New Jersey Devils: 3 Options At Goaltender Behind Mackenzie Blackwood

1. Trade

This one will be tough to pull off, but the Devils have traded for depth goalies three times in the last three seasons. The one time it worked out best is when they traded for Eddie Lack in 2017-18. He wasn’t great for the whole time, but he had a few decent performances and one astronomical performance against the Tampa Bay Lightning that ended up pushing them to another level after the New Year. They also traded for Louis Domingue and Zane McIntyre last season.

This season, things are a little different. Teams are required to carry at least three goalies, so depth is important. Also, with the shortened season, an injury to a goalie might derail a team’s season with only 56 games to play.

However, there are a few teams that decided not to go through with their AHL seasons, so there are players available there. An AHL-caliber goalie can’t cost that much on the trade market, even this season. The Devils have an extra 5th-round pick in 2022 thanks to a Keith Kinkaid trade. It would be ironic if they used that to get themselves a goalie who can work as a stopgap.

The Florida Panthers are a very interesting team here. They have Sergei Bobrovsky with seven years left on his deal. They also have World Juniors hero Spencer Knight waiting in the wings to eventually take the net. Right now, Chris Driedger is slated to be the backup. They have three other goalies signed, but they aren’t having the Charlotte Checkers take part in the AHL season. They might be willing to part with Philippe Desrosiers, who was actually really good in the AHL last season. He had a .916 save percentage with the Springfield Thunderbirds. They just re-signed him, but that was before they decided not to have an AHL season.