Despite trading a second-round pick and committing $6.4MM in cap space over the next two years in order to acquire veteran John Gibson, the Detroit Red Wings aren’t entering the 2025-26 season with firm plans in mind in terms of how they’ll allocate their goaltending starts. The Athletic’s Max Bultman relayed word from head coach Todd McLellan today who said about the team’s goaltending plans “We’re going to start by letting it play out,” adding “We’ll start the season and see where it takes us.”
McLellan specifically cited the possibility for injuries or one goalie having a hot streak as reasons for why trying to plan out a specific workload for his goaltenders would be “a pretty futile exercise.” Regardless of their plans at this stage, it’s clear the Red Wings’ position in net is considerably stronger than it was one year ago. Gibson is an accomplished veteran who, before Anaheim began its current rebuilding phase, could be counted amongst the league’s more reliable netminders, while Cam Talbot made it to the 2023-24 season’s All-Star game and posted a .913 save percentage across 54 games.
Some other notes as preseason begins in earnest around the NHL:
- With veterans Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen firmly entrenched as the New Jersey Devils’ starting and backup netminders, respectively, young goalie Nico Daws has become one of the names to watch in the preseason. The 24-year-old Swiss goalie is no longer exempt from waivers, and looks highly likely to end up exposed to all 31 other NHL clubs at some point in the preseason. As a result, the 2020 third-round pick’s preseason performances are particularly notable as he’s likely to be watched closely as a waiver claim option by teams in need of a goalie. To that end, Daws hasn’t had the strongest start to his preseason – he was tagged for four goals against on just 13 shots in his debut preseason appearance against the New York Rangers. Daws had a .939 save percentage in six NHL appearances in 2024-25 and had an .894 across 21 games in 2023-24. He’s a pending RFA with an $812.5K cap hit.
- The Athletic’s Scott Powers relayed the following injury updates from Chicago Blackhawks training camp – André Burakovsky was held out of practice due to a lower-body ailment, while Landon Slaggert and Brett Seney exited practice for undisclosed reasons. No further detail on the latter two players was provided, but head coach Jeff Blashill did indicate he “hoped to have more info on them tomorrow.” 23-year-old Slaggert in particular has a big opportunity ahead of him this training camp, as if he can manage to earn a spot next to Jason Dickinson on the team’s third line, he could find himself with the chance to play tough minutes against top competition in a shutdown capacity.
Re Redwings:
I realize this is just preseason, but there is a recurring nightmare in both the prospects game and the regular roster games. That there is almost a constant, unguarded, presence by the opponents in front of our goalie or the opponent getting in behind the D for a one on none chance. Believe 2 of 3 goals in Saturday’s game resulted in this same glaring defensive lapse. We’ve seen the same for almost a decade now, when will they get that hole fixed??????