Red Wings make extremely unpopular call up on an emergency basis.

Red Wings forced to make a tough call.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Red Wings make extremely unpopular call up on an emergency basis.
Chris Szagola/CSM/Zuma

The Detroit Red Wings have been forced to make an emergency call up and unfortunately it is a move that they likely would have preferred not to make.

According to an official announcement from the Detroit Red Wings organization the team has called up goaltender Calvin Pickard from the American Hockey League under "emergency conditions." Pickard of course has been playing down in the AHL with the Grand Rapids Griffins, the Red Wings AHL affiliate team, due to the fact that he had some truly catastrophic performances for the Red Wings this season. The Red Wings also announced a corresponding move by sending goaltender Kaden Fulcher down to the ECHL where he will join the Toledo Walleye. 

Pickard has been nothing short of terrible for the Red Wings thus far in the 2019 - 2020 campaign and in fact he has been so bad that you could easily argue that he has been the worst goaltender in the entire National Hockey League this season. Pickard appeared in just 6 games for the Red Wings this season but currently boasts by far the worst save percentage in the league at .797. Those are the kind of numbers you simply do not see in the NHL, especially not over a 6 game stretch, and it truly speaks to just how awful Pickard has been as of late. He also currently holds a 5.46 goals against average which is only the 4th worst in the league, but again that is a truly damning condemnation of how rough of a year it has been for the 27 year old netminder.

Unsurprisingly Red Wings fans do not want to see Pickard back between the pipes, that is unless they are among the contingent of fans that are hoping to see the team tank in the hopes of securing a high end draft pick this year. To offer some balance here Pickard has appeared in 26 games at the AHL level this season and has performed better there, recording a 2.87 goals against average and a .903 save percentage over that stretch of play. Although that is an improvement those are still not the kind of numbers that would normally get you another look at the NHL level, especially not after such a bad start. 


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