Should Red Wings Have Gone After Ullmark?

As the clock was ticking down to zero hour of Friday’s NHL trade deadline, there was consternation among the Detroit Red Wings faithful.

Wasn’t there more that GM Steve Yzerman could’ve done to ensure the Red Wings would be playoff contenders?

As a matter of fact, yes there was. But it wasn’t something he could’ve achieved last week. Last summer was when the deal needed to go down.

In retrospect, it would’ve done the Red Wings a world of good had the club been the one opting to make a move for goaltender Linus Ullmark last summer.

Ullmark was turning aside 48 of 49 shots Monday as the Ottawa Senators were edging the Red Wings 2-1. Detroit is now four points out of a playoff spot with 18 games to play.

“We ran into a goalie that had a career night and unfortunately for us we couldn’t find a way to beat him,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said.

The Senators sent Mark Kastelic, Joonas Korpisalo and a 2024 first round draft pick to the Boston Bruins to acquire the 2022-23 Vezina Trophy winner. Then they signed Ullmark to a four-year, $33-million contract.

Was it worth it? Ottawa is looking like a playoff team. The Red Wings are not.

 Red Wings Goaltending Not Elite

Perhaps with goalie prospects Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine on the way up the pipeline, Yzerman didn’t want to block their paths to the net with a long-term deal for a veteran goalie.

It would be incorrect to categorize the Detroit netminding tandem of Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon as sub par. It would be equally incorrect to describe their puckstopping feats this season as sensational.

Lyon and Talbot haven’t been the cause behind many Red Wings losses this season. Then again, they also haven’t been stealing games with out of this world performances. There are reasons why both are journeymen NHL netminders.

In fact, were the Red Wings of the opinion that they were getting sterling goaltending from the Talbot-Lyon duo, there would’ve been no need to acquire another journeyman goalie in Petr Mrazek on trade deadline day.

When a team is carrying three goalies, it’s often because they don’t know that they have a No. 1 goalie.

There’s no question who that guy is in Ottawa. And Monday, in the biggest game of the season for both teams, no one was looming larger over the end result than Ullmark.