The Red Wings have spent years searching for steadier answers in net, and Trey Augustine just added his name to the conversation with his first professional win.
That moment came over the weekend when the Grand Rapids Griffins swept the Rockford IceHogs. Augustine was one of the weekend’s headliners for Detroit’s rookie goaltending prospect group, even as Michal Postava also picked up another strong win and kept building his own case for NHL time.
Augustine’s path to this point has already had its ups and downs. Last season was a rough introduction to pro hockey, which isn’t exactly a shock for a goalie jumping from the college game into the AHL. He played only two regular season games for the Griffins in 2025-26 and finished with a 3.39 goals-against average and a .878 save percentage, going 0-2-0.
That was a steep contrast from what he did at Michigan State University that same season, when he posted a 2.11 GAA and a .929 save percentage in 34 games and finished 24-9-1. The year before, he logged 30 games with a 2.08 GAA and a .924 save percentage while going 19-7-4. He also turned in a strong World Junior Championship run, finishing with a 2.52 GAA, a .917 save percentage and a 4-1-0 record in five games.
This season, Augustine has started to settle in a little more. Through three appearances, he owns a 3.27 GAA and a .882 save percentage with a 1-1-1 record. Those numbers are not going to jump off the page, but the adjustment is clearly still underway.
There’s some familiar company in that developmental process. Sebastian Cossa had a similarly uneven start to his AHL career and even spent time with the Toledo Walleye before finding his footing.
He opened his AHL run with a 5.57 GAA and a .783 save percentage in a 1-1-0 start, but his numbers improved sharply once he got to Toledo. In 45 games there, he posted a 2.56 GAA and a .913 save percentage with a 26-16-1 record.
In the playoffs, he followed that with a 2.32 GAA, a .917 save percentage and a 5-2-0 mark.
Augustine, still very much a green goaltender, is working through that same kind of adjustment to pro hockey. He’s already had to deal with some of the physical messiness that comes with the AHL game, including a sequence where Samuel Savoie simply leaned on him during a scrum after the whistle before Shai Buium stepped in to remove Savoie from the situation.
With more time, Augustine figures to get more comfortable using his space and playing with more confidence. That showed up as Saturday’s game went on, when he started to stack up some seriously impressive saves.
If Augustine does need more time elsewhere, Detroit has another young option waiting in the wings in Carter Gylander, the third Carter in the system. In another organization, he might already be the backup goalie for the AHL club, but the Red Wings’ depth in net has made it harder for him to get regular AHL minutes.
Still, Gylander has flashed plenty. Since turning pro in 2024-25, he has appeared in 11 games for the Griffins.
He went 2-1-0 with a 3.49 GAA and a .890 save percentage in 2024-25, then followed that with a strong 2025-26 season in Grand Rapids, going 7-0-2 with a 1.62 GAA and a .942 save percentage. In Toledo, he posted a 2.61 GAA and a .907 save percentage in 34 games in 2024-25, going 20-9-5, and then repeated that same 20-9-5 record in 2025-26 while logging a 2.78 GAA and a .901 save percentage over another 34 games.
His first appearance this season has not been as kind, with a 5.02 GAA and an .844 save percentage.
Even so, the pipeline is clearly loaded. Between Postava, Augustine and Gylander, the Griffins, Walleye and Red Wings have a trio of promising goaltending prospects to watch. Augustine has taken his first professional win, and now the real task is turning those flashes into something more consistent.
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