raymond. The signings of valuable forwards David Perron, Andrew Copp and Dominik Kubalik in free agency and potential addition of top prospect Simon Edvinsson could also help the Red Wings improve and challenge for the Stanley Cup Playoff spot as early as this season.
Continued; again, here’s hoping that the Wings compete for a playoff spot this evening.
