John Gibson, team MVP, no debate. About 29 wins, 2.72 GAA, .901 SV% over 57 starts. The Anaheim trade absolutely paid off and he singlehandedly kept us in the race longer than we deserved. But Talbot fell apart, 3.19 and .883 in 34 games, lost the backup job basically, and he's a UFA. So who's the 1B next year? Gibson can't start 65. this is the thing keeping me up.
in fairness to Cam, the defense in front of him fell off a cliff late and a backup getting fed to the wolves on the second night of back to backs is going to have ugly numbers. .883 isn't all on him. but yeah, the crease leaned entirely on Gibson and that's a thin plan to run back.
Crease math for next year:
- Gibson: the workhorse, can't reasonably do 60+
- Talbot: pending UFA, .883, hard to justify a meaningful raise
- Cossa: needs waivers to go back to the AHL, so it's promote-or-trade
The cheap internal answer is just giving Cossa the 1B job. Yzerman may not have a choice given the cap and the UFA list.
Cossa's ready, for what it's worth. He was a big reason Grand Rapids ripped off that 16-1-0-1 start to the year. The kid can play. If they trust him as the 1B behind Gibson the crease is fine and cheap. That's the bet I'd make.