The New Jersey Devils have revamped their goaltending situation from the top down, offloading Jacob Markstrom and his $6 million AAV contract and supplanting him with a platoon of Nico Daws and David Rittich (while keeping Jake Allen, of course).
A byproduct of that is that the Utica Comets are down a starting goaltender and are now handing the reins to sophomore North American Jakub Málek, whose rookie campaign with the Comets had its fair share of highs and lows. Of course, the organization brought back Jeremy Brodeur and signed Seth Eisele to AHL-only deals, but the reality is that they don't have more than a handful of combined AHL games and are well past the age where they have reasonable developmental runway.
With that, the Devils could sign another goaltender. Their current depth just won't cut it, especially if there's an injury at the NHL level.
Enter Philip Svedebäck, who has spent the last four years at Providence College and is set to become an unrestricted free agent on August 15th. The 24-year-old was selected in the fourth round of the 2021 NHL Draft by the Boston Bruins, playing one season in the USHL before matriculating to college hockey's hardest division.
In his first two seasons, Svedebäck was the bona fide starter for Providence, starting a whopping 69 combined games while sporting a combined .905 save percentage (SV%). He gradually ceded his net, though, ultimately playing in 26 and 18 games in his junior and senior seasons, respectively. It should be noted, though, that Svedebäck ended those two campaigns with a respective .911 and .918 SV%.
Going from a volume starter with middling box score statistics to 1A/B with strong outputs is a perfectly fine outcome in college for a fourth-round prospect, and it should be enough to earn him a prove-it deal at the AHL level. Even if Svedebäck never works his way to playing even an injury call-up role in the NHL, the Devils in particular could use his services.
As of right now, neither Brodeur nor Eisele is a strong enough backstop (on paper, of course) to truly back Málek up -- it would be prudent for AHL GM Braden Birch to invest in another young goalie who contributed at a solid enough level in a tough NCAA division. Utica's turnaround needs to include goaltenders, too.
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