Ville Husso
This one will hurt a lot of Devils fans, but we are 100% off the “sign Ville Husso” bandwagon. This has nothing to do with what happened in the postseason. The St. Louis Blues rode Ville Husso in the regular season, and the second things got heavy in the playoffs, they leaned back on Jordan Binnington. It is what it is on that front. However, this is more than just Husso’s postseason performance.
Husso has one great season under his belt, and now he’s going to make more than Mrazek makes now. Is someone going to pay Husso north of $5 million on a very weak goalie market? Should the Devils really do that?
Maybe other teams will have the same reservations as the Devils and they will bring down Husso’s AAV on his next contract, but Husso is in an enviable position. He had his best season right before becoming an unrestricted free agent. The Blues kept giving him chances to break through, and he finally did it this past season.
Don’t get us wrong. The Devils would love to have a goalie that had a .919 save percentage this past season. It’s even better that they don’t have to give up any prospects to make it happen. However, this is a player in Husso that took forever to develop. Is he just a late bloomer or is he a one-hit wonder? The risk is too high for the Devils to take that chance. He’s had one other NHL season under his belt, and his save percentage was .893.