I’m going to miss being able to Conk block teams, but I wish Ty well wherever he goes (please don’t let it be The Dive...) Before I saw Howard play his one game against MIN last year, I would have said I feel confident in this tandem.  But he looked shaky at best against one of the most inept offensive teams in the league.

I’ve seen Howard play several times in Grand Rapids and he’s never really impressed me.  We’ve been very patient with Jimmy just as we were with Hudler and Filppula, but I just don’t see him becoming the player we were all hoping he would be.

You can see the Wings’ lack of confidence in Jimmy by way of brining Larsson over from Sweden (made the AHL All-Star game last season) and drafting Mcollum (sp?) with their 1st round pick in 2008.  If anything, if does decently well this year, I would think they might try and deal him at the trade deadline when his value could possibly be at his highest since being drafted.

Just my $0.02.

Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 06/29/09 at 07:52 AM ET

I think goalies take many years to develop.  Even longer than defensemen.  Look at Tim Thomas and Chris Osgood.
I say bring Howard up and let him play.
Give him a chance.

Posted by w2j2 on 06/29/09 at 08:00 AM ET

I’d feel better about this if the Wings had enough (any) room under the cap to acquire another keeper during the season if this dosen’t work out.  As this probably won’t be the case I will be nervous as I am not convinced Howard is an NHL goalie at this time.

I agree with w2j2 that goalies need time to develop, but as the Wings showed last year, they need someone that can play if Osgood goes into another regular season funk.

Posted by mc keeper on 06/29/09 at 08:27 AM ET

Mcollum (sp?)

He spells his name is McCollum.

Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 06/29/09 at 08:34 AM ET

I think the kid deserves a chance, at the very least.  Let him play more than 4 games in a season before making a judgement.  It’s not like he’s spent enough time with the big boys to even get comfortable in the home building.

Sure, he was shaky in his one start, but it was his first start.  Any kid getting his first start of the year with the big club is going to have nerves.

Posted by Garth on 06/29/09 at 08:47 AM ET

For some reason, I see Holland dangling Howard in some trade talk in the next few weeks.

Really? After all the resources and time they’ve poured into him? He’s taken a frustratingly long time to develop and even now hasn’t reached that tipping point, but I think they’re stuck with giving him a chance to sink or swim.

And they need a backup this year

Posted by Matt Saler from Grand Rapids, MI on 06/29/09 at 08:59 AM ET

I do Matt and think this is not the time for the Wings to go with a n untested backup goaltender.

I would think the backup may play more like 33-38 games next season and Howard has some known weaknesses that teams are well aware of.

The problem is, I don’t really see many teams having any interest in him, so the Wings may just go with him as a backup.

Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 06/29/09 at 09:03 AM ET

… [I] think this is not the time for the Wings to go with a n untested backup goaltender.

I admit I’m not thrilled with the idea myself. There’s a lot riding on the kid being able to rise to the occasion, and my confidence in him is lacking. But realistically, we’re probably stuck with him. And that kind of attitude from the fans will be great for his confidence! Right into the fire. He’ll have to be as tough as Osgood mentally right out of the box.

But say they try to and can trade him. It probably wouldn’t be for another goalie, so maybe we’re looking at a gritty veteran forward. The question of who becomes backup remains. Mirtle has a list of free agent goalies here. Joey MacDonald?

Posted by Matt Saler from Grand Rapids, MI on 06/29/09 at 09:15 AM ET

I have nothing against Conklin.

However, it’s time for Howard to sink or swim.  And he needs to be able to play at the NHL level to do that.  If he fails, great,. but at least you’ll know he failed at the NHL level given the chance.  And if he succeeds, then what difference will a poor AHL career (playing for an often-poor AHL team) make?

Posted by Primis on 06/29/09 at 09:17 AM ET

Having watched Howard vs. the Leafs in preseason play a couple of season ago, I was defending him as a good prospect.  Since that time, it does not sound like he has made much, if any, progress.

We really should start asking questions of Jim Bedard, our goaltender coach.  The Wings have been terrible at developing prospects in net, and at some point we have to question their coaching.

Posted by VooX from Behind the Bar in the Hasek Club Car on 06/29/09 at 09:25 AM ET

Of course Conklin had to leave the Wings. He needs to either sign with the Bruins or Philly to be able to play in the Winter Classic again. Duh.

Posted by pwnicholson from Nashville, TN on 06/29/09 at 09:27 AM ET

A Osgood/Howard tandem would make me worried. Then again, a Fleury/Curry option for my Penguins doesn’t sound that reliable either (despite the rhyme).

However, there are a few cheap and semi-cheap options among the free agens.

Posted by Moq from Denmark on 06/29/09 at 09:38 AM ET

He spells his name is McCollum. I like this YES it drums up support for troll blogs.

Posted by MarkK from Maryland on 06/29/09 at 09:39 AM ET

I share the same fears y’all do about Howard.  Yet, when he goes 7-3 his first 10 starts all this talk will be behind us.  Sure, he will still need to grow, and he hasn’t shown us much to be hyped about regarding his NHL play, but I think he will do fine once he builds some confidence.

Posted by MarkK from Maryland on 06/29/09 at 09:41 AM ET

I like this YES it drums up support for troll blogs.
Posted by MarkK from Ithaca on 06/29/09 at 10:39 AM ET

I was waiting for someone to catch that.  And YES I’ve been doing Pronger-speak in my e-mails all day as a celebration of Sasquatch getting the hell out of the Western Conference. (Can’t go around elbowing co-workers in the head)

Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 06/29/09 at 09:51 AM ET

Its amazing that for all the accolades the wings deservedly get for finding the late draft pics that turn into gems, for developing their young forwards and defensive men, they have developed one NHL goalie in that time frame. ONE. They need to have a pow wow with the Sharks as to how to find and develop a goalie.

As to Howard, I’m on the fence with him. Although I think that with all the time they have invested in him that both sides need to find out if he’s an NHL goalie, I’m not all that crazy about it given his reported development. Maybe he’ll surprise everybody. I’d actually be more nervous if the wings have won the cup this year as there would be less motivation for Ozzy during the regular season. But because they lost, I don’t think we’ll see a repeat of last years laziness and loss of focus.

Posted by UMFan from Colorado on 06/29/09 at 12:12 PM ET

I’d actually be more nervous if the wings have won the cup this year as there would be less motivation for Ozzy during the regular season. But because they lost, I don’t think we’ll see a repeat of last years laziness and loss of focus.

Hopefully, there won’t be a repeat of Ozzie’s wife leaving him too.

Give Jimmy a shot...One.More.Shot.  If he plays well then I say YES to keeping him around and start drumming up the support of re-signing him next year.  We do, afterall have a couple youngsters waiting in the Wings (wings of the Wings) in case the great Howard Project doesn’t turn out.

Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 06/29/09 at 12:23 PM ET

Based on an email response from Bruce McLeod, it sounds like Berard spent more time in GR this season than in Detroit, which would explain Jimmy’s relative improvement. If “more” means he spent much less in previous seasons, it also explains Howard’s slow development.

Bruce also isn’t aware of any Griffins goaltending coach, so when Berard’s not there, Howard’s been on his own, with only the non-specialist coaches around him.

Posted by Matt Saler from Grand Rapids, MI on 06/29/09 at 12:30 PM ET

Give Jimmy a shot...One.More.Shot.  If he plays well then I say YES to keeping him around and start drumming up the support of re-signing him next year.

Howard is signed for next year I believe. This should be year two of a three year deal.

Posted by moocat on 06/29/09 at 12:59 PM ET

Great follow up, Matt.  With no dedicated GR coach, this may explain our problems.  And Bedard spent a lot of last season in GR, look what happened to Ozzie’s numbers.

Posted by VooX from Behind the Bar in the Hasek Club Car on 06/29/09 at 01:00 PM ET

Bruce also isn’t aware of any Griffins goaltending coach, so when Berard’s not there, Howard’s been on his own, with only the non-specialist coaches around him.

I pray that this is not true.  How can you have an AHL franchise without a goaltender coach?  For christpuncher’s sake, there’s HIGH SCHOOL teams that have goalie coaches.

Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 06/29/09 at 01:09 PM ET

Ummm… it’s not the end of the world if one of our goalies plays like shit in the regular season.  Look at this:

In Ozzy’s starts we gained 60 of a possible 88 points with him playing terrible.  That is a 68.2% point percentage.

In Conklin’s starts we gained 52 of a possible 74 points with him playing relatively good.  That is a 70.3% point percentage.

The difference between them in team performance: 2.1% or approximately 2 points, one single win.

I know it all doesn’t work out like the numbers, but we still got a really good amount of points when Osgood was playing terrible.  He’ll be solid next year.  Will Howard?  I hope so, but if not, we’ll survive.

Posted by digitaljohn on 06/29/09 at 01:55 PM ET

This is where Detroit being consistently competitive is a disadvantage - the team hasn’t been in a position where they looked at the roster, figured that a half-blind orangutan could be the number two defenseman, so since they were so bad why not try a young goaltender?  He might be spectacular, or he might suck like a Hoover, but either way the team was going to be dreadful, so why not give him a chance?  Since they were always in a postition to contend, they couldn’t accumulate losses routinely as a learning experience with the expectation that it would pay off in a few years when the team was actually good.

If Howard was going to be flat-out horrible, it probably would have been visible by now.  Worst case, he is just mediocre - which is probably what a veteran backup would provide, too.  In any event, no one really knows until he has enough of a look to be able to bounce back from a bad outing with a good one and play more than one game in each stint with Detroit.

He might be excellent, he might be lousy, but the only way to find out is to let him play, get some wins, get some losses, have bad games and see how he bounces back from them - he’s waited long enough.  He should have the opportunity to succeed or fail based on performance, instead of perceptions.

He’ll probably make rookie mistakes and learn from them like anyone else does.  But if the performance of Howard determines the entire fate of the Red Wings, they have bigger problems than not knowing if they have a legit backup or not.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 06/29/09 at 02:57 PM ET

How do I feel?  Several years ago, I thought Howard should’ve already been backing up Manny Legace.

Now?  I’m nervous as hell.  As someone mentioned before about Bedard being in GR working with Howard’s mechanics and confidence while Osgood struggled, well, BOTH Osgood and Howard are with the big club now and that should save Bedard the travel.  The guy who worked with Osgood’s reinvention a few years ago should be on the Griffins staff as their keeper coach.  That’s my suggestion.

Posted by SYF from Las Vegas, NV on 06/29/09 at 03:07 PM ET

Sometimes it’s hard to believe how very closely Bedard has worked with Howard since he turned pro.  Howard was unbelievably raw when the Wings drafted him, but it’s almost like the team decided that it finally wanted to develop a goaltender from within the organization for the first time since they did so with Chris Osgood, and they’ve poured thousands of hours into refinining Howard’s game. 

Howard and Bedard could have learned to fly commercial airliners over the time they’ve spent together.  That’s why the Wings won’t trade him.

Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 06/29/09 at 05:10 PM ET

Sad to see Conks go… I think it’s a mistake.

Posted by Hippy Dave from San Francisco by way of Detroit on 06/29/09 at 05:11 PM ET