The wait for the Detroit Red Wings is over, as they officially begin the 2022-23 NHL season tonight at Little Caesars Arena against the Original 6 rival Montreal Canadiens. For Detroit, they’ll be looking to get off on the right foot as they take strides in their rebuilding process that has seen multiple offseason additions to the roster under the tutelage of general manager Steve Yzerman.
Of course, among the biggest change to the Red Wings this past summer was moving on from head coach Jeff Blashill, who had been in his position since 2015 upon replacing Mike Babcock. In comes Derek Lalonde, a former assistant with the Tampa Bay Lightning. And he’s already made his mark in the Motor City, deciding to designate the likes of Filip Zadina and Pius Suter healthy scratches for tonight’s game.
Additionally, he’s revealed who will be starting between the pipes tonight and for tomorrow’s road game against the New Jersey Devils. It will be offseason acquisition Ville Husso in net tonight, with second year Red Wing Alex Nedeljkovic getting the start tomorrow night at Prudential Center.
http://gty.im/1430851053“We had a little discussion of what made sense and who gets the home game, who gets the road game and that’s what we came up with,” Lalonde said. “Early on we foresee both of them getting the net, a lot of the net and probably an equal share of the net and let it play out from there. We want a healthy competition, and it feels like it’s playing out that way from preseason, camp.”
Derek Lalonde via MLive
Husso arrived in Detroit as part of a trade with the St. Louis Blues, and was immediately signed to a three year contract extension with an AAV of $4.25 million. So far in his NHL career, he’s posted a record of 53-34-13-7 with a 2.74 goals-against average, .912 save percentage, and three shutouts. However, last season was a coming-out party of sorts for Husso, as he largely spent the campaign as the Blues starter. He went 38-25-7 with a 2.56 goals-against average and .919 save percentage.
The Red Wings also revealed their alternate captain plans
Meanwhile, Lalonde has also announced that it will be new Red Wings David Perron and Ben Chiarot wearing the “A” on their jersey tonight as alternate captains, while two different players will be doing so tomorrow night. Last season’s assistant captains in Marc Staal and Danny DeKeyser have both since departed the team, leaving the two positions open.
“That’s going to be a work in progress,” Lalonde said. “That could be months, that could be weeks, that could be days. I think in a good way it’s complicated because we have options. And it will take a little more time simply because (Andrew) Copp has been injured, not in (preseason) games. We foresee him being a big part of that and he hasn’t been part of our everyday team yet.”
Derek Lalonde via MLive
