Devils Add a Reclamation Flier, Which Is Fine — The Goalie Question Is Not

A former first-round pick who posted a point-per-game in the AHL last season signed a new deal with New Jersey on July 30. The news item describes it plainly: a career year parlayed into an NHL opportunity with an analytics-minded front office. Low cost, low risk, reasonable upside. Nothing wrong with it.

It does fit a pattern, though. Colin White came in a day later on a one-year deal. The Devils have been stacking inexpensive forward depth all summer — Mantha being the exception, at two years and $9.5 million. The organizational logic is clear enough: after a season in which they went 42–40 and missed the playoffs anyway, you add bodies and see what sticks.

The part that doesn't resolve so cleanly is goaltending. Jacob Markstrom is gone, dealt to Florida. Michael Hutchinson just retired, which shrinks an already thin market. The Devils won 65 percent of their one-goal games last season — a rate that carried them to a record they couldn't quite turn into a playoff spot. That kind of close-game execution doesn't repeat on command, and it certainly doesn't repeat with an unsettled starter in net.

Signing a reclamation forward is a fine move. My read is that it's also a way of doing something visible while the harder problem — who is actually starting in goal next October — remains unanswered.