Breaking: A top 5 prospect decline The Detroit Red Wings trade proposal.

With Linus Ullmark, the Detroit Red Wings lost out on a quality goalie.

For the first time in many years, the Detroit Red Wings missed the playoffs by just one point this season. When you reflect on the season, there were a lot of chances to score that one point that were lost. The best chance they wasted against the poorest team in the league, the San Jose Sharks, was, in my perspective, lost by four goals. That evening, Ville Husso was in goal and gave up six goals, including the game-winning overtime goal. He should have prevented at least one of those goals, even though the team didn’t do much to assist him.

As the starting goalie when he joined the Red Wings, Husso got off to a quick start in his rookie campaign. He clearly deteriorated during the season. According to Red Wings goalie statistics on hockey-reference.com, he had a 3.11 GAA and a.896 SV% at the end of the 22–23 season. Husso’s 23–24 season did not start off any better because he was out for a large portion of the season and ended up with even poorer numbers—.892 SV% and 3.55 GAA. His contract only lasts for one season, and given his recent history of injuries, it’s doubtful that he will be the best goalie entering the 2024–2025 campaign.

Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman made the wise decision to start the season with three goaltenders on the squad. Both James Reimer and Alex Lyon were signed during the summer of free agency. As the trade deadline approached, I assumed one of them would be moved to acquire a skater in order to make a playoff push. With Husso injured, Lyon emerged as the team’s best goalie in the end. He performed brilliantly and came on strong.

I felt the Red Wings played him too much in the end, and as the season went on, his production began to decline. He played 44 games in the NHL this season, which was his first season of playing more than 15 games. Reimer was hot and cold; he recorded two shutouts and had some fantastic games interspersed with disastrous ones. He even cost the Red Wings another point when he stopped a puck that was heading toward him, allowing the opposition to score the winning goal.

It was difficult to predict which goalie you would see on any given night. Despite the excellent work these players did, the Red Wings need some assistance in goal because Husso is so inconsistent in both his play and his health.

The Detroit Red Wings would have benefited greatly from adding Linus Ullmark as a goaltender.
Over the past three seasons, Linus Ullmark has been a part of the Boston Bruins’ very good goaltender combination, which included their record-setting 2022–2023 campaign. Though he was still bound to the Boston Bruins for one more season, the Ottawa Senators were able to acquire him this week in exchange for Mark Kastelic, Joonas Korpisalo, and a 2024 first-round selection pick from Boston. I’m not sure why Boston took them in the trade because neither Korpisalo nor Kastelic had a great season the previous year. They both had some fairly dismal numbers.