Devils’ goaltending gamble could define their 2026-27 season

The New Jersey Devils spent the summer adding pieces to an offense that needed help. That part of the plan is easy to understand.

What happens in net? Well, that gets a little murkier.

New Jersey finished 42-37-3 last season and missed the playoffs for the second time in three years. The injuries were brutal, but they did not explain every problem. New general manager Sunny Mehta clearly agreed. Instead of running everything back and blaming bad luck, he reshaped the roster.

Now the Devils look deeper up front. They also look awfully vulnerable in goal.

Devils finally have more help around their stars

New Jersey acquired Evan Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist and prospect Ben Steeves from the Florida Panthers. Rodrigues can play several roles, while Boqvist returns to a franchise he already knows. Neither needs to become a star for the trade to help.

The Devils also signed Anthony Mantha to a two-year, $9.5 million contract. Mantha scored a career-high 33 goals and collected 64 points for Pittsburgh last season. He is 6-foot-5, can finish and gives New Jersey a different type of forward than it had before.

It is easy to see the vision.

Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt cannot be expected to drag the offense through an entire season. New Jersey needed secondary scoring and received an overdue dose of it. Mehta also secured Hischier with a five-year extension, keeping the captain away from any future contract drama.

The Devils accomplished plenty.

Then there is the goaltending situation, quietly sitting in the corner like an unpaid bill.

Moving Jacob Markstrom was only half the job

Jacob Markstrom was sent to Florida along with Angus Crookshank in the deal that brought Rodrigues, Boqvist and Steeves to New Jersey.

Nobody should pretend Markstrom was irreplaceable. He posted a lousy .883 save percentage last season and rarely looked like the answer the Devils believed they had acquired. Moving his contract while adding three forwards was a reasonable decision.

Replacing him with an unproven combination of Nico Daws and David Rittich is where the risk begins.

Daws is only 25 and could still become a solid NHL starter. He has shown enough to earn a longer look. The problem is that New Jersey is not rebuilding. This team expects to reach the playoffs, and “let’s see what the kid can do” is not exactly a comforting plan for a supposed contender.

Rittich brings experience, but asking him to rescue the situation if Daws struggles would be asking far too much. He works as a backup. He should not be the emergency cord holding the entire season together.

New Jersey’s season could swing in net

Perhaps Mehta sees something in Daws that has not fully appeared at the NHL level. If Daws takes the job and runs with it, the Devils could have a young, affordable starter behind a much better group of forwards.

That is the sunny version.

The ugly version has New Jersey scoring plenty, losing a stack of 5-4 games and shopping for a goalie after Thanksgiving. Teams know desperation when they smell it. The price only climbs from there.

Mehta improved this roster, and he deserves credit for refusing to sit still. Yet all those additions will mean very little if the Devils cannot get an ordinary save when they need one.

New Jersey does not need Daws to become Martin Brodeur. It just needs him to prove the front office did not spend the summer building a playoff team in front of a giant question mark.