Sebastian Cossa craves the pressure. His heartbeat is calm between the pipes. But as the names came off the board in the first round of the draft Friday night, Cossa admitted he was "getting anxious for sure."
"And then Detroit traded up," he said.
Cossa had a number of calls with the Red Wings last week. They all went well. He figured they were eyeing a goalie at No. 15, either himself or Swede Jesper Wallstedt.
"And when I heard my name" he said, "just thrilled."
The Red Wings hope to have found their goalie of the future in Cossa. He's a 6'6 wall who went 17-1-1 with a .941 save percentage last season in the Western Hockey League. He models his game after 6'5 Pekka Rinne and "how well he moves in his crease." He aims for the same demeanor as his idol Carey Price.
"How calm he is, he makes his defensemen feel like he’s not going to get scored on any time," said Cossa, who has a way of making opposing forwards feel the same way.
"When I’m at the top of my crease, there’s not a lot to shoot at," he said.
In the Red Wings' rebuild, one of the biggest questions marks -- perhaps the biggest -- is in the crease. Cossa might be the answer. He's highly confident in his game, and he has every reason to be based on his performance the past two seasons. His belief in his ability was reflected in his nonchalance about being the first goalie off the board.
"I think my play earned it for me," he said. "The confidence I have in my game, I think I’m going to be the best goalie in this draft. So I got picked where I should be."
Wallstedt, the other top-rated goalie in the draft, went five picks later to the Wild.
"The draft is Day 1. There’s a lot of work to be done from now," said Cossa. "Being picked first, that’s more motivation. I can’t let him catch up to me."
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Goalies aren't often drafted in the first round. It's the hardest position to project. But it's become more common of late, and the risks have been rewarded. The Panthers took Spencer Knight 13th overall in 2019; he debuted this year and started in the playoffs. The Stars took Jake Oettinger 26th overall in 2017; he started 24 games for Dallas this season.
The Red Wings don't envision such a quick progression for Cossa -- unless he demands it. On Thursday they traded for Alex Nedeljkovic, a 25-year-old goalie who just finished third for Rookie of the Year. He's signed through 2023, and Detroit has ideas of keeping him around longer than that. The club can take its time with Cossa.
"With Alex in net in Detroit, we have a great young prospect that we can just be patient with and let him develop and potentially really solidify the goaltending situation in Detroit," Yzerman said Friday night.
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Of course, Cossa watched Knight crack the NHL this season less than two years after he was drafted. If Nedeljkovic remains in Detroit two years down the road, Cossa plans to take over the crease.
"I can’t speak on what their plans are with him, but my future, I want to be a top goalie in this league. So whoever they sign today, a couple years down the road I don’t think it will matter," he said.
The goalie they drafted today has the tools to be a star. He has the potential to be a franchise cornerstone, like the last netminder Yzerman drafted in the first round: Andrei Vasilevskiy. That one worked out. If this one does too, the Red Wings just found a missing pillar of their rebuild.
"They have an extremely good GM there in Steve Yzerman and a lot of bright young prospects," Cossa said. "I think this team is really going to be making a push in the next couple years, and couldn’t be happier to be there with them."