ESPN NEWS: Detroit Red Wings goaltending prospect Rudy Guimond has an opportunity to end his record-setting season and his major junior career by winning the Memorial Cup.

Red Wings’ record-setting goalie prospect vying for Memorial Cup

Detroit Red Wings goaltending prospect Rudy Guimond has an opportunity to end his record-setting season and his major junior career by winning the Memorial Cup.

Guimond and the Moncton Wildcats, winners of the Quebec Major Junior League championship, are competing in the Memorial Cup, along with OHL champ London, WHL winner Medicine Hat and host Rimouski. The tournament starts tonight; Moncton’s first game is Saturday vs. London.

Guimond remarkably won his first 24 games, the best start ever for a CHL goalie, before suffering his one and only loss in his most recent appearance, a 5-1 setback to Rimouski in Game 4 of the QMJHL final.

The Red Wings selected Guimond, who turned 20 on Monday, in the sixth round in 2023 (169th overall). He went 16-0-0 in the regular season and is 8-1 in the playoffs. Overall, he is 24-1-0, with a 1.92 goals-against average and .932 save percentage.

Guimond, despite his dominance, might not be Moncton’s main goalie. That’s because veteran Mathis Rousseau is 8-2 in the playoffs and played the final two games of the QMJHL final.

The 6-4, 175-pound Guimond is the lone Red Wings prospect at the Memorial Cup. He will play at Yale next season.

Guimond started this season with Cedar Rapids of the USHL before a November rules change making CHL players eligible to play in the NCAA prompted him to join Moncton.

Guimond is part of a promising stable of Red Wings goalie prospects that includes Sebastian Cossa of the Grand Rapids Griffins, Trey Augustine of Michigan State and Carter Gylander, who’s had a solid season for Toledo, which is tied 2-2 with Kansas City in the ECHL Eastern Conference final.

DETROIT — Matt Vierling is the last man standing from the 2023 Gregory Soto trade.

The Philadelphia Phillies traded utility man Kody Clemens to the Minnesota Twins on Saturday, three days after he was designated for assignment.

The Tigers traded Clemens and closer Gregory Soto to the Phillies on Jan. 7, 2023, for infielder Nick Maton, outfielder Matt Vierling and catcher Donny Sands.

Soto now pitches for the Baltimore Orioles; Maton was DFA’d Saturday by the Chicago White Sox; and Sands is playing in Mexico.

Clemens, who turns 29 next month, was the Tigers’ third-round draft pick out of the University of Texas in 2018.

He has found a niche as a left-handed-hitting utility man who can play just about any position. His bat has shown some pop, but he has struggled to hit for average in 402 big-league plate appearances over the last four seasons. He has a .611 OPS (68 OPS+) with 20 doubles and 14 home runs.