The Goaltending Market Closed. The Devils Weren't In It.

Colin White signed with New Jersey on July 31, a one-year deal that adds another forward body to a group that needed it. Fine. The Devils have been busy on the wing this summer, and White is a reasonable depth piece. That's not the story.

The story is what happened around the same time on the goaltending side of the ledger. Michael Hutchinson retired. A former Penguins starter signed in Italy. The veteran market that New Jersey might have leaned on to address the Markstrom void has largely dispersed, and the Devils don't appear to have landed anyone from it. Markstrom went to Florida. The replacements went elsewhere or went home.

This matters more for New Jersey than it would for most teams. Last season's 42-40 finish looked reasonable until you looked underneath it — a -24 goal differential, a record built heavily on winning one-goal games at a rate that outpaced their overall performance by a wide margin. That kind of season doesn't repeat on its own. It needs help, and help in net was the most obvious place to start.

My read is that the Devils are heading into camp with the goaltending question still open, and the summer window to answer it cheaply has mostly closed. That's not a crisis yet. But it's the thing to watch when the roster takes shape in September.