The Red Wings made a solid investment in Ville Husso last summer, but Sportsnet’s Sonny Sachdeva doesn’t seem to take the team in front of #35–or his lack of a viable goaltending partner–into account while ranking Husso’s acquisition and signing by Detroit as a “Big Money Meh“:
Ville Husso, Detroit Red Wings
Acquired by Detroit for a 2022 third-round pick, signed to three-year, $14.25-million deal
The Red Wings found themselves in a similar position as the young Devils — a growing core of young talent, incremental growth, but in need of a more substantial step forward. Also similar was their question mark in the crease, the club having bet on Calder Trophy finalist Alex Nedeljkovic and getting limited success in 2021-22. In Husso, they seemed to find the perfect do-over for that strategy, the Blues netminder breaking out with a .919 season in St. Louis, earning a Vezina vote, and seemingly setting himself up to be the biggest name on the goalie free-agent market before the Red Wings snagged him. But it didn’t necessarily all go to plan. While Husso looked strong for stretches in his first season as a Red Wing, he ultimately left more to be desired by season’s end. There’s no question the defensive strength of the group in front of him played a role, and that he could still thrive as that group improves. Still, given the numbers he put up previously, and the fact that Detroit gave him more money than the two goalies above, the first chapter of Husso’s Red Wings tenure finished as something of a disappointment.
Continued; Husso wore down because Alex Nedeljkovic, Magnus Hellberg and Victor Brattstrom were unable to stabilize the Red Wings’ goaltending, and Husso was tremendously over-worked by the 55-game mark, and his fundamentals broke down.
He finished the season with a 26-22-and-7 record, with a 3.11 GAA and an .896 save percentage, which is obviously not good enough for a team that hopes to contend for a playoff spot–or at least playoff relevance–this upcoming season.
That’s not to say that his first full season as a starting goaltender couldn’t have gone better–there’s no doubt that he needs to reinforce his fundamentals this summer, work on not flip-flopping from side to side in the crease, and squeezing closed a couple of holes between glove-and-blocker-and-body…
But James Reimer and Alex Lyon’s respective performances in the Red Wings’ crease will help tell the tale as to whether Husso can succeed as a late-blooming starting goaltender, as will the state of the Red Wings’ revamped defense.
There is no doubt that Husso played in at least a couple of his 56 appearances while playing through injuries, and he’s going to have to stay healthy this upcoming season…
But it’s hard to keep every squeaky goal out of the net when the season is winding down, the wheels have come off the playoff train, and you’re playing through pain because the coaching staff doesn’t trust your back-up goaltenders.
