As the dust was settling from another NHL Trade Deadline, the New Jersey Devils made a change in goaltending, in hopes of finding some success late in the season.
On Friday, they traded to get Jake Allen from the Montreal Canadiens, and acquired Kaapo Kähkönen from the San Jose Sharks, sending Vitek Vanecek and a 2025 seventh-round pick back to San Jose.
The lackluster play of Vanecek had led the former Washington Capital to fall out of favor, and general manager Tom Fitzgerald decided to bring in a couple of new faces.
Jake Allen has been wearing the starter’s tag over the last couple of seasons after the exit of Carey Price. While his numbers are not glorious, he can certainly be a guy that can be relied on to give his team a chance to win.
Kähkönen was once a highly-touted prospect coming up through the Minnesota Wild ranks. However, he has really struggled over the last couple of seasons with a bad Sharks team. His numbers this season are better than his results during the 2022-23 campaign.
However, despite the notable transaction, the question is will the Devils see any benefit from the move?
During the “Ask DFO” segment of Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Colby Cohen and Tyler Yaremchuk gave their thoughts on the trade, and whether it or not it will make a difference for the Devils.
Colby Cohen: They did…there’s no question about it, they did. Did they find the answer long-term? Absolutely not. Look, I like Jake Allen, I think he’s kind of the perfect type of compliment goalie to a true No. 1 type of starter. Do I think he can come in and help stop the bleeding? Yeah, I do. Absolutely, they improved their goaltending situation.
I still don’t think they’re a playoff team. I still don’t think they’re all set now, by any means. I don’t think you’re running with these two guys into the sunset. They got better, but they still got work to do in that positon.
You can watch the full segment, and the entire episode here…
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