Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses the biggest question regarding one Ville Husso going into the 2024-2025 season–the netminder’s health.
Husso suffered two separate “lower-body injuries” (read: groin injuries) last season, and the Red Wings are evidently concerned enough about Husso’s durability that the team re-signed Alex Lyon and inked free agent Cam Talbot to a two-year contract (and the Wings also brought in Jack Campbell to push Sebastian Cossa in Grand Rapids).
As Duff notes, Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman was blunt about the team’s concerns for Husso’s health:
The reason for acquiring such goaltending depth, quite frankly, is because they simply don’t know whether they can count on Husso. Yzerman frankly admits this to be a legitimate concern.
“Yeah, significantly, honestly,” Yzerman said. “You go into a season with your two goaltenders, and a guy you’re projecting to play a lot is unhealthy. It’s a huge hole to fill at the start of the season.
“So we decided we’re gonna go get another goaltender. And we’ll let training camp go through we’ll see how Ville’s health is and and then make a decision at some point.”
Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde insists that the team believes in Husso, caveats about his health included:
“It’s too bad last year on the injuries because he had a really good offseason,” Lalonde recalled of the team’s 2023 training camp. “He came in leaner, probably had his best summer he’s had off the ice. So I think it’s something he can build on.
“The good thing about Ville is he’s also excited about the competition. Credit to our management group. With three goalies last year it’s very unique to the league. It’s certainly not ideal in some situations, when you talk about practice time, obviously game time. But it literally saved our season last year. I think we’re going to start with that same mentality this year.”
Having a “three-headed goalie monster” is definitely “not ideal” in terms of practicing and keeping three goaltenders game-ready, but it definitely appears that the Wings would rather hedge their bets about their goaltenders, and let the regular season’s grind determine their net-minding hierarchy.
To be honest, the Red Wings’ exhibition schedule is such a beast of 8 games over the course of 12 nights that I’ll be surprised if the Wings don’t suffer some sort of injury in goal, even if/when the coaches spread out the starts between Husso, Lyon, Talbot, Campbell and Cossa (with Jan Bednar and Gage Alexander possibly getting half-a-game as well).
Somebody will get bumped or fallen onto “accidentally on purpose,” and while I’m not certain whether the Wings will carry three goaltenders all season long, the exhibition game is all about survival, and redundancy in goal is part of that equation.
