5 Goalies New Jersey Devils Should Avoid At All Costs
The New Jersey Devils desperately need a better goalie situation for next season. Desperation could lead to mistakes in terms of roster management. Here are a few goalies the Devils should avoid at all costs.
The New Jersey Devils deserve a good goalie. Since Martin Brodeur left the franchise, they let a few Vezina-worthy seasons from Cory Schneider go to waste before his hip injury ended what was a productive career. Then, they watched the only decent run of Keith Kinkaid’s career. He eventually flamed out (pretty quickly, we might add). Mackenzie Blackwood showed the ability to be one of the best goalies in the league for short stretches. Then, he was one of the more inconsistent goalies in the league the past two seasons. To make up for that, the Devils signed Corey Crawford. He retired before playing a game in the red and black. They went and signed Jonathan Bernier last offseason, and his career is somewhat in jeopardy after hip surgery.
It’s been a long and terrible road in net. Tom Fitzgerald said during his exit meeting with the press that it’s a priority for the Devils to upgrade in net. They have to. They had seven different goalies this season. The Devils were one goalie away from the all-time record set by the 2018-19 Philadelphia Flyers.
This season, the number-one priority must be to get a new goalie. If the Devils don’t, they’ll find themselves in the NHL Draft Lottery once again, and not even Connor Bedard could turn them into a winner. However, desperation has led to mistakes in every industry, and it is especially true in sports.
The Devils need to be smart about their next moves. If they get the wrong goalie, it could mean another lost season. If this goalie costs a ton, it could be even worse. If they spend too much on the free agent, it could hurt as well. Who should this team avoid on the market this offseason?
John Gibson
Let’s just start with all of the heat. Many Devils fans, and other teams who needed a goalie frankly, are hot on John Gibson this offseason. The Anaheim Ducks are in a weird spot, and Gibson still has a lot of value on the open market. People equate Gibson’s lack of valuable stats to a weak team in front of him. It’s hard to tell where the Ducks are in their rebuild, and they could be looking to get the most out of a player who doesn’t fit the timeline.
Gibson is a name many want the Devils to trade for. Some have even mentioned moving Heaven and Earth to make it happen. The Devils need a goalie, and Gibson was once at the top of the league when it comes to goalie output. That hasn’t been the case for three years.
Gibson has failed to break a .905 save percentage over the past three seasons. Over the past three seasons, Gibson has the sixth-worst goals saved above average. He’s in the same conversation as Martin Jones, Matt Murray, and Carter Hutton.
The Devils need to find a solution. Is Gibson actually a solution? That’s not clear, and the Devils can’t afford to take a chance on “not clear” anymore. They cannot go for perceived value. This isn’t a team that can take risks anymore. This was a team that was supposed to be much better than its record shows. A goalie like Gibson, with his .904 save percentage, can’t be trusted to save a team like the Devils.
Petr Mrazek
The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to be calling any and every team to try to offload Petr Mrazek and his $3.8 million per season contract. He was terrible this season. He had an .888 save percentage despite playing 29 games. He was so terrible in his first season in Toronto. At times, the Maple Leafs had no other choice but to play him. That’s how he still got 29 games despite being awful.
The Devils could take the Mrazek contract for compensation, but the Devils would have to buyout the contract. This would be similar to what the Carolina Hurricanes did with Patrick Marleau. However, if the Devils do trade for Mrazek to get assets in the deal, they can’t be convinced to keep Mrazek as their backup goalie. They need more of a guarantee behind Blackwood.
We are just one year removed from Mrazek with a .923 save percentage, but he was only able to play 12 games at that rate. The Leafs gave him that three-year deal, and they thought the risk was going to be on his injury history. Instead, he was awful on the ice.
The Devils can’t take a risk at this position. Mrazek is a HUGE risk. Three of the seven Devils goalies had a better save percentage than Mrazek this season. Mrazek is basically on par with Jon Gillies this season. It’s just time to find a guarantee at the goalie position, and Mrazek is the opposite at this point.
Ville Husso
This one will hurt a lot of Devils fans, but we are 100% off the “sign Ville Husso” bandwagon. This has nothing to do with what happened in the postseason. The St. Louis Blues rode Ville Husso in the regular season, and the second things got heavy in the playoffs, they leaned back on Jordan Binnington. It is what it is on that front. However, this is more than just Husso’s postseason performance.
Husso has one great season under his belt, and now he’s going to make more than Mrazek makes now. Is someone going to pay Husso north of $5 million on a very weak goalie market? Should the Devils really do that?
Maybe other teams will have the same reservations as the Devils and they will bring down Husso’s AAV on his next contract, but Husso is in an enviable position. He had his best season right before becoming an unrestricted free agent. The Blues kept giving him chances to break through, and he finally did it this past season.
Don’t get us wrong. The Devils would love to have a goalie that had a .919 save percentage this past season. It’s even better that they don’t have to give up any prospects to make it happen. However, this is a player in Husso that took forever to develop. Is he just a late bloomer or is he a one-hit wonder? The risk is too high for the Devils to take that chance. He’s had one other NHL season under his belt, and his save percentage was .893.
Braden Holtby
Braden Holtby has been another popular pick to help the New Jersey Devils solidify their goaltending position. This is a former Stanley Cup winner that is just 32 years old. He should have a few more years of really good hockey under his belt. He kind of proved that this year with the Dallas Stars. He had a .913 save percentage while backing up Jake Oettinger. Oettinger showed he is quickly becoming one of the best goalies in the league with his performance against the Calgary Flames in the playoffs. That will likely lead to the Stars moving on from their one-year window with Holtby.
Holtby needed this bounce back after a disastrous stint with the Vancouver Canucks. It got so bad, that the Canucks had to buy Holtby out. Now, he’s going to cost them $1.9 million next season to play for another team.
This happens from time to time. We saw Marc-Andre Fleury almost lose his career in the middle of it because something just wasn’t clicking. That’s why he was exposed in the expansion draft that sent him to the Vegas Golden Knights. He is now the reigning Vezina Trophy winner at 37 years old.
Could that be Holtby? We suppose so. He definitely has an interesting track record. However, he hasn’t been really good in over five years. He has that 2018 Stanley Cup, but that was the last really good stretch of Holtby’s career. The Devils could use someone with his pedigree, but he’s just too similar to Bernier and Crawford before him. It seems like the Devils should go in a different direction.
Linus Ullmark
It seems like trade is the most likely outcome for the Devils when it comes to the goaltender position, and there are some intriguing options. Many are looking at the huge options like Connor Hellebuyck, who we’ve covered before, Spencer Knight, or Gibson, who is on this list. The Devils will likely go big-game hunting, but there are a lot of intriguing names out there they might target.
One team that makes a lot of sense to target is the Boston Bruins. They signed Linus Ullmark to big money last offseason while also giving Jeremy Swayman a chance to take the starting role. This was all on top of trying to take one more run with Tuukka Rask, who ended up retiring in the middle of the season.
The Bruins have no need to keep paying Ullmark his premium at this point. He’s making $5 million for the next three seasons. This, as the Bruins have a paltry $2.3 million to spend this offseason. They need to somehow replace or retain Patrice Bergeron with that money. They also only have David Pastrnak signed for one more season before he becomes an unrestricted free agent.
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The Bruins will do what they can to drop salary this offseason, but the Devils can’t help them by taking Ullmark off their hands. The Devils have the right assets to get a bigger fish. He was pretty good this season, and the Bruins probably don’t regret paying him $5 million this season. However, he did lose his job to someone a few years younger. The Devils don’t need to get into the business of bailing out the Bruins.