Calling up a prospect tends to stoke excitement surrounding a team, and it was no different a few days ago when the Detroit Red Wings flew in goalie Sebastian Cossa from Grand Rapids to Denver, where he arrived shortly before the puck dropped.
He ended up serving as backup, and was re-assigned to the Griffins two days later. That left Cossa with one very long morning skate, on Thursday, to pocket from his second stint with the Wings — and left one Free Press reader, A.E. Scott, to lead off this mailbag with the question: "Any chance we see Cossa this season? I can't be the only one who wants that."
The Wings were quick to ship Cossa back to the minors because once past the NHL trade deadline, teams are allowed a mere four call-ups, unless it's an emergency condition. The latter applied to Cossa once Cam Talbot was ruled medically unavailable for the March 25 game against the Colorado Avalanche, but his improved health two days later meant Cossa had to be sent back, or else count as a regular call-up.
Cossa was needed in Denver because the Wings had just lost Petr Mrazek to injury the previous night. There hasn't been much of an update on Mrazek, but he has not practiced with the team since getting hurt in a collision in his crease in the Utah game.
But back to Cossa. It speaks to how mediocre the bottom half of the Eastern Conference is that the Wings can have lost 11 of 14 games since late February and still very much be within reach of the conference's second wild-card berth. But should that that gap become a gulf in April (when the Wings play nine times in 17 days, including two back-to-backs on the road), it would make sense to bring up Cossa and have him start a few games.
Cossa, 22, has been the presumptive goalie of the future since the Wings traded up to select him at No. 15 overall in 2021. Cossa has played in the minors for three seasons, mostly in the ECHL in 2022-23 (his first pro year), and then this year and last with the Griffins. He has appeared in one game with the Wings, on Dec. 9 when the Wings rallied from two goals ...
