One of the quieter but most important questions hanging over the Red Wings heading into the season is simple: can John Gibson get rolling fast enough to anchor them?
Detroit brought in the 33-year-old former Anaheim Duck last year, and the fit took some time to settle. Gibson eventually became the Red Wings’ main goaltender for much of the season, but his move north started out rough, which forced Detroit to lean heavily on current Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Cam Talbot for the first two months.
“We’re trying to talk it through and get our teams ready, and goaltenders were a big discussion. Like that’s [preseason] not a lot of action for them.” Head coach Todd McLellan said.
Gibson didn’t really hit his stride until December, when he started stringing together starts and wins with more consistency. From there, he held that form for much of the rest of the year. But with only one full exhibition game under his belt before the new season opens, there’s no guarantee he can simply pick up right where he left off.
The Red Wings have made clear they’re counting on him. They didn’t chase a headline free-agent goalie, and they moved on from the most NHL-ready of their prospect netminders, Sebastian Cossa, which leaves Gibson at the center of the plan.
Behind him, Detroit signed former Florida Panthers goalie Daniil Tarasov to a one-year deal. Tarasov has never started more than 35 games in a season, so the workload will still fall mostly on Gibson. That said, Gibson knows heavy minutes, even if fatigue showed up late last season.
Early in the year, fatigue shouldn’t be the issue. Getting back into game shape on the cold surface is the bigger challenge.
Tarasov is the clear backup, because the next three goalies on Detroit’s depth chart have zero NHL games between them. Of that group, only Michal Postava has started a full season with the Red Wings’ top AHL affiliate.
“In retrospect we may have ran Gibby too hard. He won’t tell you that.
He’ll say, I want to be in there more.” McLellan said.
Detroit is also expected to ice a younger, less experienced group in front of him, both on defense and up front, with Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Nate Danielson likely joining the full-time roster.
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