At one point, it was expected that Petr Mrazek would take the reins from Jimmy Howard in Detroit.
Drafted in the fifth round of the 2010 NHL draft, Mrazek wrapped up an excellent junior career with the Ottawa 67’s at 20 years old, highlighted by his wildly entertaining World Junior celebrations. Upon moving to professional hockey, it didn’t take long for Mrazek to make his mark there either. In his first AHL season with Grand Rapids, Mrazek took over the team’s starting job from Thomas McCollum, a first-round pick who had spent parts of three seasons with the Griffins before Mrazek showed up.
You couldn’t have asked for a better start to a professional hockey career.
Then the troubles started. In the 2016-17 season, Mrazek’s play started to slide. He still played the majority of the games that season but finished with just a .901 save percentage. He remained with Detroit into the 2017-18 season, but when his play didn’t bounce back to where it had been at, the Red Wings decided they didn’t want to wait on Mrazek any longer. He was acquired by Philadelphia with the hopes that he could help put an end to their long-running carousel of goaltenders. That certainly didn’t happen either.
Coming off a year in Carolina which saw him breathe fresh life into his own career, Mrazek has a second chance to become the legitimate starting goaltending we all expected to see between the pipes in Detroit.
Again, it’s not like we can just pretend his struggles never happened. Mrazek had two really rough seasons that hurt his value and reputation as a starter. But this year could be his chance to solidify himself as a legitimate starting goalie in the NHL. If not, the Hurricanes have goalies waiting in the ranks, such as Alex Nedeljkovic. But with Curtis McElhinney out of the picture, Mrazek has more of a chance than ever to put an end to inconsistencies for good and become a quality NHL starter.
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