- New Jersey opens camp with Jake Allen, David Rittich and Nico Daws all in the mix
- Ken Daneyko compares the plan to Carolina riding third-stringer Brandon Bussi to a Cup
- Read below for what GM Sunny Mehta said about finally giving Daws a runway
The New Jersey Devils are walking into training camp with three goalies and no declared starter.
Jake Allen and David Rittich are the veterans. Nico Daws is the 25-year-old trying to take the job from both of them. Longtime Devils defenseman Ken Daneyko, now an MSG Networks analyst, was asked by NHL.com’s Stan Fischler what he made of the setup, and he did not treat it as a problem.
“It’s a ‘strike lightning in a bottle’ kind of thing, and the hope is that someone emerges to be the No. 1 guy. Look at how (Carolina Hurricanes) third-stringer Brandon Bussi turned hero last season.”
Bussi is a fair thing to point at. Carolina claimed him off waivers from Florida in October, watched him go 31-6-2 in the regular season, then handed him the net in the Stanley Cup Final when Frederik Andersen went down. He went 3-1 with a 1.60 goals-against average and the Hurricanes won the thing.
New Jersey only got here because Jacob Markstrom is gone. The Devils shipped Markstrom and Angus Crookshank to the Panthers on June 30 for Evan Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist and Ben Steeves, with Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic laying out the full return:
One day later, Daws signed a two-year deal worth $2.2 million, a $1.1 million cap hit:
General manager Sunny Mehta was asked in early July whether he was fine opening the season with an Allen-Daws tandem, and he did not rule it out.
“We know what Jake can bring. We’ve seen that outstanding guy, outstanding goaltender, and I’m pretty excited about the opportunity in front of Nico because he really hasn’t been given that sort of runway in that path, and I think he has that now.”
Daws does not have a long track record to lean on. He owns 55 NHL games, 50 starts, a 24-24-1 record, a 2.96 goals-against average and a .898 save percentage, and he spent most of last season in Utica.
Not everyone in the goaltending world loves the idea. Sharks director of goaltending Evgeni Nabokov told Fischler the math tends to catch up with teams that try it.
“One goalie can get hot, while the other two get rusty. Then neither of the rested ones would be ready when called to play. A three-goalie system is a bit of a gamble.”
Mehta has spent the summer nailing down the rest of the roster, including Nico Hischier passing on 2027 free agency to stay in New Jersey. The crease is the one job still open, and camp starts next week.
