Detroit Red Wings: It’s nice to have a quality goaltending tandem
By Tyler Kotila
The Detroit Red Wings opted to deploy a goalie tandem for the 2021-22 season once again. Straying away from a one-man does it all setup. It’s evident that the Red Wings do not have a goalie like Carey Price, Andrei Vasilevskiy, or someone that is an actual number one.
This offseason, the Detroit Red Wings were able to complete a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes to bring in netminder Alex Nedeljkovic. He joined Thomas Greiss, who is in the second year of his two-year contract, and the two created the tandem for this upcoming season.
The two have been quality so far, providing the Red Wings with two netminders that have gotten the job done and been able to keep the Red Wings on track. The organization is doing a great job of rotating these two and keeping them fresh.
Greiss thrives in the tandem setup and is able to provide benefits in that regard. Nedeljkovic is someone who is still gaining experience in the NHL and is technically Calder Trophy eligible. It has not been the smoothest start to the season, but he has settled in over time.
Detroit Red Wings fans should be excited to have quality goaltending.
So far this season, it has been a pretty even split between the two netminders. Allowing Nedeljkovic to earn the starting job is what has been key. Greiss has outplayed Nedeljkovic so far, but both netminders have played well enough to keep the teams in games.
Greiss has logged seven games where he has a 4-3 record with a .906 save-percentage (SV%) with a 3.24 goals-against average (GAA). According to Hockey-Reference’s statistics, Greiss has four quality starts.
Quick Note: A quality start is defined as starts where the SV% is greater than the average for the year or greater than 88.5% on nights where less than 20 shots were faced.
On the other side of the tandem, Nedeljkovic has also started seven games for the Red Wings in 2021-22. He’s got a .910 SV% with a 3.03 GAA to his credit while posting three quality starts to his stats so far.
The bottom line is, both netminders have been able to iron things out and provide quality attempts in net for the Red Wings. Not having to worry about spotty goaltending is a blessing for this organization.
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They’ve been entertaining to watch overall as a team, but the goaltending itself has been stellar and something worth noting. Hopefully, the Red Wings can keep this up and keep grinding out wins.