The Washington Capitals have added another goaltender to the mix, landing Remi Poirier from the New Jersey Devils in exchange for a 2027 seventh-round draft pick.
For New Jersey, the move comes a little more than a week after the blockbuster Connor Hellebuyck deal, and it marks another trade involving a goalie. Poirier had been claimed on waivers by the Devils before this season, but he never got into an NHL game for them. Rather than try to send him down to the American Hockey League and risk losing him on waivers, New Jersey turned him into a draft asset.
The deal also helps Washington rebuild some of the organizational depth it lost when Clay Stevenson was claimed by the Winnipeg Jets via waivers before the season.
Poirier is 25 and comes from Farnham, Quebec. He spent all of last season with the Dallas Stars’ AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, and put together a strong year: a 27-19-6 record, a .912 save percentage and a 2.61 goals-against average in 52 appearances. He added a 2-3 record, a .883 SV% and a 2.92 GAA in Texas’ first-round playoff loss to the Chicago Wolves in five games.
Dallas picked Poirier in the sixth round of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, but he has still not appeared in an NHL game. After a four-year junior run with the Gatineau Olympiques of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), he turned pro full time in 2022-23 and split that season between the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads and Texas. He then spent the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons entirely with Texas, posting a combined 34-27-6 record with a .906 SV% and a 2.85 GAA.
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Devils Offense Is Finally Flipping A Problem Fans Know Too Well
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The encouraging part is that the gap is starting to shrink. Jack Hughes, Arseny Gritsyuk, Anthony Mantha and Luke Evangelista have all helped push the attack closer to where it should be, and there is still room for the power play to swing upward as well. If that trend holds, the Devils may finally spend the rest of the season looking less like a team fighting its finishing and more like one turning chances into goals at an above-average rate. [Read more 🡒]