You can only play one goalie at a time
For the Red Wings three goalies, Cam Talbot, Ville Husso, and Alex Lyon, this season is about stopping pucks, but it's also about the career crossroads for each.
After playing for three teams in three seasons, Cam Talbot thought he had a final NHL home in Southern California with the Los Angeles Kings.
And why would he think otherwise?
After playing 54 games for Los Angeles and posting a .913 save percentage, Talbot seemed like part of the solution in goal for the Kings.
But then on June 19, in a surprising deal, the Kings traded Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Washington Capitals for Darcy Kuemper. There was no more room in the crease for Talbot, who in early July had to inform his 8-year-old twins, Landon and Sloane, that they’d be moving for a third straight offseason.
“It was really tough, really really tough actually,” Talbot said. “My son kind of kept it a bit closer, hidden I think, but my daughter at one point was crying on the floor. We loved it there, she was making friends, and now we have to move again.”
So for the 37-year-old Talbot, his next NHL contract, maybe his last, was always going to be about stability. So that he could tell his kids that in the summer of 2025 they wouldn’t have to move again.
That’s why he signed a two-year deal with the Detroit Red Wings with an annual contract value of $2.5 million.
“I had other offers with more more money, especially with bonus structure (for a 35-plus deal), but for me, the two-year deal, that stability after the past couple years, that was more valuable than anything,” Talbot said. “That’'ll take me until I’m 39, then who knows from there. But I can at least have some normalcy here for the family.”
Talbot’s kids, who’s initials are written on his goalie stick, have been able to get involved in youth sports — hockey and gymnastics — and his wife has a larger support group of friends and extended family in Detroit.
For Talbot, his job is stopping pucks for the Red Wings, but he’s reached the phase of life where he’s putting his family first, particular his kids, Landon and Sloane.
One seat to the Talbot’s left in the Red Wings locker room, Ville Husso is at a different crossroads both in life and in hockey.
After joining the Red Wings before the 2022-23 season, and still being paid to be a No. 1 goalie at $4.75 million, injuries and inconsistency have plagued Husso, now 29, the past 18 months.
He missed most of the 2023-24 season with injury, a carryover from the 2022-23 season where Detroit likely pushed him too hard down the stretch for a team that was doomed to miss the playoffs.
The Red Wings, based on their actions, looked at Husso as a potentially failed experiment. They weren’t sure if he’d ever be healthy enough, that’s why they signed Talbot, and in training camp Husso had to prove he was healthy enough to be an NHL option once again.
It could have been a long year for Husso, a really long one, but it also flew by at the same time because of the arrival of his daughter, Emmi, who was born last November.
“That sort of puts things into perspective, all of life, doesn’t it?” Husso said. “She’s more mobile and moving and growing, when you focus on not missing a day of that, that tends to make you smile a bit more.”
Husso said it also brings some new pressures, he’s seen how cruel the NHL goalie carousel can be. We all can see future depth charts — the Red Wings have high hopes for both Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine — so for Husso re-establishing himself as an NHL goalie this season is potentially a matter of some long-term stability for his young family.
It’s why watching Red Wings opening night against the Pittsburgh Penguins made you feel for Husso. He’d battled back. He shook off past injuries. In training camp and preseason he earned the opening-night start. It was supposed to be a triumphant return, filled with “HOOOS” from the Red Wings crowd, until Husso struggled tracking the puck and was eventually pulled in the second period for Talbot in a 6-3 loss.
A year of work, winning back the confidence of his teammates, and now Husso already has to start over after Game 1.
To Husso’s left in the locker room, the final member of the Red Wings goalie trio, Alex Lyon watched opening night from the press box.
Lyon by usage was the Red Wings starter last season, playing 44 games and helping solidify the season while Husso was dealing with injury, and severely outplaying James Reimer.
For a career NHL/AHL tweener, that season was proof he was ready to be a full-time NHL goalie. But for the second straight season, on opening night, he was back to No. 3 on the depth chart.
While Detroit signing Talbot was more of a reflection of Husso’s past injury history, Lyon, who is making just $900,000 against the salary cap, understands this is a business and goalies making triple and six-times as much tend to get more opportunities until they lose them.
Talbot and Husso are NHL goalies based on their contract and salary, Lyon is the guy who has to prove each season he’s more than a quality AHL goalie in NHL clothes.
It’s all why the Red Wings goalie situation this season is so fascinating.
At the end of the day, the cruel reality in the goalie world is that there is only one net, one crease, and as friendly as Talbot, Husso, and Lyon are with each other, only one can play at a time.
And for now, all three seem to be OK with that. All three have plans to compete, to try to win the No. 1 job and more starts, but they each have a healthy respect for the goalies sitting next to them.
Talbot signed up for this setup, Husso knew Red Wings management would question his health and performance, and Lyon has been use to people questioning him his entire career.
“You get it, you really do,” Lyon said. “You kind of have to be ready, understand how this all works, and that if you don’t seize the chance, you can be sitting for a while without a game.”
Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde has spoken about how he has trust in all three goalies, how there isn’t much of a gap between the three. He’s also talked about how he’s going to play the hot hand and do his best to win each night.
And for Lalonde, a prior goalie himself, he has to do that to potentially save his job this season. The Red Wings coach, now in year 3, has heard the whispers about his job status about the mounting pressure to get into the postseason. Lalonde, unprompted, brought up how short-lived NHL coaching careers are, how he’s somehow already the sixth-most tenured coach in the league.
The NHL coaching carousel is cruel, it’s about the only thing more cruel than the goalie carousel that his three netminders have tried to navigate in recent years.
It’s not just about who is net or how the puck is stopped, but rather the success or failure of this three-goalie battle and friendship will likely have lasting impacts on four careers and four different families.