The New Jersey Devils need to find a goalie to play with Mackenzie Blackwood.
The New Jersey Devils have Mackenzie Blackwood in net, and he looks like he has what it takes to be a very good number-one goalie in the NHL. The problem is that he went 22-14-8 on a team that went 28-29-12 as a whole. The backups combined for 6-15-4 which isn’t even close to good enough. It shows how good Blackwood was, however, because the Devils were a mess as a unit in front of him. They need to get him some help in the crease.
Of course, the team needs to get better in front of him, but that is a whole different story. He is good enough to help win games, but he can’t do it all on his own. Cory Schneider and Louis Domingue were pretty awful at different points of the season as backups for the Devils. They need to go out and make an addition so that all of the pressure isn’t on Blackwood in 2020-21.
There is the possibility of drafting Yaroslav Askarov with one of their three picks 1st-round picks, but that wouldn’t be a short-term solution as much as a long-term solution. There are some really good free agent goaltenders that are going to be available for the Devils to go after. They should really do that because having a good goalie tandem is the key to winning in today’s NHL.
It would also really help the young players on this team if they went out there and knew that the guy protecting the net was going to do a good job. It is important for these kids to start tasting success in the NHL and building their confidence. The most important position on the ice is goaltender so having a good one is a major key to all of this. Blackwood is awesome but he needs some help really bad.
This could be the offseason where they sort out their goaltending for a little while at least. It needs to be done. The Devils are probably not going to have the best defense for a while but they will be able to score some goals in the coming years. For that reason, goaltending will be even more important so hopefully, they can get a legitimate guy to play with Blackwood.