Jacob Markström
Age: 36 Position: Goalie
Statistics: 0.883 save percentage, -2.12 goals saved above expected (44 games)
Contract: two years, $12 million (two years remaining)
Grade: D
2025-26 Review
It was a season to forget for the 36-year-old veteran goaltender, to say the least. Jacob Markström posted arguably the worst season of his 16-year NHL career, and it came after a preseason extension where the New Jersey Devils committed $12 million to him over the next two seasons.
Markström posted a 0.883 save percentage over 43 starts (44 appearances). Among 59 goalies to play in at least 25 games, that figure ranked 49th. As far as goals saved above expected (GSAx), which attempts to isolate goaltender play from defensive play, Markström’s -2.12 ranked 77th among 91 goaltenders to appear in a game this season. So, he was not the worst goalie in the league (saving him from a “F” grade), but was certainly in that bottom-third.
Interestingly enough, Markström’s issues came with low-danger shots. His 0.949 save percentage on low-danger shot attempts was the third-worst in the league among 66 goalies to play at least 20 games this season. In comparison, his medium-danger shot attempt save percentage ranked eighth and his high-danger shot attempt save percentage ranked 50th.
Further evidence of the lower danger shot struggles is his average goal against distance of 21.70. This was the 15th-highest among 68 goalies to play at least 1,000 minutes this season. For comparison sake, his teammate, Jake Allen, was at 17.37; the lowest of those 68 goalies.
At the end of the day, Markström’s 2025-26 season will be remembered by the 9-0 thrashing on January 6. In that game, Markström allowed all nine goals and posted a GSAx of -7.57. It was one of the worst games ever tracked by Moneypuck.
2026-27 Outlook
Markström will likely be back next season, for the first of his two-year extension, as he has a 20-team no-trade list. That number changes to five for the 2027-28 season, so he should be easier to move, if the team wishes to do so then.
If there is any hope to bring from the 2025-26 season is that it was an extreme outlier in his career. Specifically, 2025-26 was the first season Markström posted a negative GSAx expected since 2020-21. From 2021 through 2024 Markström’s GSAx of 46.04 ranked seventh among 135 goaltenders. This was one of the main reasons the Devils decided to trade for him. He was one of the best goaltenders in the league over that point.
Not to mention, he is due for some positive regression in the low-danger save percentage area, and, throughout his career he has always excelled in the higher-danger areas of the ice. His successes in the high-danger areas was another reason why the team pulled the trigger on trading for him when they did. The below is where he ranked in that area over the last several seasons:
- 2024-25: 65th percentile
- 2023-24: 98th percentile
- 2022-23: <50th percentile
- 2021-22: 82nd percentile
All that being said, there is a legitimate argument to be made, backed with data, that Markström is due for much better results in 2026-27. This past season was a major outlier and the areas where he struggled he has shown in the past to be strong in. He is simply not that bad of a goalie.
On the flip side of that, there is also a chance that at 36 years old his game has slipped and going forward 2025-26 is just the type of goaltender he is now. Hopefully, for the Devils’ sake, that is not the case. But only time will tell.
Note, the above statistics are courtesy of NHL Edge, Moneypuck, Natural Stattrick, and Evolving Hockey.