Detroit — Ville Husso earned the start in net Friday for the Red Wings’ season opener.
Alex Nedeljkovic is scheduled to start Saturday in New Jersey.
And listening to coach Derek Lalonde, expect the alternating, more or less, to continue for quite a while.
Basically, until either Nedeljkovic or Husso claims the starting job, or out-distances the other in terms of play.
“Early on, we foresee both of them getting the net, a lot of the net and probably an equal share of the net,” Lalonde said after Friday’s morning skate. “Let it play out from there. We want a healthy competition, and it feels like it’s playing out that way from preseason camp.”
Husso, whom the Wings acquired in a trade with St. Louis during the Entry Draft weekend, got the starting nod on Friday. Husso was a prospective unrestricted free agent, but quickly signed a three-year contract worth $14.25 million ($4.75 million cap hit per year).
“We had a little discussion of what made sense and who gets the home game and who gets the road game, and that’s what we came up with,” Lalonde said.
Both goaltenders had strong first halves of the last season, but each struggled toward the end of the season.
Husso was 25-7-6 with a 2.56 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage with the Blues. But after grabbing the starting job early in the season, Husso slumped as the season progressed, then bottomed out in the playoffs, with a 2-5-0 record and a balky 3.67 GAA and .890 save percentage.
Nedeljkovic was similar. He gradually took control of the Wings’ net after Thomas Greiss faltered — Greiss, incidentally took Husso’s place in St. Louis during the off-season — and was impressive, but Nedeljkovic struggled late in the season.
Nedeljkovic ended with a 20-24-9 record, 3.31 GAA and .901 save percentage.
For both goalies to have success, Lalonde is stressing improved team defense in front of Husso and Nedeljkovic.
“We’ve got to put our goalies in better situations to succeed,” Lalonde said.
Assistant captains
Much like the goaltending, there will be some shuffling going on with the alternate captains.
David Perron and Ben Chiarot wore the “A” Friday, complementing captain Dylan Larkin, but Lalonde will have two different alternate captains Saturday in New Jersey.
“That’s going to be a work in progress,” Lalonde said. “That could be months, could be weeks, could be days. 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 (exhibition) games. We foresee him being a big part of that and he hasn’t been part of our everyday team yet.”
Lalonde stressed the importance of wearing a letter, and the entire aspect of leadership, in hockey.
“Every team that wins or starts to have success, it comes out of the room,” Lalonde said. “With that said, you need to build a leadership group, so there will be many guys not wearing the letter that are going to be a huge part of what we’re trying to do in leadership.”
Ice chips
The Wings assigned goaltender Sebastian Cossa (2021 first-round draft pick) to Toledo (ECHL).
Cossa had an impressive training camp and spot duty in exhibition games, convincing the Wings to have Cossa turn pro rather than spend another season of junior hockey.
Victor Brattstrom and Jussi Olkinuora will share the goaltending in Grand Rapids.
… Lalonde is excited about the potential of Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond, who starred as rookies last season and are expected to grow their games even further.
“You see it all the time,” Lalonde said. “These players have immediate success in this league, which is hard to do. Then, they go through wanting more out of their game and do things that they weren’t doing the previous years. It’s a tough balance, but there’s still growth and development.”
Red Wings at Devils
▶ Faceoff: 7 Saturday, Prudential Center, Newark
▶ TV/radio: BSD/97.1
▶ Outlook: The Devils (0-1-0) lost their season opener Thursday in Philadelphia. The Devils are led by C Jack Hughes, who many analysts expect to make a big jump in his young career this season. LW Ondrej Palat and former Wings D Brendan Smith were key Devils’ summer acquisitions.
ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tkulfan