The Oilers bought out Campbell's five-year contract after just two seasons, and now the 32-year-old veteran is trying to carve out a role in the Red Wings' crowded crease.
If you count, there are actually five of them in the Red Wings' logjam in net: incumbents Ville Husso and Alex Lyon, newcomers Cam Talbot and Jack Campbell, and top prospect Sebastian Cossa.
Following the 2023-24 season where the Wings allowed the ninth-most goals per game, recorded the seventh-worst save percentage at 5-on-5, according to naturalsttattrick.com, and missed the playoffs for the eighth straight season, it made sense to look for other goaltending options.
But the Wings' moves have now created a logjam where there is still no clear starter and it potentially blocks Cossa from getting playing time to develop as their goalie of the future.
Husso and Lyon were good in spurts, but neither were particularly reliable with injuries and inconsistent play. Talbot was a smart pick-up, though; he's coming off a 27-win season and helped the Kings earn a playoff berth, and it's a relatively low-risk, two-year deal worth $5 million.
Talbot, Husso and Lyon will be the Wings' three-goalie rotation, and I think in that order. Based on the previous season, Talbot's earned the spot, but it will depend on how things shake out in training camp. While tandems have been proven to work, no team has really navigated a three-goalie rotation for a full season.
(Husso was injured for much of last season and Lyon was hurt at the World Championships, but all goalies are expected to be healthy to start the season. The Wings could still trade one of them before the season, presumably).
And maybe that's the point. The Wings don't think Talbot, Husso and Lyon will all be available at the same time for a full season. Injuries, fatigue and poor play will come into the equation at some point, and the Wings will simply decide on a game-to-game basis who their best option will be. But what if more than one of them is unavailable?
Which brings out to Campbell, who signed a deal with even lower risk to the Wings than Talbot's; the Michigan native returns home on a one-year contract worth $775,000. Campbell fared better in the AHL following his demotion last season, but it was a rough start (13 goals allowed in first three games), and again he showed just how streaky he could be with four-game and five-game winning streaks. He allowed five goals in Game 1 of the AHL playoffs before exiting in a first-round sweep.
Campbell will likely back up Cossa, who was their top goalie in the AHL but not quite ready yet for a promotion. At some point, though, the Wings will have to decide who they want to call up. If Cossa is playing well and the Griffins are on a roll, Campbell might get the call.
Perhaps a change of scenery and a reset is what Campbell needs. The Oilers stint was disastrous, but he's shown that he has the chops to play at this level, even for brief stretches.
It's unlikely we'll see Campbell much in 2024-25, barring some kind of miraculous, Masterton-type comeback. If the Wings play to their full potential and they are a competitive playoff team, is Campbell a streaming option?
Streaming goalies can be a risky proposition akin to catching a falling knife, like with Coyotes goalies last season when it was either a ton of saves or a ton of goals allowed, with very little in between. The same goes for streaming highly-touted young goalies, such as the Flames' Dustin Wolf and the Wild's Jesper Wallstedt, which yielded some (literally) wild results.
It feels very much the same with the Wings' goalies this season. While Talbot might be an excellent zero-G option (as he was last season), it's also a tough goalie to hedge because you'll also have to roster one of Husso (likely) or Lyon.
It's wait-and-see with the Wings' goalies, but I wouldn't completely write off seeing Campbell's return to the NHL just yet. He will go undrafted in all leagues and might be worth adding to your watch list.
2024-25 Yahoo fantasy rankings for Red Wings goalies:
239. Ville Husso
292. Cam Talbot
301. Jack Campbell
324. Alex Lyon
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