The Devils May Need To Make A Goaltending Upgrade

The New Jersey Devils have the offensive talent to compete with nearly any team in the Eastern Conference, and perhaps the NHL. Their core centers on Jack Hughes, Luke Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and, to a lesser extent, Timo Meier. The Devils are heavily invested in their offensive stars, and for good reason, but they haven’t done the same with their goaltending, and they may need to upgrade if they hope to make a deep playoff run this season. This isn’t to say New Jersey’s goaltending is inherently bad; it hasn’t been, at least so far this season. But they also haven’t been particularly good, and they’re unlikely to steal many games for the Devils this season.

The Devils traded Jacob Markstrom to the Florida Panthers in the offseason after an uneven run in New Jersey. It made sense at the time, given his inconsistency with the Devils, but many felt New Jersey would pivot and try to acquire other goaltending help. That moment hasn’t yet arrived, but it appeared it could have happened when Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets became available, up to this point, Devils general manager Sunny Mehta has said he is quite comfortable with his goaltending.

The timing of his statements is peculiar because, given the talent at the top of the lineup, the Devils are in their window of contention; however, they aren’t considered among the NHL’s championship contenders. That window is also shrinking, and New Jersey doesn’t seem urgent enough to turn their fortunes around.

Their goaltenders are currently Jake Allen, who is in the upper echelon of NHL backups; Nico Daws, who is still finding his footing in the NHL; and career journeyman David Riitich, who is a solid third option who can fill in as an NHL backup in a pinch. Objectively, those three aren’t the kind of trio you would expect on a Stanley Cup contender. Sure, the Carolina Hurricanes won the Cup with Brandon Bussi, Frederik Andersen, and Pyotr Kochetkov, but the Hurricanes are a much deeper team than the Devils and play a system unlike any other in the NHL right now.

For the Devils, there may be many nights when they need to score five goals to win. It won’t necessarily be due to bad goaltending; it might just be average goaltending or a lack of timely saves. That is the nature of goaltending. Good goaltending can hide many warts in roster construction, but average or below-average goaltending can erase the benefits of a very talented roster, as could happen in New Jersey.

The Devils could control the play, generate better chances than their opponent, and still lose because their netminder didn’t get the timely extra save. This could be especially noticeable for a team with high-end offensive talent that may have defensive deficiencies.

The Devils’ goaltending could get them to the playoffs in the weakened Metropolitan Division. But do you trust that trio to win you a playoff round? Probably not. They certainly aren’t stealing rounds for the Devils, even if they get hot at the right time.

GM Mehta’s logic makes sense right now; goaltending is volatile, and even a high-end, highly paid goalie doesn’t necessarily translate to better goaltending. Netminders are extremely unpredictable, and even the best ones go through slumps that can alter a season, or average goalies can go on an unprecedented run. Anyone remember Andrew Hammond in Ottawa? Devils’ management is betting they can find adequate goaltending for less than they paid Markstrom, or they are willing to pay more for superior results. Trading Markstrom to the Panthers was a risk, as was moving forward with Allen, Daws and Rittich. Perhaps Mehta has one more risk in him: the big move for his goalie of the future, or maybe he is actually happy with what he has right now.

Allen has plenty of NHL experience and has shown he can be an effective NHL goalie in short spurts. At 36, a heavy workload over an entire season probably won’t help him play his best if he is the playoff starter, and Daws is a question mark rather than a plan B. New Jersey can give Daws a chance to develop, and they really should, but it would be malpractice to assume he’ll be a playoff starter if the Devils get there.

Hughes, Hischier, Bratt and others will likely score a lot this season, but even the most elite offensive teams will hit a dry patch at some point, which is why every Stanley Cup-contending team can win 1-0 and 2-1 games when needed. It’s tough to see the Devils lock down too many of those games with their current lineup and these goalies, so Mehta should monitor several developing goaltender situations around the league to see if an opening exists for him to pounce on a legitimate starter who can share the workload with Allen.