Helene St. James

Detroit Free Press

Down the road, the Detroit Red Wings figure they have a solution in Jared Coreau.

Sorting out the goaltending question is a top priority this summer, especially re-signing no. 1 Petr Mrazek (a restricted free agent) and trading Jimmy Howard. General manager Ken Holland acknowledged after the season that moving Howard “might be good for the organization” because otherwise the Wings would be in a scenario where they’d have around $10 million committed to goaltending.

Without Howard, the Wings would need a veteran backup for the coming season, but beyond that, the team’s resident goalie development coach sees a future for Coreau.

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Coreau, 24, has been in the Wings’ system since 2013, when he was signed after his third season at Northern Michigan (he was an undrafted free agent). At a time when big goaltenders dominate story lines, Coreau appeals as he’s around 6-foot-6, 220 pounds. He’s coming off his best season since turning pro, going 29-15-2 with a 2.43 goals-against average and .922 save percentage that earned high marks from Jeff Salajko, who earlier this month was promoted from goaltending coach in Grand Rapids to Detroit.

“He had a really good year for us in Grand Rapids,” Salajko said. “He took the job there for a while, while Tom McColllum had a bad ankle, played something like 21 of 22 games, and he wasn’t used to playing a lot of games in college.”

Coreau has been called up to Detroit in a reserve capacity, but is yet to see action in an NHL game, so he isn’t ready to serve as Mrazek’s backup. Another good season in the minors (Coreau is a restricted free agent this summer, and the team plans to re-sign him) would serve as persuasion he’d be ready for a bigger role in the future.

“In the big scheme of things, he’ll play in Grand Rapids for another year, but now we know he can play a lot of minutes if needed,” Salajko said. “Jimmy Howard played four years in the minors. We’re not rushing Jared, but he is going to be an NHL goalie, there is no doubt in my mind about that.”

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

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