Red Wings reveal plan for Ville Husso in 2023-24
Last year was his first full year as a starter.
HockeyFeed
It was an up and down season in 2022-23 for Detroit Red Wings goaltender Ville Husso, who established a new career high in games played with 56. Upon his acquisition by Detroit from the St. Louis Blues, he would soon upstage now former Detroit goalie Alex Nedeljkovic as the starter in Detroit's crease, especially thanks to strong early season play.
However, Husso's numbers began to dip a bit as the season went on and Detroit's defensive problems continued. Ultiamtely, he'd finish the year with a goals against average north of 3.00 and .896 save percentage. And while several of his Red Wings teammates headed overseas to play in the IIHF World Championship, Husso decided against it, instead focusing on his offseason training in an effort to hit the ground running in 2023-24.
"I started really good last year," Husso said. "I think that’s the one thing I want to take for this year as well. And then at the end, I think I wasn’t on a level that I wanted to be and needed to be, so that’s something that I want to improve this year. But the start of the year was good and I just want to have a good start this year, as well."
With both Nedeljkovic and Magnus Hellberg having moved on to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Red Wings were in need of goaltending depth behind Husso. New to the team this season is veteran James Reimer, who spent the last two years on the bottom-feeding San Jose Sharks. Additionally, Alex Lyon has made his way north from the Florida Panthers; he initially started both of Florida's Round 1 postseason games against the Boston Bruins in the spring.
What kind of workload can Husso expect this year? Just ask head coach Derek Lalonde, who like Husso, is entering his second year with Detroit.
"We think highly of Ville," Lalonde said. "When I talked about him being a No. 1, we're going to give him a No. 1 workload. In an ideal world, we'd love to give him anywhere between 56 to 58 starts. But, we'll keep evaluating that as the season goes on."
"We want both to get some good opportunities and looks in the exhibition," Lalonde said. "James' body of work is a lot more extensive, but full trust on Alex. A good job from our management team of just adding depth at every position."
Tonight, the Red Wings will be taking on the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena in their second exhibition contest.
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