The Red Wings are no strangers to a three goalie system, but this year they are doubling down with three bona fide starters. A look at how this works, the benefits and the ri
The Red Wings are no strangers to a three goalie system, but this year they are doubling down with three bona fide starters. A look at how this works, the benefits and the ri
For the second season in a row, the Detroit Red Wings put three goaltenders on their opening roster. This time, however, is a little different.
A year ago, the three-goalie system was used to shelter depth. Ville Husso was the clear starter, while James Reimer and Alex Lyon both looked to be capable backup options that Detroit didn’t want to lose on waivers. It just so happened that an injury to Husso made such a move wise.
This time around, Detroit has doubled down. Husso is healthy again, and Lyon has looked the part of a starter coming off 43 starts last year. To aid them, Detroit brought in Cam Talbot — an All-Star who played 54 games last year — to the fold as well. The Red Wings believe they are going to need all three goaltenders at some point this season. It’s not a matter of insurance; it’s a matter of intention.
“We would like for all three to try to assert themselves right now,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said Wednesday, after naming Husso his starter for Thursday’s opening night against Pittsburgh “... Right now, we have a positive problem that all three performed well and we’re comfortable with all three. We were hoping for one to step up, maybe two. In fact, all three (did), and now we'll kind of have a reset here, judge it on performance now.”
The idea of a three-goalie system isn’t for three starters to shoulder an equal workload. In reality, that would mean the system failed — no goaltender asserted himself as a starter. Really, the premise is that if there are three goaltenders capable of being starting goaltenders, then the Red Wings can find at least one quality starter out of the bunch. It’s about having multiple quality options.
In the past, this would’ve been blasphemy to the status quo of goalie usage. For decades, teams employed a starting goaltender that played the bulk of games, with many reaching 60 to 70 starts each season. Now, there hasn’t been anyone since Talbot to reach such high workloads.
A lot of this has to do with workload management and a better grasp of what continual wear and tear can do to a goaltender. Not only are NHL teams not stretching their starters to their limits these days, but they are also relying on their backups more than ever. Last season, 11 teams gave their backup goaltender 28 starts or more. Four teams — including Detroit — gave at least two backup options 16 or more games, dividing up the workload even further.
What are the benefits? Chief among them is the amount of recovery time having multiple goaltenders can afford. As much as players want to start a lot of games, teams can get better quality starts out of them if they limit their appearances. The marker of success for a goaltender isn't playing in a ton of games, but rather being good in those appearances. Fewer appearances concentrates the quality of play, preventing the grind of a season from putting too much stress on a goaltender's body.
“It definitely can be a strength,” Talbot assessed Wednesday. “Obviously it's a long season, guys have a little nagging injury sometimes that they play through, but in situations like this maybe you take that extra day or two and be able to get to 100%. You know that the other two guys have been there before and can provide stability in the net, and the team can have confidence in all three of them.”
Depth also aids when there are serious injuries, an inevitability of professional sports. Look no further than last season in Detroit, when Husso’s lower body injury kept him out of all but one game past December. Having Reimer and especially Lyon in the fold saved the Red Wings’ season. Now, they are doubling down by bringing in another proven starter to help out.
There are inherent risks to this system, too. Every game, Lalonde and goalie coach Alex Westlund have to decide who’s going to give them the best chance to win. Much like naming a starting pitcher in baseball, there’s always the chance that they read the situation wrong or otherwise choose the wrong goaltender out of their three. Introducing a third option only complicates matters further. The Red Wings also have to find enough reps — practice or game — to keep all three goaltenders ready. But this is also a problem Detroit ran into early last season when managing three netminders, and it’s one it feels it has a firm grasp on heading into this season due to that experience.
All things considered, a three-goalie system is useful for teams like the Red Wings. Without a top-end starter, and with their closest player to that — Husso — coming off an injury, it makes sense for the Red Wings to have three goaltenders. Rostering three bona fide starters is just a full commitment to what worked last season.
To be clear, Detroit isn't the first team to ever use three goaltenders in a season. Eleven teams over the past three seasons have given at least 16 starts to three goaltenders. These teams saw varying degrees of success. Sometimes these teams did well for themselves, such as when the Carolina Hurricanes rode three goalies to 113 points and a playoff round win in 2022-23, or when the Vegas Golden Knights won a Stanley Cup in the same season employing a similar usage. Some of these teams have also floundered, like the 2022-23 Columbus Blue Jackets who scraped a measly 59 points with the third fewest wins in the NHL that season.
What differs about Detroit is that there are three goalies on the roster right from day one. They aren’t just accepting a system of three goaltenders and hoping for it to work. They are actively planning for it.
How will this work out? That’s probably the question that will define the Red Wings’ season. Detroit is going to ask a lot of its goaltenders to win games for a team that got worse offensively this offseason while hoping to make up the extra ground with stouter defense. Whatever is left over between that give and take will be put on the plate of Detroit’s goaltenders — all three of them, together.
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