The New Jersey Devils and their new General Manager, Sunny Mehta, are heading into the season with a goaltending trio that has many in hockey land, and especially Devils fans, a little shook, as my Twitter feed shows. Understandably, they're also going with an aging 36-year-old goaltender who's been more of a backup for most of his career. A 32-year-old goaltender who has had his ups and downs in his career for sure, and an unproven 25-year-old guy who has shown pretty well in spot duty in the NHL and has some decent A.H.L numbers but is really a wild card going into the season. This a quote from Sunny Mehta that I will elaborate on later 

“Goaltending has changed dramatically during the past 20 years. Starters and backups are extremely talented, which can make performance difficult to predict. Because there is randomness at the position, I’m reluctant to invest significant assets there instead of in areas where the results may be more predictable,” the Devils general manager said. Sunny Mehta . 

So let's look at the goaltenders 

Jake Allen is a goalie who has played 477 career NHL games and, in my mind, was the Devils better goalie last year. He has not played in a number one role for several years. in a 30 to 35 game allotment though he can play at a pretty high level, especially if he gets solid play in front of him with a strong system. Allen has always had a problem with rebound control but makes up for it very well with exceptional reflexes and good puck placement into the corners after saves. Very good goaltender for a collapse type defensive end system.

Would love to give you the player card here but for some reason JFresh will not let me download it. So let me say that this is a data driven pickup by Sunny Mehta. Rittich had a very good year last year from an underlying numbers perspective. The Islanders gave up a lot of high danger chances last year and "Big save Dave" fared pretty well with them. He also had some stretches last year when Sorokin was injured that he played some of the best hockey of his career. Rittich struggled with the mental part of the game earlier in his career but seems to have overcome those issues and kind of screams late bloomer. at a one-million-dollar contract it is well worth the look. Also unlike Allen Rittich has always been good with rebound control

Nico has been honing his craft in the A.H.L for a few years now while getting spot duty in the N.H.L from time to time. He did look good with call ups last year however most of that was when he was placed in random spots against teams that would not be familiar with him and probably would not really have a book on him. In the past when he received a little more work he would struggle over time, but it is his time to shine now, and he is a big goaltender that has athleticism. I do not have the type of data that the Devils do on the A.H.L guys but at the very least a true shot is probably deserved here.

I personally think Dawa will be the backup to start the season and Rittich who has been used to going long stretches without playing in his career will sit in the stands a little bit while New Jersey gets a better idea of what Daws can do with an extended look at this important stage of his career. Allen has expressed some concern for this three-goalie type system as it did not work well in Montreal when they were forced to do so. Allen did say that it could work if there was a detailed plan and the goalies were given a clear understanding of where they sat and knew when they would be playing.  The important thing to me will be how New Jersey plays in front of all these guys. Great analytics teams like Vegas, Carolina and Colorado have thrived without elite goaltending do to excellent system that are goaltender friendly. They keep shots down and prevent shooters from getting shots to the weaker aspects of their goalies game. Mehta has brought in some excellent players in the summer to activate such type of systems, the question is is Sheldon Keefe the guy to put one in place? I am not so sure. However, if he is not, I imagine it will not take long for Sunny to identify it and make a change. Going by Mehta's quote I gave at the beginning of this article and the fact that most analytic team building models do not advise paying large for goaltenders I am more inclined that these goaltenders will get very good looks and if it goes south the coach may take the heat. If Mehta simply thinks the goaltending is the issue do not be surprised if he still doesn't go out looking for the "big fish"

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