Yesterday morning, MLive’s Ansar Khan attempted to determine what the Red Wings’ forward lines might look like come opening night, and this morning, Khan examines his probable defensive pairs and goaltending hierarchy.
I think that Khan’s got the goaltending down pat, but that’s a little easier to say in mid-July than to watch shake out in September:
1. Cam Talbot
2. Alex Lyon
3. Ville Husso
Lyon didn’t play the first five weeks of the season as the No. 3 goalie and ended up appearing in more games (44) than any Detroit goalie due to Husso’s injuries. Uncertainty about whether Husso will be healthy and how effective he’ll be prompted the Red Wings to sign Talbot, who’s coming off a strong regular season and can handle a heavy workload at age 37. A lighter workload (25-30 games) should be good for Lyon. Having a No. 3 goalie – if that’s where Husso lands on the depth chart – at a $4.75 million cap hit is far from cost-effective, but the club’s hands could be tied. Husso probably isn’t tradeable and sending him to Grand Rapids would not provide much cap relief ($1.15 million).
Continued (paywall, sorry); at this point, it really does appear that the Wings will award Talbot the #1 job and utilize Lyon as the team’s back-up goaltender.
I don’t really know what will happen with Husso, because the Wings would have to eat a big portion of his salary to move him.
