The New Jersey Devils have spent years chasing the same thing: a true No. 1 goaltender who can take over a game the way Martin Brodeur once did.
That search has already run through Corey Schneider and Jacob Markstrom, and it still hasn’t produced the long-term answer the franchise has wanted since Brodeur left in 2014. When the Devils dealt Markstrom to the Florida Panthers at the end of the 2025-26 season, the question opened right back up: do they keep working with what they have, or do they go hunting for a proven star in net?
Right now, the Devils have three goalies under contract: Jake Allen, Nico Daws and David Rittich.
Allen is the most established of the group. He backed up Markstrom last season and is signed through 2029-30, but he’s also clearly in the later stage of his career.
Among goalies with more than 25 starts, he ranked 19th in save percentage at .904 and 25th in goals-against average at 2.74. The bigger issue is workload.
He hasn’t appeared in more than 40 games since the 2022-23 season, and at 35, expecting prime-level numbers is a tough ask.
Daws is the opposite case. He’s 25, still trying to carve out a real NHL role, and has spent most of his career bouncing between the NHL and AHL.
He has never played more than 25 games for the Devils, and last season he appeared in only three. With Markstrom gone, he looked set to get more of a chance this season - until the Devils brought in Rittich.
Rittich signed with New Jersey this offseason on a one-year deal worth $1 million. It’s a one-way contract and does not include any trade protection.
A career backup, Rittich gives the Devils another option to ease the load on the starter. If he and Allen split the crease in a 1A/1B setup, that could be workable. The downside is obvious: Daws would be pushed back into the third-string role, even though he’d have the benefit of learning behind two experienced goalies.
And that’s part of the larger clue here. If the Devils were truly gearing up to land a superstar goalie, signing Rittich wouldn’t make much sense. Any real move for a big-name netminder would likely require clearing one of the current goalie cap hits first, which would make Rittich’s addition feel redundant.
The league has also changed enough that the old goalie blueprint isn’t as rigid as it used to be. The source points to the Carolina Hurricanes’ Cup-winning season with Brandon Bussi and Pyotr Kochetkov as evidence that a team can win without a marquee name in net. The lesson for New Jersey is pretty clear: build the team in front of the goalie, and the goaltending conversation gets a lot less urgent.
That’s why the Devils may be better off standing pat in net and focusing on strengthening the roster elsewhere. The source even points to Quinn Hughes as the kind of addition that could make the goalie debate disappear altogether.
In Other News...
Devils Fans Finally Got The Streaming Change They Wanted
For Devils fans who have spent the last stretch dealing with the Gotham Sports App, the long-awaited streaming change is finally here. The app drew plenty of frustration for delays and technical glitches, and the teams games will no longer live there once the next broadcast arrangement kicks in.
The move comes through a new partnership involving MSG Networks and the YES Network, with Devils games set to be streamed on DAZN beginning with the 2026-27 NBA and NHL season. The broad direction is now clear, but the finer points still matter to fans, and pricing along with possible game-package options have not yet been announced. [Read more 🡒]
Quinn Hughes' Next Month Could Change Everything For Devils Fans
Quinn Hughes and his camp are expected to meet with Wild general manager Bill Guerin in Michigan this week, a conversation that figures to carry more weight than the early optimism around a quick extension ever suggested. Minnesota has been pushing for a long-term commitment, with the sides still navigating the kind of contract structure that can define a franchise relationship for years.
What makes the situation more delicate is how little substantive progress has surfaced as the new season draws near, leaving the Wild to balance urgency against patience. The next stretch should bring more clarity on where Hughes fits in Minnesotas future, and it also keeps open the possibility that the conversation around him could shift well beyond this season. [Read more 🡒]