5 New Jersey Devils Who Will Decide Their Playoff Fate

3. Vitek Vanecek

The Devils have been to the Stanley Cup Final five times. Every single time, the greatest goaltender of all time Martin Brodeur took them there. Outside of that, the Devils never made the Stanley Cup Final. A lot of it had to do with the Devils goaltending.

Recently, the Devils never had reliable goaltending. Mackenzie Blackwood never stayed healthy enough to consistently win. Jonathan Bernier hurt his hip and might never play again. Cory Schneider was great before a hip injury, and he could never match his output to the output of the team around him. Keith Kinkaid had one good run. Corey Crawford retired.

This season, Tom Fitzgerald finally found the right player in between the pipes. He traded for Vitek Vanecek in the offseason and signed him to a three-year contract. It seemed like another risk at the time, as the Caps were willing to give up on Vanecek despite moving their other starter Ilya Samsonov.

Vanecek has been great at times this season and below par at others. If he’s at the top of his game, then the Devils can win basically every game. Every other part of the Devils is so above average, having just average goaltending is enough to win playoff series.