After seemingly an entire calendar year of rumors and speculation (if not longer), the Devils finally got their man, announcing a deal for Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom – at just over 30% retained for a top-ten protected first-rounder in 2025 and young defenseman Kevin Bahl. Another lifetime ago – seemingly – Bahl was a headliner in the Devils’ trade of Taylor Hall to the Coyotes, although one of the first-round picks which turned out to be Dawson Mercer wound up being the better long-term asset. It’s been obvious for a while that GM Tom Fitzgerald was looking to upgrade the goaltending position, admitting he was ‘big-game hunting’ this offseason.

Markstrom was an obvious target for multiple reasons – one being he’s used to the workload of a starting goalie and the Devils needed a 1A to slot in over Jake Allen, who is going to be the 1B at least through next season. Another being his contract situation – signed through the next two years at the age of 34, he’s clearly a short-term patch giving kids like Akira Schmid, Nico Daws and Isaac Poulter even more time to develop in the minors rather than forcing them into the fire as the former two have been at different times the last few seasons. And not so insignificantly, franchise legend and current front office employee Martin Brodeur was publicly high on Markstrom, naming him as one of his top five current goalies in the NHL back in February.

Admittedly that probably didn’t help what little bargaining position we had but let’s get real, any goaltending acquisition was going to cost more than people wanted, there’s a reason why most of the other guys rumored to move haven’t moved yet and also why this deal took so long. Full disclosure: I’m not as in love with Markstrom as our franchise legend seems to be given his inconsistency in Calgary the last few seasons.

2020-21 2.66 GAA, .904 save percentage, 43 starts

2021-22 2.22 GAA. .922 save percentage, 63 starts

2022-23 2.92 GAA, .892 save percentage, 58 starts

2023-24 2.78 GAA, .905 save percentage, 48 starts

Not particularly inspiring other than 2021-22, but of course that was when Matthew Thachuk and Johnny Gaudreau were still in Calgary. Since then, they’ve been foolishly trying to patch together a winner without any success and finally cashed out on one of their few assets remaining. And his numbers precipitously dropped after the trade deadline this year, perhaps in part due to some of the defensemen the Flames dealt off – and also perhaps in part due to him being unhappy over not being traded when it seemed as if a deal between us and Calgary was close a few months ago before being reportedly nixed by their ownership.

While I don’t love the player and absolutely see the bust potential here, I also think this was probably the best of a lot of potentially disastrous and uninspiring options. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to give up a first-rounder but at least it’s not this year’s #10 overall and next year’s first-rounder is top ten protected as well. If we’re even on pick watch this season or next, then something’s gone terribly wrong and Fitz’s job security will be pretty tenuous at best. At least there’s some retention on Markstrom’s deal, so we’re paying total just a hair over $6 million for a vet goalie tandem of Markstrom and Allen next year. I’m a bit nonplussed over giving up Bahl, who granted was an asset as a starting NHL defenseman but he was frustrating in being a big guy who never played like it and certainly didn’t have the offensive skill to be a finesse big man on D. He’s definitely got time to improve but the Devils also have younger players on their blueline who are better and ones in the farm who will likely pass him in short order if they’re not also used in trades eventually.

To be honest, I’m actually surprised this deal’s gotten as much ripping as it has from Devil fans online and social media and I’m far from the biggest pompom waver in general about the team, or with this player specifically. I mean, have you all not been paying attention to the goaltending market? Devil fans complain about looking for average goaltending for at least four of the last five seasons, but don’t want to actually pay anything and just keep attempting the same moneyball strategy that largely has failed over those five seasons. If this was the price for an older, inconsistent Markstrom with a NTC after a year of negotiating, what did you think we’d have to give up for a more proven guy like Jusse Saros or a younger goalie like Linus Ullmark? And it’s not like even those guys are slam-dunk locks.

At some point you have to at least attempt to make a move, especially when you’re Fitz looking to rebound from a disappointing year and start putting some consistent winning seasons together – and despite a well-publicized extension in the middle of last season, job security is almost never infinite. Just ask predecessor Ray Shero, who was canned several months after getting a contract extension of his own, leading to Fitz eventually getting the job here. Someone compared this Markstrom trade to Shero’s PK Subban deal – a short-term patch which doesn’t really handcuff you long term but certainly was still high-risk and high-reward. Hopefully for Fitz’s sake – and ours – this one turns out better for him than that one did for Shero.