Red Wings' Ville Husso promises “big year” in 2023

It was an up and down season for Detroit Red Wings goaltender Ville Husso, who established a new career high in games played with 56. Upon his acquisition by Detroit from the St. Louis Blues, he appeared to upstage Alex Nedeljkovic as the starter in Detroit's crease, especially thanks to strong early season play.

However, Husso's numbers began to dip a bit as the season went on and Detroit's defensive problems continued. Ultiamtely, he'd finish the year with a goals against average north of 3.00 and .896 save percentage. And while several of his Red Wings teammates headed overseas to play in the IIHF World Championship, Husso decided against it. 

Right now, he's focused on his offseason training and has already made a commitment to have a "big year" next season. 

"It's going to be a big year next year," Husso said. "I need to start to focus for that."

" I just need to be better at the end of the day," he continued when talking about his stats. "I'm not happy at all with how it ended."

Husso was battling an injury as the regular season schedule began to wind down, which may have been a factor in his stat line taking a bit of a hit.

"When we make the playoffs, you play even more games," Husso said. "It's going to be good mental challenge. I need to be in better shape."

"At one point, we weren't sure if he was going to play again,” general manager Steve Yzerman said. "Then the plan became, 'Hey, let’s get out there and see how you do for the rest of the season.' Physically, he did fine, but he wasn't necessarily maybe mentally ready to play these last couple weeks because he was planning for a completely different plan and then things changed."

Both Nedaljkovic and Magnus Hellberg are set to become unrestricted free agents, though there's been no indication that Yzerman plans on bringing either back. It's a real possibility that Husso will have a new face behind him next season as backup.

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