The New Jersey Devils have come to terms with restricted free agent goaltender Vitek Vanecek. The move, while seemingly unspectacular, solidifies the Devils’ goaltending situation which was their biggest downfall last season. If anything, it should make the team lightyears better.
As with any move, not all fans are happy. Some are mad the Devils didn’t walk away from free agency with either Darcy Kuemper or Jack Campbell. While both goaltenders had their share of success in the 2021-2022 season (Kuemper did win the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche, after all), signing them might not have been the best move for New Jersey. Let’s take a look why.
Jack Campbell
Campbell ended up leaving the Toronto Maple Leafs, who couldn’t afford his new contract, to join the Edmonton Oilers. Campbell seemingly had the pedigree of an elite NHL goaltender. He was a former first round pick by the Dallas Stars at 11th overall back in 2010.
Campbell never took a starter’s role in the NHL during the first seven years in the NHL. That’s surprising, considering his solid number with the Los Angeles Kings during the 2018-2019. In Los Angeles, he was always destined to be behind Jonathan Quick.
Campbell had a great two year run with Toronto (he came over the season prior but only played six games). In 2020-2021 he played slightly more than Frederick Anderson in a 1A and 1B goaltending tandem before assuming the starter’s role this past season. Campbell seemed to finally have his NHL coming out party, before injuries and poor play nearly derailed his season in the second half.
The game logs don’t lie. In 23 games before the calendar turned to 2022, Campbell only had four games with a save percentage under .900, good for 17.39% of his games. After that, he would have 13 of his 26 games post a save percentage below that level for a 50% rate.
Seven of those 26 games had him allow five goals. Two of them ended up being wins, speaking to the offensive fire power that carried the Maple Leafs. Edmonton also has an above average offense, so Campbell should see more of the same in his new locale. Edmonton is also a team with high expectations that doesn’t want to waste anymore of Connor McDavid’s or Leon Draisatl’s careers, so was willing to overpay for the seemingly average Campbell. That wouldn’t have been money well spent for New Jersey.
Darcy Kuemper
It’s easy to look at Kuemper through rose-colored glasses since his season ended with a Stanley Cup victory. Ever since his trade to the Arizona Coyotes during the 2017-20018 season, Kuemper has been a number one goaltender. He continued on that role following his trade to the Avalanche.
In the two years since Kuemper played 55 games for the Coyotes in 2018-2019, he has had some notable injuries. First there was an MCL injury that kept him out for almost half of the 2020-2021 season. Kuemper had three different injuries this past year in Colorado, including two during the Avalanche’s post season run. Though cut him some slack as one of those injuries was a freak eye poking accident courtesy of Ryan Johansen’s stick that was relatively minor.
Let’s assume the Devils signed Kuemper to the same contract the Washington Capitals did at five years and $5,250,000. That would be taking a goaltender with injury concerns to his age-36 season. That sounds a tad too risky for general manager Tom Fitzgerald and company. Another year of bad goaltender injuries might have led to a Jon Gillies reunion tour.
What About Blackwood?
People who wanted Kuemper or Campbell over Vanecek forget one thing: this team still has Mackenzie Blackwood. Tom Fitzgerald is even counting Blackwood for a comeback season. Okay, those comments were made after Campbell and Kuemper signed elsewhere in free agency and Vanecek came over via trade, so maybe Fitzgerald was saying “well we’re stuck with him, so let’s hope he gets better,” in a very media friendly, diplomatic way. Some teams even took Fitzgerald’s comments as unofficial proof Blackwood is off the trade market.
As long as Blackwood is here. Vanecek won’t be a start getting the lion’s share of the games. Vanecek will either be a backup, or a 1B in the goalie tandem. He won’t be handed the workload that Campbell will be in Edmonton or Kuemper will be in Washington (remember, Washington more or less cleared house of all their goaltenders in anticipation of Kuemper signing there). Expectations for Vanecek should be tempered for that reason.
Vanecek played just over half (42 games) of the Capitals 82 games last season. In those appearances, he was slightly below average. Meanwhile, New Jersey had 19 games of way below average John Gillies. Don’t expect Vezina level numbers, but expect a definite improvement over last season.