The Devils rebuilt their crease at the trade deadline, swapping out struggling starter Vitek Vanecek for Kaapo Kahkonen in a deal with the Sharks and acquiring Jake Allen from the Canadiens.
Neither of their two pickups is a long-term solution as New Jersey continues to build around their young Jack Hughes-led core, though, and GM Tom Fitzgerald knows it.
He plans to revisit his team’s uncertainty in the crease over the summer and will pursue a true starter in the process, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun wrote for The Athletic on Tuesday.
“The idea here is to try to finally reel in a stud goalie and have Allen there to create a 1A-1B situation,” LeBrun said.
Allen has one season remaining at a $1.925M cap hit, thanks to Montreal retaining half of his $3.85M AAV in the trade.
All signs point to the Devils letting Kahkonen, who will be a UFA this summer after completing a two-year, $5.5M deal, go to the market.
Fitzgerald said in his post-deadline media availability that the primary objective of the trade with San Jose was shedding Vanecek’s $3.4M cap hit for this season and next.
A bona fide No. 1 netminder is Fitzgerald’s first choice, and he’s willing to surrender the assets to make it work. As such, LeBrun said New Jersey will re-engage in talks with the Flames and Predators regarding Jacob Markstrom and Juuse Saros, who could be on the move regardless of whether the Devils swing a deal for them.
The Devils attempted to acquire Markstrom, who has a no-move clause in his contract, before this year’s deadline. After talks initially fizzled out due to the Flames’ unwillingness to retain salary in a trade, Fitzgerald re-engaged with an offer that included New Jersey taking on all of Markstrom’s $6M cap hit through 2026.
Markstrom reportedly waived his no-move clause to green-light the trade, but the Flames ended up not moving him as the team was making progress toward a wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
This caused the goaltender to publicly voice his discontent with the Calgary front office. The Flames have lost all three games after the deadline, each by four or more goals, and now stand with just a 2.2 percent chance of making the playoffs, per MoneyPuck.
The Devils also talked with Nashville about Saros but didn’t get as far down the road. Unlike Markstrom, Saros will be a pending UFA beginning on July 1 and does not have trade protection. He also costs $1M less than his Swedish counterpart.
If Fitzgerald swings for the fences on both and misses twice, it’s possible the Devils would still rather look for a tandem netminder to partner with Allen, keeping youngsters Nico Daws and Akira Schmid in the minors.
Options on the UFA market will be slim, though — in fact, Kahkonen would be one of the better pickups if that’s how they opted to address their crease.
Other top options are either on the precipice of decline (Marc-Andre Fleury, Cam Talbot) or have been inconsistent when given expanded roles (Kahkonen, Alex Nedeljkovic, Ilya Samsonov).
While Daws and Schmid are promising options and have more NHL games in their future, neither projects as a true starter.
If New Jersey wants to truly kick off its window of contention with talents like Jack and Luke Hughes, Dawson Mercer and Simon Nemec, all 23 years old or less, they’ll need a more veteran presence as a long-term answer.
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