The Devils are heading into 2026-27 with plenty of pressure on their shoulders, and Nico Daws enters the picture with a different kind of challenge. After spending most of last season in the AHL, he’s now set to step into a full-time NHL role as New Jersey’s backup goaltender.
Daws barely saw the ice with the Devils in 2025-26, appearing in just three games and finishing with two wins and one loss. His NHL work came in October and then again to close out the season in April. The bulk of his year was spent with the Utica Comets, where he handled the starting job and played 44 games, finishing 17-16-11.
That workload mattered, because the Devils’ goaltending picture changed over the offseason. New Jersey traded Jacob Markstrom to the Florida Panthers in a deal that brought back Jesper Boqvist, Evan Rodrigues, and Ben Steeves. That package didn’t include any goaltending help, and the Devils also signed David Rittich.
But camp and preseason reshaped the depth chart again. In their second round of roster cuts, the Devils placed Rittich on waivers for assignment to the Comets.
They also claimed Remi Poirier off waivers from the Dallas Stars. Poirier has spent his entire career in the AHL and has not played an NHL game.
With Jake Allen, Daws, and Poirier all on the opening night roster, Allen is the obvious starter. Daws has the next-most NHL experience of the group, which puts him in line as the primary backup. There’s a chance he and Poirier could share some of that workload, but Daws is the one expected to sit behind Allen on the depth chart.
There’s also a milestone hanging out there. Daws enters the season with 55 NHL games under his belt.
If he somehow split time evenly with Allen, he’d get to 42 games this year and land just short of his 100th NHL appearance. More realistically, Allen takes most of the starts while Daws and Poirier fill in, which would push that 100-game mark to next season.
The clearest sign of how the Devils view him came from general manager Sunny Mehta during training camp: “There is nothing more frustrating than prospects who develop over time and then there’s no path for them. Now he has that path.”
That path now exists. Daws has spent years bouncing between New Jersey and Utica, but 2026-27 looks like the season he finally gets a real runway in the NHL.
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Devils May Have One Early Problem With This Revamped Lineup
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New Jersey also plans to use a three-goalie rotation, and every one of its four forward lines is expected to feature at least one new face. That kind of overhaul can work, but it rarely clicks instantly, and the Devils may need several weeks before the chemistry settles in and the best version of the lineup comes into focus. [Read more 🡒]