Devils Get A Goalie

The New Jersey Devils have acquired the goalie 99% of people expected: Calgary Flames’ Jacob Markstrom. They sent a 2025 first-round pick (top 10 protected) and Kevin Bahl. This trade has the majority of Devils fans excited, and this team needed a goalie badly. However, it’s not exactly a slam dunk.

Save percentages the last two seasons
Jacob Markstrom .905 / .892
Vitek Vanecek .890 / .911

What about this is elite? Fans just ran Vitek Vanecek out of town for his play, and while he was very bad and needed to go in the last two seasons. If all things stayed like this, it’s barely an upgrade. Disagree all you want, but the numbers speak for themselves for the last two seasons.

Calgary’s defense was better than the Devils’ this season. If the teams swapped defenders and systems, the Devils’ goaltender numbers would rise, and Calgary’s would fall.

34 is 60 in goaltender years. Cory Schnieder broke down before this. Jonathan Bernier broke down before this. Corey Crawford couldn’t even play. There is a long list of very recent reasons on just our little team that tell us how risky signing old goalies is, and we are banking the entire season on two older guys. Most goalies age like milk not wine and he is not Marty playing at 40 so the comparison to the best goaltender of all time is ridiculous.

Meanwhile, Kevin Bahl was a serviceable defender. He was the biggest, meanest guy, and this team was already the softest in the NHL. He needed to hit more and sure up the defensive side just a bit more, but he at least had an X-factor and probably would have done better outside of Ruff’s no-defense system. He was second on the team in hits and blocked shots, which is far more than can be said about the other guys who are at the bottom-pairing options. The team needs to get that grit back on the defense core since they have lost all of it from the one season we made the playoffs, and they need to get Zadorov to fill the role now, or they will get bullied yet again.

This is a stop-gap move for two seasons, likely, so they are still betting on Akira or Daws, and if this doesn’t work, they don’t have a lot of assets to move anymore, plus the other holes in the roster. They have moved out last seasons first rounder, the 2025 first rounder and former first rounders Smith and Mukhamadhullin to try and improve this lineup. On top of this, other players with value, like Fabian Zetterlund and Yegor Sharangovich, are thriving. While you can’t keep everyone and some of the trades were far better than others, the Devils, like all teams, have to draft, or they will have no one coming up. The only real assets they have left are Seamus Casey, this year’s 10th overall pick, and Alexander Holtz, all of which could be dangerous to move.

Markstrom does however look like he really wants to be in Jersey which is great to see and a fresh start might be good for him if the team can actually defend this season and he sounds like a guy fans will want to cheer for and we are itching to cheer for a goalie, just look at the massive love Jake Allen got.

For now, though, the Devils have a lot of work to do before they are a real threat to do more than a quick playoff appearance, and we just have to hope the team and general manager Fitzgerald make the big moves needed without blowing every future resource this team has.