Red Wings prospects Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine both could challenge for Detroit's backup job in the 2026-27 season.
The Detroit Red Wings made a massive move this offseason when adding former all-star goaltender John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks. The move instantly give the Red Wings their best goalie in over a decade and will certainly provide a boost to them this upcoming season.
Detroit fans weren't expecting a franchise goalie so soon as they had two potential options for the role, developing in the minors. The Red Wings' third goalie next season appears to be high-end prospect Sebastian Cossa as the former first round pick has been the goalie fans have been waiting for. The 22-year-old Hamilton native has played one NHL game so far and resulted in a 6-5 win with 12 saves.
Cossa has dominated the AHL level with a 21-15-6 record plus a 2.45 goals against average and a .911 save percentage. He is on the verge of making the jump and when 38-year-old Cam Talbot sees his contract expire at the end of this season, he'll likely be replaced by Cossa. That was seemingly the plan until another goalie prospect has come along and forced the issue.
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The 20-year-old goaltender out of Michigan State University, Trey Augustine has become one of the hottest prospects in the sport. NHL.com recently posted to instagram on the top ten forwards, defenceman and goaltenders under 25 years old with Augustine ranking in the top six. Cossa was not listed despite being 22 and will make for a thrilling battle to claim the backup job for the 2026-27 season.
One thing to keep in mind is that Gibson is signed on for two more seasons and if the two young goaltenders push their way to the front, he may be out of a job once again like he was in Anaheim with Lukas Dostal. There could also be a scenerio where Gibson is still playing at a high level and will be in a position to keep his role.
We could see a similar situation to what happened with the Nashville Predators and Yaroslav Askarov. The two sides were close until it was time for Askarov to make the jump to the NHL level and there wasn't any room for him as Juuse Saros was still at the top of his game and they still had a reliable backup in Justus Annunen.
San Jose would go on to trade and acquired Askarov from Nashville in exchange for a replacement goaltender in Magnus Chrona as well as a forward prospect David Edstrom and a 2025 conditional first-round pick belonging to the Vegas Golden Knights. The deal was a big one as the Sharks got their goalie of the future and this could be something that the Red Wings look to do in the near future.
The hope is in a couple years the Red Wings could be contending a if John Gibson is still effective in his late 30s like some goalies are, Talbot for example, Detroit could use one of the goaltenders as a valuable asset. They will need to make these decisions soon as Cossa is set to be a restricted free agent and Augustine is still unsigned with his rights not expiring with the team until he decides to leave the NCAA which could be two more seasons at most.
Augustine has a lot of hype right now and could force the Red Wings to potentially move off Cossa if Augustine is determined to take over Talbot's backup role. Time will tell how the story will turn out but the battle between two elite goaltenders will be something to watch next offseason.
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