Red Wings Need Answers in Net Behind John Gibson

We’re several days beyond Groundhog Day, but even in February, the Red Wings goalie problems still feel like a game of whack-a-mole as they keep getting tripped up by old shadows.

They’ve known a rotating cast of netminders over the past few years. Yet every year, they find themselves facing the same issues with different faces popping in and out.  This year, they are trying to squash down inconsistent play and injuries as the trade deadline looms and rosters are frozen for the foreseeable future.

This year, they may regret not being able to keep someone they might’ve been able to keep as their backup goalie.

This again?

John Gibson is looking like one of the better netminders in the league right now while wearing the Winged Wheel, and there have even been some very quiet rumblings that he could receive votes for the Vezina Trophy. Steve Yzerman traded for Gibson in the offseason, sending Petr Mrazek to the Anaheim Ducks after acquiring Mrazek at the trade deadline last year to aid a floundering duo of Alex Lyon and Cam Talbot. After a shaky start to the season, Gibson has taken over as the true No. 1 netminder for Detroit this year, while Talbot is the backup.

The Red Wings’ approach to the goaltending situation the past few years, however, had been to ride the hot hand and hope that the backup was good enough to step in when the other guy needed a break for the next week and a half.

That worked to mixed results with Lyon and Talbot. Before that, it was Lyon and Ville Husso (with 25 games from James Reimer in the mix, too), and even before that, it was Alex Nedeljkovic. Injuries and inconsistent play marred their time with Detroit, and all of them walked in free agency after spending an average of two seasons in Detroit.

Talbot, meanwhile, in the second year of his contract with Detroit, hasn’t been bad in every game for the Red Wings, but he hasn’t been winning games for them either, with a .892 save percentage. Since Nov. 29, Talbot has started in only nine games and appeared in 10.

He’s won only two of those games, both decided in overtime. In fact, almost all nine of those starts went to overtime or a shootout.

Never wrong, just early

Gibson may be looking the best he has in a while, but that isn’t true for two former netminders who donned the winged wheel. In Detroit, both Lyon and Nedeljkovic struggled to establish a consistent pace in net, and while the two Alexs certainly had their moments with the Red Wings, it’s looking like they play their best hockey in blue.

After leaving the Red Wings after the 2022-23 season, Nedeljkovic established himself as a regular part of the rotation in net for the Pittsburgh Penguins, playing in 30+ games in both seasons in the Steel City. This year in San Jose, he’s been splitting time in net with Yaroslav Askarov, going 10-9-2 with the team in his starts with a .899 save percentage. He recently made headlines for duking it out with Sergei Bobrovsky.

Lyon meanwhile, after leaving Detroit, is having a very good season in Buffalo with the Sabres. The team had been cycling through a three-man rotation of Lyon, Colten Ellis, and Ukko-Pekka Luokkonen earlier this year. However, Lyon has emerged as the presumptive 1A, with 25 games started and a .913 sv% through it, better than either of his seasons with the Red Wings (.904 and .896 respectively). He’s 14-8-3 on the year, and his Sabres have been one of the hottest teams in the NHL over the last month, battling to climb the standings in the Atlantic. Lyon has won eight of his last ten starts.

What’s next for Detroit?

Detroit could’ve probably used a few of those performances over the last month, as they lost ground in the playoff standings as Gibson cooled and Talbot failed to secure a win since the end of December. As the playoffs approach for the first time in nearly 10 years, the only netminder Detroit has right now behind their starting duo is the (largely) unproven Sebastian Cossa, with one NHL start to his name.