The Montreal Canadiens moved veteran netminder Jake Allen today. He is off to the New Jersey Devils in return for a conditional third-round pick. Montreal also retains half of Allen’s salary for this year and next year.
Jake Allen Joins the Devils
The team has carried three goaltenders for the bulk of the season, not wanting to risk losing any of them. With Sam Montembeault getting a new three-year deal in December and Cayden Primeau being their own draft pick, that left Allen on the outside. He was likely the more appealing in any case, being a veteran with 29 Stanley Cup playoff games experience.
The 33-year-old Allen was traded to Montreal in 2020 for two seventh-round draft picks. He then signed for two years as a free agent, mostly in tandem with Carey Price or Montembeault. An extension followed this past offseason, but the Canadiens have decided to go with younger hands. They’ve worked around his seven-team no-trade list to get this deal done.
Allen has played in 21 games this season, with a .892 save percentage and 3.65 goals against average. He has one more season at $3.85 million remaining on his deal, making him likely to stay another year with the devils
What This Means
With Montreal out of the playoff run, they recaptured what they could in trading their veteran. For Jake Allen, he’s going to a team that wants the security of a goaltender who has filled a backup role for the past few years. With his current contract, the odds are good that he’ll stay at his new location for another year. But for now, he’s a fall-back plan for their expected playoff run.
New Jersey now has a veteran goalie on the roster. This can give Nico Daws and Akira Schmid a chance to fix themselves down in Utica of AHL.
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