New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald is facing a crucial question regarding his goaltending tandem for the 2025-26 season.
With starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom under contract for the 2025-26 season, the organization must decide who the veteran’s backup will be.
This past season, the Devils tandem consisted of Markstrom and veteran Jake Allen.
“We liked our tandem,” Fitzgerald said. “We felt it was one of the better tandems in the league. You look at (Allen’s) numbers, (they were) very good. His professionalism, the way he interacted with (Markstrom) as the backup, is very important in a tandem. They got along very well.”
Allen finished the season with a 13-16-1 record with a .908 save percentage and a 2.66 goals-against average.
In a recent interview with NHL.com, Fitzgerald spoke about Allen, 34, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent.
“As far as goaltending, Jake Allen is one of the better ones on the market,” Fitzgerald told NHL.com. “His camp tells me he would like to stay. He really enjoyed his time here. We are trying to figure out what that number is, and then does it work for us?”
Of course, the Devils also have an internal option in 24-year-old Nico Daws.
Daws will enter the final season of a two-year contract with an average annual value of $812,500. For the 2025-26 campaign, he is on a one-way deal at $850,000 at the NHL level.
Spending most of this past season in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Utica Comets, Daws started four games for the Devils, earning a 3-1-0 record with one shutout.
This past season wasn’t the easiest for Daws. It was a challenging start with the Comets, who kicked things off, losing their first 13 games, and an injury that forced him to take a couple of weeks off after Christmas.
With all of that now behind him, Daws feels confident about where he is and the lessons he has learned.
“When you have a start like we did in Utica, it is a lot of mental ups and downs for sure, and just learning how to deal with it and stay composed,” Daws explained. “Removing yourself from it and just think, win or lose, you have to be able to get in the net every night with the confidence to win, and I think confidence has been a big thing for me this year.
“I learned a lot this year mentally.”
With New Jersey having several young goaltenders in their pipeline, it could be time to see one of them make the jump to full-time NHLer, and a more confident Daws believes he is up for the task.
“Obviously, I want to be on this team full-time, and I think I am ready for it,” Daws said. “Just going to go into the summer working as hard as I can, have a really good camp, and prove to them that I am ready.”
It will be up to Fitzgerald and his front office to decide whether it is time to promote Daws to an NHL player or run it back with two veterans who served the Devils well in 2024-25.
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