Detroit’s deal to trade up for the goalie it wanted in Sebastian Cossa could help fortify the franchise’s future.
Suddenly, the crease is filling up. The Red Wings’ search for their goalie of the future worked double-time this week, and in the span of barely 24 hours, general manager Steve Yzerman found one option, and then another. Two days, two netminders, and perhaps one less pressing concern for the Wings’ rebuilding effort in Detroit. Thursday’s trade with Carolina for goalie Alex Nedeljkovic offers the more immediate solution, bringing in a 25-year-old Calder Trophy finalist signed for two years at a reasonable $3 million annual salary-cap hit. That deal only cost the Wings a late third-round pick (94th overall) and the rights to pending free agent Jonathan Bernier, the 32-year-old who’d made nearly 100 starts for Detroit over the last three seasons. But then Yzerman followed it up Friday with a bold move in the first round of the draft, swinging another trade — this time with old friend Jim Nill and the Dallas Stars — to move up with Detroit’s second first-round pick and select who the Wings felt was the top goalie in this class,18-year-old Sebastian Cossa of the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings. That made a big night even bigger for the Red Wings, who’d already used their initial first-rounder (No.6 overall) on a smooth-skating, left-shot defenseman from Sweden, Simon Edvinsson, who carries some serious upside in his nearly 6-foot-5 frame. And yet he still may find himself looking up to Cossa one day, because the new goalie is a towering 6-foot-6 presence in the crease. More: Red Wings land defenseman Simon Edvinsson, goalie Sebastian Cossa in NHL Draft 1st round But by taking the 23rd overall pick — acquired in April from Washington in the Anthony Mantha-Jakub Vrana trade — and packaging it with second- and fifth-round picks from this year’s draft stockpile, the Wings made a serious wager here. “Obviously, when you pick him where we did, you hope you’re getting a starting goaltender,” Yzerman said. “And we think he has the talent to do that. There’s a lot of work to be done between today being drafted and eventually becoming a starter in the NHL.
