The New Jersey Devils completely revamped their front office, and not many of the executives of the Tom Fitzgerald era were safe. Dan MacKinnon and Chuck Fletcher were let go pretty quickly, and Meghan Duggan took a GM job in the PWHL. While Sheldon Keefe stuck around, his coaching staff is facing massive changes.Â
One person who stuck around is a Devils legend and one of the most important executives in the company. Martin Brodeur is the greatest New Jersey Devils player of all time, and now he’s driving the Devils' present and future.Â
Since he retired, essentially, the Devils have been trying to acquire a quality goaltender. They’ve tried signing them, as they did with Jonathan Bernier and Corey Crawford. They tried trading for them, as they did with Jacob Markstrom and Vitek Vanecek. And they tried drafting them, as they did with Mackenzie Blackwood and Akira Schmid. In the end, the Devils kept failing themselves while trying to develop a good goaltending unit.
Next season, the Devils are going to try something different. After trading Markstrom to the Florida Panthers, it left the Devils with Jake Allen in net. Sunny Mehta re-signed Nico Daws to a two-year deal, and they added David Riitich for a three-headed monster in net.Â
It’s an unconventional approach to the position, and the Devils are taking a major risk with a very important season, but the Devils seem to be behind Daws and have trust in him. He spoke with The Hockey News this week, and Daws is clearly an important part of the equation.Â
"Nico Daws is a kid who needs a chance. We've been developing him for four years. We didn't put great teams in front of him in Utica and obviously his development slowed down because of that. But we need to give him a chance to see what we have."Martin Brodeur to The Hockey News
We've pounded the table for Daws, saying he should still be considered the future of the Devils in net. The former third-round pick clearly has talent and could be an NHL goaltender in theory. We've seen him play incredibly well, including beating the Philadelphia Flyers in the Stadium Series. He's had other good-to-great performances across his 55-game NHL career, and now the Devils are giving him a chance to take the starting goalie job.
"He's got it, I really believe in him, we just never gave him a chance. So now he's going to have a chance to show us if he's a real NHL goalie and I believe he is."Martin Brodeur to The Hockey News
If Brodeur is backing Daws, then we expect him to get a legitimate look to be the starter. The expectation was that Jake Allen would be the guy who gets the bulk of the starts, but Daws might truly be the guy in net until he proves he shouldn't be. If the Devils make the playoffs, there would be real worry whether Allen could hold up. If Daws can be the starter, that won't be a problem anymore.
Add us as a preferred source on Google