Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin ranks the NHL’s 32 goaltending tandems this morning, and while the Red Wings do not rank highly, Larkin offers some praise to John Gibson and Daniil Tarasov:
22. DETROIT RED WINGS: John Gibson & Daniil Tarasov
Gibson is seemingly doomed to spend almost his entire career laboring on subpar teams, overachieving and trying to keep them in the playoff hunt. Last season was among his strongest in years; it wasn’t a competition at all between him and [Cam] Talbot in the end. The Wings will eventually hand the keys to prospect Trey Augustine, but he needs significant AHL seasoning first, and Gibson should stay very busy. Tarasov is a serviceable backup with great size; he quietly started a career-best 31 games for Florida last season and outplayed Bobrovsky.
Continued; Talbot was awful last year, honestly, and not having a solid back-up yielded over-work for Gibson and a bit of a burnout, in my opinion. If Tarasov can step up, and/or if Michal Postava or Augustine can step in and earn the Wings a couple of wins here and there, the team will benefit.
