Between the Denver Pioneers announcing that Red Wings prospect goalie Filip Larsson was out indefinitely due to injury and an Instagram post in which Larsson said 2019 was his year in the caption with him in the hospital as the photo, it was easy to assume that Larsson would miss the entire season which would have set his development back.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BoR–5Kl8pU/

The unexpected happened Friday night when Larsson surprisingly dressed for Denver for the first time this season.

Denver’s Devin Cooley played the whole game and recorded a shutout for Denver. They likely won’t switch things up until Cooley falters, but until then Larsson will still be able to develop his technique on the ice during practice and take his conditioning to another level off the ice which will still carry his development in the right direction. Larsson is widely regarded as Detroit’s top goalie prospect and he would’ve been right in the middle of the fight for starting goalie had he been healthy to start the season.

For those that don’t know, former NHL goalie Ben Scrivens retired and is on Denver’s staff as the Team Manager. Having Scrivens around Larsson is good for his development and a dynamic that could work out like former NHLer Shawn Horcoff being the Red Wings’ director of player development and being able to relate to young forwards does for Detroit.

Larsson, 20, was the USHL goalie of the year for the 2017-18 season. He registered a 1.65 GAA and .941 sv% in 30 games with the Tri-City Storm. His .941 SV% was the highest in USHL history and his 7 shutouts were the fourth highest total in USHL history.

The Wings are going to be patient with Larsson and it looks like Denver is the perfect place for him to foster his development and maybe even pick up a degree on the way.