With Corey Crawford’s absence, the New Jersey Devils have options.
First and foremost, we aren’t going to speculate on Corey Crawford and when he may come back to the New Jersey Devils. We all hope that he comes back healthy and happy and better than ever. That is the ideal situation. Crawford is a wonderful hockey player, a proven winner, and someone who would be awesome for the locker room. However, there’s a chance that it might not work out that way.
The Devils currently have four goalies under contract. With the new rules for taxi squads, they are required to have five once the Binghamton/Newark Devils season starts (two in NHL, two in AHL, one taxi squad). For the sake of argument, let’s say the Devils are adding a goalie in this process in order to be compliant.
There are actually options here for the Devils. No, we’re not talking about free agency. There’s like nothing there for the Devils. The best option would be Jimmy Howard, who was terrible for the Detroit Red Wings last season, or Scott Darling, who was just cut from his PTO on Friday. Other than that, it’s players like Mike Condon or others that likely aren’t even AHL worthy.
It’s rough out there for a goaltender market that once had Braden Holtby, Jakob Markstrom, Henrik Lundqvist, Thomas Greiss, Cam Talbot, and Ryan Miller all available. Now, the cupboard is barren.
Things are rough behind Mackenzie Blackwood at this moment. Scott Wedgewood was a nice third option, but as the only backup, he’s not ideal. The Devils need to find a way to push Wedgewood down as a taxi squad/injury replacement. Obviously, the options aren’t as fruitful as they were a month ago, but there are options.