The New Jersey Devils are going into the season with a very interesting goaltending strategy. They are going to try to establish a three-man goalie rotation. They re-signed Nico Daws to a two-year deal and added David Riitich to supplement his starts. Daws has been decent in the NHL before, but to say he’s inconsistent would be an understatement. Riitich was the tale of two seasons last year with the New York Islanders, but if the Devils can get the first half of his production, then this might work.
To take this journey, new Devils GM Sunny Mehta had to make a bold move: he had to get rid of Jacob Markstrom with no guarantee beyond him.
Markstrom was awful for the New Jersey Devils last season, and the two-year extension he signed in the middle of the season still makes us scratch our collective heads. Devils fans did not understand what Tom Fitzgerald was doing at the time, as it didn’t seem necessary to give an aging goalie two more years at $6 million per season.
When the Devils traded Markstrom to the Florida Panthers for Jesper Boqvist and Evan Rodrigues, that should be the last time they thought about his production. Despite this, many are considering him a top bounce-back candidate.
Devils fans should not care. Even if the Devils’ three-headed monster in net doesn’t work and Markstrom is a Vezina Trophy candidate, we have to understand there was more at play here. Markstrom was beyond fixing in New Jersey. He had his moments, but he constantly went back to that guy who could not make a save in any type of moment.
We honestly have no idea why Markstrom went from the above-average goalie the Devils brass was looking for to one of the worst goalies in the league, but it’s beyond our issue at this point.
Jacob Markstrom has been a bounce-back candidate in the past
Markstrom has had devastatingly bad seasons in the past. Last season wasn’t even Markstrom’s worst. That was 2022-23 when he had a -18.4 goals saved above average. That came right after his worst season in 2021-22. He was a Vezina-caliber goalie that season, but that also changed the narrative around him.
Markstrom was consistently called a great goalie after that 21-22 season despite being a complete albatross the next season. That’s the Markstrom experience. He is going to make you pull your hair out because you know what he’s capable of.
So, if Markstrom is everything the Panthers are hoping for and more as they try to replace Sergei Bobrovsky, just wish him good luck. As long as the Panthers don’t take a playoff spot from the Devils, it’s all water under the bridge.
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