John Gibson Exits Game With Lower-Body Injury

Red Wings goaltender John Gibson left tonight’s game against the Lightning with a lower-body injury and will not return, the team announced. Gibson allowed two goals on 11 shots while playing the entire first period, and it isn’t exactly clear when he was hurt. If he misses more time, Daniil Tarasov would take over as Detroit’s starter and the Red Wings would need to recall a goaltender from AHL Grand Rapids to fill out the roster.

This is the second time in less than two weeks that Gibson has left a game early. He sat out the third period of Detroit’s 5-2 win over the Canucks on October 22 with what the team called an upper-body injury, but he was back in net two days later in Calgary.

The 33-year-old has struggled early this season. Gibson came into tonight 4-5-1 with a 3.37 GAA and an .860 save percentage in 10 appearances. That’s a sharp drop from his first season in Detroit, when he went 29-22-4 with a 2.72 GAA and a .901 save percentage in 57 games, his heaviest workload since 2018-19. He is in the final year of his contract, which carries a $6.4MM cap hit.

Tarasov has been strong in limited work since signing a one-year, $2MM deal with Detroit in free agency on July 1. In his first start with the club, the 27-year-old stopped all 30 shots he faced in regulation and overtime in a 1-0 shootout loss in Montreal.

In Grand Rapids, Michal Postava has opened the AHL season 5-0 with a 1.20 GAA and a .955 save percentage. The undrafted 24-year-old leads all AHL goaltenders in save percentage and is tied for first in wins.