Red Wings goaltender Alex Lyon earned a Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy nomination Friday, a merit reflecting his resilient and winding hockey journey
Red Wings goaltender Alex Lyon earned a Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy nomination Friday, a merit reflecting his resilient and winding hockey journey
At times in his hockey career, Alex Lyon thought about giving it up. The goaltender thought about where his next contract might come from. He thought about his transcripts from three years at Yale.
He thought about what comes next.
“I think everybody has those thoughts when you go through a bad stretch of the season or you get injured or something,” Lyon said. “You’re like, ‘What am I gonna do? Do I have any other useful life skills?’ Not really. I’m pretty good at stopping the puck, that’s about it.”
As self-deprecating as Lyon’s joke might be, this season, stopping the puck has been enough to keep him in the game he loves. Lyon went from the Red Wings’ third-string backup to their backbone starter. His 38 games played this season already doubled his career total and so did his win count. For that reason, alongside his career resilience through AHL years, taxi squads and backup battles, the Professional Hockey Writers Association announced Lyon as its Detroit nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. The trophy is annually awarded to the NHL player who "best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey."
“It really makes me feel because it’s not even just the first 40 games. It’s been a long path for me and there’s been a lot of times when I didn’t necessarily know what was gonna happen. I guess I just feel proud because I just always tried to fight and continued to do the right things and continued to try to have a good attitude, and it was really difficult at times.”
Optimism isn’t the easiest mindset amid AHL bus trips and the precarity of finding a new contract. Lyon joked that this season has been one of his easiest, with all the support and amenities of the NHL to lean on. Way back, those resources weren’t always there.
Lyon grew up in Baudette, Minnesota, a town of 900 known for its walleye fishing and separated from Canada only by the Rainy River. The nearest Walmart was two hours away, he estimates, and his high school graduating class was about 35 kids. He played three varsity sports, including hockey, at local Lake of the Woods High School.
“It gives you a different perspective on life,” Lyon said. “I grew up kind of weird, a little naive, not really one of the cool kids in the hockey scene, but I think it was good too because I continue to have a massive chip on my shoulder and I’ve always had a huge chip on my shoulder.”
Eventually, his path took him to Omaha in the USHL and then to Yale, where he played three seasons of college hockey before signing with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2016. Grinding his way up from the AHL, he played in 11 NHL games in 2017-18, a decent showing but one that didn’t necessarily lead to further investment. He got into just five games the next two seasons, and he didn’t perform up to the level he wanted.
In the next 2020-21 season, he wound up on the Flyers’ taxi squad in a season impacted by COVID-19. That severely limited the number of games he could play — just 10 in the NHL and AHL combined — and Lyon thought his career might be coming to a close.
“I think I ended up playing six or seven games and I didn’t play well in those games,” Lyon said. “And so that was really the first time where I was like, ‘Alright, (let’s) see what happens here.’ And Carolina was gracious enough to give me a chance and offer me a pretty solid American (Hockey League) deal.”
Lyon really had to fight for his spot. It sparked something within him.
“I think that desperation teaches you a lot of like, this is the standard of how you have to be on a day in and day out basis. So I try to remember that and just try to hold myself to that standard as often as I can.”
At this moment, Lyon decided that he had more in the tank. He started working toward the “best version of Alex Lyon” he could become. He started to enjoy the “grind” of learning from new organizations, figuring out what helped his game and what each organization — AHL and NHL — could offer him.
“That's just who I am as a person, and probably what helps me be a decent goalie is just self-induced stress. I think just staying prepared all the time. When you’re young, you’re like, ‘OK, I’m just gonna prepare for the season and try to get another contract. And then you get to a point where it’s like, ‘OK, I want to be the best version of myself and see what that looks like.’ It’s like any career or any profession, and then you just start to enjoy that process.”
Buying into the grind of the AHL reignited his career. He became the starter for the Hurricanes' Chicago Wolves, playing well enough with to earn another contract with the Florida Panthers. Here was a goaltender who just a year prior had thought of giving up hockey, but now he had earned his way into another contract. Florida believed in him, and he believed in himself.
Lyon's self-belief came up clutch for the Panthers. A playoff-clinching hot streak to end that season put fame to Lyon’s name, as the wild card cats snuck into the playoffs due to his dominant form. In those playoffs, he also earned one of their four wins against a record-breaking Boston team, sparking a run to the Stanley Cup Final against Vegas where he was the backup goaltender.
With success came another contract — this time a longer term investment. He earned a two-year deal from Detroit before this season.
How fateful that contract became. During November's NHL Global Series, starter Ville Husso returned to Detroit to help his wife with their newborn child. This thrust the starting job into Lyon’s hands. So did injuries throughout a struggling December. Seizing the opportunity, Lyon proved to the Red Wings that he was their best option in net. That included a scintillating January when he went 8-2-0 with a .923 save percentage and 2.54 goals against average. Ever since, he has become their No. 1 goalie.
But there have also been lulls that Lyon had to battle through. Lyon went all of March without a win, losing 10 straight starts until his win over Tampa on Monday.
“I would have never anticipated playing this much but coming into this year — and knock on wood because we’ve still got a lot of season left here — but I was like ‘It’s time.’ and I know I can do this,” Lyon said. “And I’ve always felt like I’ve had the physical ability but just maybe not had the runway to get over that mental hurdle. And so a switch really flipped in me, I felt like. But I’m just really excited to do it with these guys and prove that we belong here. And again, we just gotta take it one day at a time. It’s gonna be difficult.”
If Lyon had already proven himself with the way he found a second wind to his career, this season has proven even more. Lyon has overcome the odds to become an NHL starter, carrying the same chip on his shoulder from the woods of northern Minnesota to the showtime of the NHL.
“I just hope that there’s a kid in Baudette, Minnesota, where I’m from that’s like ‘it's possible,’ ” Lyon said, noting his surprise at earning a Masterton nomination. “I never left early. I graduated high school from there and I played all three sports all the time. And I just hope that they can take a piece of that and say ‘Hell yeah, I can do whatever I want’ and so that’s just what I hope for.”
In the meantime, Lyon can put those Yale transcripts on hold.
Also from THN Detroit
Red Wings Prioritize Recovery to Stay Sharp for Pivotal Final Seven Games
Red Wings Need Alex Lyon to Spark Another Strong Finish
Prospect Roundup: Brady Cleveland Seeking Larger Role through Transfer Portal
Alumni Report: Luke Glendening and the Value of a Roleplayer
Brogan Rafferty Patiently Working toward an NHL Appearance after Numerous Call-ups
Three Things That Have to Go Right for Detroit to Make the Playoffs