This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2025-26 report →
Cam Talbot
Detroit Red Wings Goaltender
Undrafted, 486 games, 245 wins, 31 shutouts and a career .9135 — signed at 37 to fix a crease ranked 25th.
| Season | Team | GP | W | L | OTL | GA | GAA | SO | SA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-14 | NYR | 21 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 33 | 1.64 | 3 | 560 | .941 |
| 2014-15 | NYR | 36 | 21 | 9 | 4 | 77 | 2.21 | 5 | 1038 | .926 |
| 2015-16 | EDM | 56 | 21 | 27 | 5 | 137 | 2.55 | 3 | 1648 | .917 |
| 2016-17 | EDM | 73 | 42 | 22 | 8 | 171 | 2.39 | 7 | 2117 | .919 |
| 2017-18 | EDM | 67 | 31 | 31 | 3 | 188 | 3.02 | 1 | 2036 | .908 |
| 2018-19 | EDM/PHI | 35 | 11 | 17 | 3 | 108 | 3.40 | 1 | 997 | .892 |
| 2019-20 | CGY | 26 | 12 | 10 | 1 | 63 | 2.63 | 2 | 780 | .919 |
| 2020-21 | MIN | 33 | 19 | 8 | 5 | 86 | 2.63 | 2 | 1008 | .915 |
| 2021-22 | MIN | 49 | 32 | 12 | 4 | 132 | 2.76 | 3 | 1488 | .911 |
| 2022-23 | OTT | 36 | 17 | 14 | 2 | 95 | 2.93 | 1 | 935 | .898 |
| 2023-24 | LAK | 54 | 27 | 20 | 6 | 130 | 2.50 | 3 | 1490 | .913 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 486 | 245 | 176 | 42 | 1220 | 2.63 | 31 | 14097 | .913 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
Fifty-four games in Los Angeles, 27-20-6, a .9128 save percentage, a 2.50 average and 3 shutouts on 1,490 shots.
Los Angeles finished 99 points on the third-best chance suppression in the league, which flatters a goaltender, and a .9128 at 36 is still a .9128. Detroit’s goaltending came in 14.1 goals worse than the chances faced last season, 25th in the league, and he is the entire summer’s answer to it.
The Physical Game
He is 6-3 and 202 and plays a positional game — he does not chase and he does not overcommit. The efficiency is why he is still playing fifty games at 37: nothing in his method depends on a reflex that has to be as quick as it was ten years ago.
The rebound control is good and the puck is steered rather than returned. Against a scramble he is beaten by traffic more than by shooters, and behind the 27th-ranked chance suppression in hockey he is going to see a great deal of traffic.
The Mental Game
Two hundred and forty-five wins and eleven seasons as somebody’s starter, through a 42-win year in Edmonton and an .8917 two seasons later. He has been written off twice and come back both times.
He is 37 and has never had a season where the save percentage collapsed and stayed collapsed. That is the specific thing Detroit is buying.
The Intangibles
Undrafted, out of Caledonia, by way of Alabama-Huntsville, and a first National Hockey League game at 26. Four hundred and eighty-six games, 245 wins and 31 shutouts later, he is the most experienced goaltender to change clubs this summer.
A career .9135 will not repeat in front of this defence. Something a great deal better than an .8921 will.