Oct 1, 2022; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Detroit Red Wings goaltender Sebastian Cossa (33) defends the net against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports As the Red Wings approach the coming season, the roster finds itself ten years into a rebuild and still lacking in a consistent identity. Detroit’s now former general manager Steve Yzerman came into the job just over seven years ago, and the outlook for Detroit’s prospect pipeline was bleak.
Yzerman did a lot in his seven year tenure to draft and develop a wide variety of talent, but one of the main criticisms of his regime was the fact that he and the team were seemingly willing to overripen their prospects unless they “clearly” could win a roster spot. But now, with several of the team’s former top prospects now out of their system and a supporting core of players on the main roster signed to questionable free agent contracts, it’s fair to wonder if the Red Wings exercised a little too much patience with their prospects as they tried to rebuild one of the worst development systems in the league.
Coss-ter Child When the Red Wings traded up from the 20th overall selection in the 2021 draft to select Sebastian Cossa over Jesper Wallstedt, many wondered if the Red Wings saw something in Cossa the rest of the league wasn’t. Five years later, Wallstedt has finished a standout first full season as Minnesota’s back up netminder. Not without its ups and downs, mind you, but the young Swede acquitted himself well as the Wild battled their way to the second round of the playoffs this year.
To this date, Sebastian Cossa has a total of 75 minutes of NHL action to his name, and is currently signed to a two year, two million dollar contract with the Utah Mammoth. Detroit signed Daniil Tarasov to a one year, two million dollar contract to be their backup this year instead. It’s not like there wasn’t opportunity to play Cossa at various points throughout the last two years either.
The young goalie secured back to back All-Star appearances as the primary netminder for the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins while Detroit rotated through a carousel of treads and retreads including Ville Husso, Petr Mrazek, Cam Talbot, James Reimer, and John Gibson. Even when Talbot made less than ten appearances in the last months of the last season and Gibson showed clear signs of fatigue, they didn’t call him up and let him play once.
Facing the prospect of going into the season with Cossa, who had seemingly fallen behind Michal Postava late this last year and subject to waivers if the team needed to send him down, the Red Wings balked and traded him away so they could add a prospect with scoring potential. But that didn’t solve any of the Red Wings issues in the near term. Instead, it placed a bet that the guy on his way out the door knew who would best suit the team’s needs in three or four years, if he develops properly.
Now, we just have to wait and see if the next GM actually manages to get him across the finish line for this team.