Devils Expected To Sign David Rittich

After trading Jacob Markstrom to Florida recently, the Devils needed some extra depth between the pipes.  It appears that they’ve found that player as PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that New Jersey is expected to sign David Rittich to a one-year, $1MM contract.

The 33-year-old was brought in as injury insurance by the Islanders last season with the uncertainty surrounding Semyon Varlamov.  That proved to be a wise move as Varlamov didn’t see any NHL action while Rittich wound up playing in 30 games, putting up a 2.76 GAA along with a .894 SV%.  He also ranked 29th in the NHL in Goals Saved Above Expected, per MoneyPuck, with a mark of +4.2.

For his career, Rittich has 260 NHL appearances under his belt over parts of 10 seasons.  He has predominantly been a backup goalie during that stretch, playing to a 2.79 GAA along with a .903 SV%.

With Markstrom now gone, Jake Allen is the current projected starter for New Jersey, a role he hasn’t held very often in recent years.  Rittich also isn’t a starter at this point of his career while Nico Daws, who inked a new two-year deal yesterday, has played in just nine NHL games over the past two seasons and isn’t coming off a particularly strong season in the minors.

At the moment, New Jersey has around $7.6MM in cap room, per PuckPedia.  Should Barrett Hayton’s offer sheet not be matched, they’ll be down to a little under $3MM.  As long as there aren’t any other signings of note planned, the Devils could afford to be a team that rotates through three netminders, allowing all of them to fill their usual workloads.  It’d be an unusual approach but given the players they have, it might be their best option at the moment.