The New Jersey Devils Acquire Goaltender Jacob Markstrom From Calgary

The day has finally come! After almost six months of looking to trade for an elite goalie around the league, Tom Fitzgearld and the New Jersey Devils have landed their guy. That guy is Jacob Markstrom of the Calgary Flames.

First reported by Travis Yost of TSN, it would later be confirmed by Devils beat reporters and other big-name insiders around the league that the Devils landed what Fitzgearld calls, “a big fish”.

The full trade details are, Calgary is sending goaltender Jacob Markstrom, with 31.25% ($1,875,000) of his salary retained to New Jersey in exchange a 2025 1st round pick (top-10 protected) and defensemen Kevin Bahl. A huge win for Fitzgerald, who can now focus on the rest of the offseason bolstering the rest of the team in front of Markstrom.

Heading into next season, the Devils will be carrying a $6,050,000 cap hit with Markstrom ($4,125,000) being the starter and Jake Allen ($1,925,000), who Fitzgerald acquired at the trade deadline from Montreal, as a solid backup.

That’s excellent cap and roster management from general manager Tom Fitzgerald, who will now look towards July 1st with just over $16 million in cap space, with Dawson Mercer as the only key free agent to be signed, to turn this roster into a Stanley Cup contending team in 2024/25.

For quite some time the Devils and Flames had been talking trade with the main piece being Markstrom, who owned a full no-movement clause. Original talks started heating up when the Flames made their east coast trip in early February. After beating the Devils 5-3, word started spreading that Markstrom was willing to waive his NMC to come to New Jersey.

Ultimately, even though Markstrom waived his NMC, a deal between the Devils and Flames was not completed due to unwillingness to retain money on the Flames side. Fast-forward to the end of the season and the Devils ended up not making the playoffs.

After the trade deadline passed, Tom Fitzgerald put it bluntly. “I hope they [the team] see this, that it’s an opportunity for us to set ourselves up this summer to have cap space for a position of need and to be quite honest, be big game hunting.”

Looking at his career numbers, in 485 games over 14 years, Markstrom owns a .909 SV% and a goals against average of 2.72. Markstrom has posted two top-4 finishes for the Vezina Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s best Goaltender.

First in the shortened 2019/2020 season where he posted a .918 SV%, with a 2.75 GAA and two shutouts. His best finish game in the 2021/2022 season where he recorded a .922 SV%, a 2.22 GAA and a league best nine shutouts as the Flames went on to win the Pacific division.

In 2023/2024, Markstrom’s numbers were lower on face value at .905 SV% and 2.78 GAA, but if you look a bit closer at his analytical numbers Markstrom was excellent despite the play from the Flames in front of him.

The Devils last season ranked bottom three in “Goals Saved Above Expected”, “Scoring Chance SV%” and “Inner Slot SV%”, a big reason why the Devils were tied for 5th worst in the NHL with a 3.43 GAA. Markstrom individually was top-3 in all three categories.

Landing the caliber of goalie that Markstrom is and having a solid back-up in Jake Allen, New Jersey will be a serious player next season, not just to make the playoffs, but to make a deep playoff run.

On the other side of the deal, Bahl in his Devils career never really lived up to expectations after he was acquired from Coyotes in the Taylor Hall trade. In New Jersey, Bahl played in 148 games, scoring four time and had 25 points in a third pairing role for a majority of his tenure. But the Flames see him as a key piece in the future.

“For quite some time, we had identified Kevin Bahl as a priority player.” – Flames GM Craig Conroy on the former Devils defenseman.

With the goaltending room in New Jersey now set with Markstrom and Allen, and Akira Schmid, Nico Daws and Issac Poulter down in Utica, all signs point to Kahkonen becoming an unrestricted free agent on July 1st. After his trade from San Jose to Jersey, Kahkonen put up an impressive .923 SV% with a 2.51 GAA in just six games.

Now with just nine days until the 2024 NHL Draft at the “Sphere” in Las Vegas, the Devils still hold their first-round pick, which sits at 10th overall. Will the Devils now use the pick now or is the pick still on the trade block?

After all, Tom Fitzgerald did say, “I’m open to moving No. 10, but it’s going to have to be something significant.” Time will tell as we creep closer to the draft next Friday.