We all want to know when? How soon? This is true of every first-round pick, every year. It's especially true in regard to the 6'6 goalie who fills such a glaring hole in the Red Wings' rebuild that they traded up to draft him 15th overall.
"Trading up to get Sebastian Cossa, we feel he has a chance to be a starting goaltender and a good one in the NHL. We don’t really have that in our system, so we thought it was important there to trade up and secure a really good prospect," Steve Yzerman said Monday on the Stoney and Jansen Show.
What the Red Wings do have, after last week's trade for 25-year-old Alex Nedeljkovic, is a goalie for right now. Nedeljkovic stormed onto the scene last season in Carolina and has a chance to lay claim to the crease in Detroit, at least until Cossa wrests it away. With Nedeljkovic signed through 2023, Cossa figures to arrive in two years, maybe three.
Right?
"I’m kind of looking a little farther down the line," Yzerman said. "He’s 19 (in November), he’s got another year of junior, then he turns pro. If he’s playing on our team in year three I’d be really, really happy, but I’d be more than comfortable with Alex Nedeljkovic. And Sebastian Cossa, we look two or three or four years down the line and Nedeljkovic is kind of mentoring. What he really does is he allows us time to be patient with Sebastian Cossa. Just let the natural development happen."
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The comparisons are inevitable, so here goes: Yzerman drafted Andrei Vasilevskiy 19th overall in 2012 and the future Vezina winner debuted for the Lightning in the 2014-15 season. He didn't become their full-time starter until Yzerman traded All-Star Ben Bishop at the 2017 deadline after Vasilevskiy's rise demanded it. He had outgrown the AHL and proven himself in Tampa.
Cossa is on the verge of outgrowing the WHL, where he put up a .941 save percentage and 1.57 goals against average in 19 games last season. The AHL will be his next challenge, starting in earnest in 2021-22. How long he stays there will be dictated by his play.
"Whether it’s one, two or even three years, I don’t really know," Yzerman said. "I don’t have a timeline for it. If he’s playing (in Detroit) in two or three years I’ll be thrilled, but I expect it to be a little bit longer just because I want to be patient with the goaltenders and kind of let them force their way in the lineup where you're almost like, 'God, the kid’s too good. We can’t keep him out of the net any longer.' But this just seems to me like three to four years. Who knows.
"We’ve got a really good young goalie in Alex Nedeljkovic. So not only do we have a guy that can play for us now and for the next few years -- and who knows, it could be for the next 10, 12 years -- but we’ve got a real good prospect in the system as well. And I’d just as soon let it play itself out."
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It took Vasilevskiy nearly five years from the day he was drafted to take over the crease in Tampa. He spent the first two years in the KHL and parts of the next two in the AHL. Cossa's track will be a bit different, with the AHL awaiting in a year. But Yzerman and the Wings are of no mind to rush him to Detroit, the way the Panthers summoned 2019 first-round pick Spencer Knight to the NHL late last season. They have a goalie and a competitive timeline that incentivize patience with Cossa.
Nedeljkovic is here. Cossa will get here when he's too good to be anywhere else.