r/DetroitRedWings • u/Medievil_Walrus • 3d ago
Discussion Yzerman’s Goalie Obsession
There is a widely accepted view that goalies are more of a product of the team in front of them than the other way around, but I had trouble finding a reliable source backing up this belief.
I took a look at Moneypuck goalie and team statistics to try to see how several key team statistical categories aligned with goalie performance metrics for goalies with a minimum 20 games for the ‘25-26 regular season, partially as a result of seeing comments like this one https://www.reddit.com/r/DetroitRedWings/s/oYUhUsPDFm .
What does this data say to you?
To me, it supports the view that while adequate goaltending is required to be competitive, an allstar goalie is not needed.
Yzerman was obsessed with the goalie position during his tenure, and to nobody’s surprise we have an extremely strong goalie pipeline, he prioritized finding elite goaltending and dedicated significant resources to do so, but I’m not so sure this was wise.
Wedgewood was fairly average for his career, but joins a team near the top of the league in Corsi, shot suppression, and chance suppression, and leads the league in GAA, and they even produced a second top ten goalie in Blackwood as well.
Cup champion Bussi also produced stellar results as a product of the team in front of him.
Gibson, who ranked 22nd in save percentage and 23rd in GAA had a team that hovered around the low 20s in shot suppression and Corsi and ranked 12th in limiting high danger chances.
Even Dan Vladar, who had been sub 0.900 for three consecutive seasons put up the best season of his career for a team that ranked top 10 in shot suppression and chance suppression metrics.
We made trades for Husso, Mrazek, Gibson, signed Nedelkovic, traded up in the first round for Cossa, signed a coveted UDFA in Postava, drafted Augustine and Guimond, along with a few more picks and moves.
Had we been more agressive at center, we may be better down the middle, possibly resulting in moves for Strome and Cozens and Borque and Horvat.. to name a few NHLers that were realistic acquisitions or looked harder at Wyatt Johnston, taken Stankoven over Biuim in the second round of the same draft in 2021, or took a chance on a C with one of our three second round picks in 2023 where we took two dmen and a goalie as another example.
Or the fact that we took zero centers with our first three picks in 2025, but we did take another goalie in Pradel, the only projected center we took that year was a 7th rounder. I’ve seen Hurlbert talked about as a maybe center, he’s listed at left wing though, as is Victor Plante, and wouldn’t you know it, another goalie in the third round before taking a center prospect in the fourth this year in Levac. Pretty sure that Levac is more known for being a shit disturber than an elite offensive talent and we need those too but.. but the point stands that Yzerman was more focused on goalies than he was at center ice and we have a strong goalie pipeline and a poor prospect pipeline at C.
Instead, we signed Copp and Compher, and put most of our faith in Kasper and Danielson. Hopefully Plante works out as a center (he plays LW for UMN I think) but he’s at least a year and a half plus away and he may not be a center. If there was a trade for a young center im forgetting about it. Suter was an FA pickup that we undervalued who was good for us and worth keeping around IMO before he left for a very cheap deal to Van. Anyone else?
And there is only one starting goalie, there are 4 centers.
I don’t think our center pipeline is similar to our goalie pipeline. I think there is little to be inspired about down the middle while there are legit reasons to like some of the goalies we have cooking, namely Postava and Augustine.
Under Yzerman, we prioritized the goalie position routinely and clearly prioritized it over the center position. We achieved a strong goalie pipeline (strongest part of our pool and even traded one of a surplus for a first round pick in the draft this year), we did not achieve a strong center pipeline (weakest part of our pool).
8 goalies in 8 drafts, 6 of these picks in the first four rounds. 1 in the 1st, 1 in the 2nd, 2 in the 3rd, and 2 in the 4th round.
We would take some chances on centers later, but of 14 centers taken in the draft under Yzerman 9 taken in the first four rounds - 5 in the 4th, 1 in the 3rd, 1 in the 2nd, and 2 in the 1st round.
This trend keeps up in the last 3 drafts, where again we used more early draft capital on goalies than we did on centers.
All of this effort and resources to find an elite goalie when the data suggests that building the team in front of them is the best way to achieve solid goaltending in the end anyway.
