Troy Passingham: Red Wing for the Day
FollowOn Wednsday, The Red Wings announced that they had signed 20 year-old goaltender Troy Passingham to a 24-hour amateur try-out contract. The 6-foot-4, 223 pound netminder is coming off his overage season with the Sarnia Sting of the OHL where he posted a 4.79 goals against and a .879 save percentage.
The move is one was made because the Red Wings do not have enough salary cap space to recall both forward Jan Mursak and Joey MacDonald. The Red Wings had hoped Osgood would be ready to backup Howard tonight against the Vancouver Canucks, but with his recurring post surgery soreness ruled him out for the night. Detroit also clearly does not want to disrupt Petr Mrazek’s playoff run to backstop Jimmy Howard for the night.
Passingham is an undrafted free agent who tried out for the Carolina Hurricanes earlier this year and participated in the Traverse City prospects tournament. This season he started with the Windsor Spitfires, but was stuck behind Dallas Stars first rounder, Jack Campbell, and was eventually moved to Sarnia. He’s likely headed to the Canadian College ranks next fall if an NHL contract doesn’t materialize. The Red Wings are unlikely to sign him beyond the emergency period based on their goaltending pipeline.