It has finally happened. After a year-plus of rumors, the New Jersey Devils announced early Wednesday afternoon that they acquired goaltender Jacob Markström from the Calgary Flames.
To do so, the Devils dealt a top-10 protected 2025 first-round pick and defenseman Kevin Bahl. The Flames are retaining 31.25% of Markström’s $6 million salary, knocking down the cap hit to $4.125 million over the next two seasons before the veteran netminder becomes an unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of the 2025-26 season.
Markström was reportedly close to becoming a Devil during the season last year. However, an agreed upon trade was nixed by the Flames’ ownership. The final reason as to why was unclear, some reported it was over salary retention and others because ownership believed Calgary still had a shot to compete by season’s end. The 34-year-old goaltender did have a no-movement clause, so, as he also reportedly did during the season, he agreed to waive that to come to New Jersey.
The Devils are poised to head into the 2024-25 season with a goaltending duo of Markström and Jake Allen. A duo that on paper projects to be one of the better in the league. Something the team has not been able to confidently say in years.
What Are The Devils Getting?
The Sweden-born goaltender has spent 14 years in the NHL. He has split time between three teams, the longest of which was a seven-year stint with the Vancouver Canucks, and the most recent being four years with Calgary. Markström has a career .909 save percentage to go along with 468 career wins. He has two years of playoff experience, posting a .919 save percentage in 14 games in 2019-20 and a .901 mark in 12 games during the 2021-22 postseason.
Markström had a stretch of play from 2015-16 through 2019-20 where he did not post a save percentage below .910. He has also played in at least 62% of his team’s games, outside of last year, since the 2017-18 season, proving to be quite durable.
The analytics is where the numbers really show Markström’s true worth. Despite posting, on paper, a subpar .905 save percentage last year, Markström’ 28.93 goals saved above expected (GSAx) was the third-highest in the league, trailing on Connor Hellebuyck and Jordan Binnington. For comparison’s sake, Vitek Vanecek posted a -10.67 GSAx, Akira Schmid a -2.01 figure, and Nico Daws a -1.49 figure in 2023-24.
Markström’s cumulative GSAx of 46.04 over the last three seasons is the seventh-highest mark in the NHL. This number is higher than the likes of Andrei Vasilevskiy, Thatcher Demko, and Sergei Bobrovsky, among several others. Additionally, in five of the last six years he has posted a positive GSAx mark.
Bottom-line, given the play in front of him, the 34-year-old goalie has spent years in the league playing better than the situations in front of him expect. If the Devils are able to once again get that out of him next season, and make a couple more moves to further supplement their roster, there is a real chance they finally will have the goaltending play needed to be legit contenders.
What Did the Devils Give Up?
The Devils were able to pull this move off by giving up only two assets. The first is a 2025 first-round pick that is top-10 protected. Of course, the end-goal for the Devils is to be legit Stanley Cup contenders in 2025, so if everything goes well, that first-round pick should project to be a later selection.
As for Bahl, the 23-year-old defenseman, who was acquired in the Taylor Hall trade, skated in all 82 games for New Jersey last season. He has a $1.05 million cap hit and is set to be a restricted free agent after the end of next year.
Bahl’s results in the NHL has largely been so-so. Last season, he had really strong defensive underlying metrics both at five-on-five and on the penalty kill. He struggled elsewhere; in transition and on the offensive end. Prior to 2023-24, his on-ice impacts were always average. At the end of the day, bottom-pair, defensive-defenseman are quite replaceable. That is exactly what Bahl is and projects to be going forward.
Final Thoughts
General manager Tom Fitzgerald appears to have done it again. Of course, the value of any trade is not truly known until the games actually happen. However, on paper, it appears Fitzgerald and staff did a tremendous job given the historical pedigree of Markström, the fact Calgary is retaining salary, and the package the team gave up; specifically getting to keep the 10th-overall pick in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft.
Entering the season, the Devils will likely rely on a tandem of the aforementioned Markström and Jake Allen. Combined, this duo will only cost the Devils $6.05 million in salary given each of their former teams are retaining a portion of their respective contracts. This $6.05 million figure is less than what six goalies in the NHL currently make on their own (Carey Price, Sergei Bobrovsky, Andrei Vasilevskiy, John Gibson, Matt Murray, and Connor Hellebuyck). Not to mention, over the last three seasons Markström is in the 95th percentile in GSAx and Allen the 64th percentile.
This move now leaves Fitzgerald and staff $16,048,603 in cap space, according to CapFriendly, to plug the rest of the team’s holes. They also have six draft selections to make, still including the 10th-overall pick, in June 28th’s draft. This trade is just the beginning to what projects to be a busy offseason. Let’s hope that the rest of the moves the team makes project just as good as this, on paper, terrific trade.