Goaltending should be an area of strength for the Detroit Red Wings in the coming season.

The Wings have Jimmy Howard coming off a career year, what should be a motivated Petr Mrazek, and Jared Coreau coming off winning the Calder Cup with Grand Rapids.

More and more, NHL teams need three goaltenders to get through a season: In 2016-17, only five teams got by on the old standard of two goaltenders. Thirteen teams, one of them the Wings, needed three goalies. Another 10 used four goaltenders, and two teams required five goaltenders.

The Wings are poised to enter the season with Howard and Mrazek competing for starts in net. Howard, 33, finished last season with a .927 save percentage and 2.10 goals-against average in 26 games. A knee injury in mid-December sidelined him for two-plus months, but he was stellar again when he returned, and carried that through to playing for Team USA at the IIHF World Championships in May.

Mrazek, 25, finished with a .901 save percentage and 3.04 goals-against average in 50 games. He lost the starting job to Howard and, briefly, Coreau. Mrazek was mediocre enough at the World Championships that the Czechs started another goalie in the quarterfinals. Mrazek was then exposed in the expansion draft, and neither Vegas nor another team (making a trade via Vegas) had enough interest.

Coreau, 25, appeared in 14 games (all starts) for the Wings, with a .887 save percentage and 3.46 goals-against average. Coreau had two shutouts in Detroit, and he backstopped the Griffins to the AHL championship. There is a risk of losing Coreau on waivers, but if he clears and starts the season in Grand Rapids, the Wings like the position they are in.

“We’re very comfortable with Jared as a third,” goaltending coach Jeff Salajko told the Free Press during development camp in Traverse City in early July. “I have no problem with him being the backup goalie, either. If we can keep Jimmy Howard healthy to play 50-55 games, I was comfortable with Jared in a role like that. But we obviously have Petr back - Vegas didn’t have interest in him, so I’m hoping he comes in with a chip on his shoulder and something to prove.”

Mrazek is supposed to be the Wings’ goalie of the present and future, but his first full year as starter disappointed. The Wings declared him their No. 1 goalie last summer, and promoted Salajko to the Detroit job because he was Mrazek’s goalie coach in the minors.

Hope within the Wings is Mrazek shows up this season motivated by the experiences of the past year – mediocrity in Detroit and at Worlds, rejection during expansion – and, combined with being in a contract year, works hard to reestablish himself as a high-end goaltender.

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Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.

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