The New Jersey Devils as a team are off to a hot start. Jake Allen, who re-signed with the team the morning of free agency on July 1st, has been nearly unbeatable, minus one bad night in San Jose. He is going to make $1.8 million for the next four years after this one. His goalie tandem partner and seemingly number one goalie, Jacob Markstrom, has been nearly unplayable so far this season.
Markstrom missed more than a week with a lower-body injury, in his defense. Not in his defense? His .830 save percentage and 5.13 goals against in the few games he has played this season. However, Tom Fitzgerald saw all he needed to see to give Markstrom a two-year, $6 million AAV extension on Friday night.
Markstrom, while showing flashes that he can be the goalie the Devils traded a first round pick for, has not been the same since his knee injury against the Boston Bruins last year on Janurary 22nd. Tom Fitzgerald is taking a big gamble on Markstrom returning to form even though he has not shown he is deserving of the extension in quite some time.
The money is a bit expensive as well. Allen has had the better numbers since Markstrom arrived to New Jersey. Looking at their numbers on paper, Markstrom is not and should not be $4 million more expensive than Markstrom. Allen currently has a 2.39 goals against average and a .906 save percentage, with both of those numbers taking a hit on a bad night against the Sharks. The money, right now, cannot be justified. If Allen took a discount to stay, why overpay on Markstrom?
With this extension, the Devils now have only $10 million in cap space going into next season, even with the projected salary cap jump. Paul Cotter, Arseny Gritsyuk, and Simon Nemec all need new contracts, including other pending free agents the team may want to keep. The Devils are going to have to get creative with the salary cap. This means the likes of Dougie Hamilton and/or Ondrej Palat could be headed out the door in the offseason or at the upcoming trade deadline.
On the surface, the hope for this extension and Markstrom is for him to backstop a team to the Stanley Cup. But that is the main problem: hope. The Devils hope they can stay healthy. Yet this season, it is injury after injury. The hope is that Palat can fill in on the top line while Evgenii Dadonov is out. Yet Palat has been a black hole in the offensive zone where no hope or offense can be found.
The time for hope is done. The time for proving it is now. Time is not something Markstrom or Allen for that matter, has on their side as professional athletes. Both goalies are over the age of 35 and can fall off a cliff at any second. With this extension, the Devils will have two goalies at the age of 37 as their number one and two.
Jacob Markstrom's contract has far-reaching impacts for the New Jersey Devils
Another domino of that is what happens to Nico Daws? He will have to get claimed at some point, right? He has shown he is capable of handling NHL competition. The Devils have a few goalie prospects, including Mikhail Yegorov, someone the Devils think highly of. While this extension gives Yegorov some more time to season, it handcuffs the Devils to a struggling veteran.
In good news, the Devils have a formidable goalie tandem locked up for at least two more years after a few years of not being able to find just one of them to stick around. Since the days of Martin Brodeur and Cory Schneider, it has been a revolving door of goalies in New Jersey. Having stability between the pipes can give the team a sense of ease for the next few years.
Maybe if the Devils are making a late push in May towards a Stanley Cup this extension will look much better. But right now, it just seems like another decision that Tom Fitzgerald will get more criticism than praise for.