In 2024-25, Jacob Markstrom will be the 15th goalie to play under Tom Fitzgerald as General Manager of the New Jersey Devils. Is he going to end the carousel in Newark?
Current New Jersey Devils General Manager Tom Fitzgerald took over the club on Jan. 12, 2020. That date was in the middle of a season in which the team finished with a 28-29-12 record and finished in last place in the Metropolitan Division.
The Devils deployed four goalies over the 69 games they played before the pandemic put the league on hiatus for a couple of months.
Mackenzie Blackwood, Cory Schneider, Louis Domingue, and Gillies Senn all had a turn, with only Senn not playing a game once Fitzgerald took the reigns.
By the end of the season, Domingue was traded to the Vancouver Canucks for netminder Zane McIntyre, who officially became the first goalie Fitzgerald acquired as General Manager.
Senn never played in the NHL again, signing in Switzerland in the summer of 2021; while Schneider was demoted to the AHL, his contract was bought out in October 2020.
Fitzgerald then dipped into the past and brought back Scott Wedgewood as a free agent. He was a Devils' third-round pick in 2010 but was dealt away by Ray Shero in 2017.
However, New Jersey's season didn't unfold as planned. They finished second to last with a 19-30-7 record.
Fitzgerald selected Eric Comrie (Jan. 12, 2021) and Aaron Dell (Jan. 18, 2021) off waivers during these challenging times, who combined for eight appearances and did not factor into the team's plans for the 2021-22 season.
Goalie Woes Continues (2021-22)
When the NHL returned to a full 82-game schedule for 2021-22, the Devils may have preferred a shorter schedule since they once again finished seventh in the division with a 27-46-9 record.
During this mangled season, New Jersey employed seven goalies to get through their campaign. Blackwood (25 games) and Wedgewood (three games) were back, but a handful of veterans and rookies joined them.
In the offseason, Fitzgerald signed journeyman Jonathan Bernier (10 games). Meanwhile, third-round pick Nico Daws made his NHL debut and finished with a 10-11-1 record in 25 games.
At the time, he was the first goalie drafted by Fitzgerald to make it into the Devils lineup.
With the season falling apart, the Devil's General Manager made some moves, acquiring Jon Gillies (19 games) from St. Louis and then Andrew Hammond (seven games) from the Montreal Canadiens for Nate Schnarr.
Meanwhile, Wedgewood departed the franchise after three games when the Arizona Coyotes claimed him off waivers in November.
Finally. the last goalie to appear that season was Akira Schmid, a fifth-round pick under Shero in 2018 who played in six games.
Clean Slate Leads to a Stanley Cup Playoffs Appearance (2022-23)
Out of the seven netminders Fitzgerald worked with during the 2021-22 season, only two came back: Blackwood (third season) and Schmid (second).
However, that didn't stop the New Jersey boss from dealing a second and a third-round draft pick in the 2022 Entry Draft to the Washington Capitals for Vitek Vanecek.
Together, the trio led the Devils to a second-place divisional finish and a spot in the second round of the playoffs.
After the first winning season in five campaigns, Fitzgerald employed two goalies drafted by his former boss, Blackwood (2015) and Schmid (2018), with Vanecek as his last-standing acquisition.
More Chaos and a Retool (2023 - Present)
Injuries and subpar goaltending doomed the Devils' 2023-24 season, leading to another carousel in the goal crease.
First, Blackwood departed in free agency to play in San Jose, leaving the job to Vanecek and Schmid. Both struggled, paving the way for Daws to return to the NHL after not seeing any action in 2022-23.
The plan was imploding faster than solutions were found, leading to Fitzgerald trading Vanecek to San Jose in exchange for Kaapo Kahkonen.
Then, he brought in Jake Allen from Montreal for a 2025 conditional draft pick. All five goalies last season combined for a 38-39-5 record and seventh-place finish in the Metropolitan Division.
Ahead of the 2024-25 season, Fitzgerald had Daws (his first drafted goalie) and Allen (his most recent acquisition) available to split the duties.
But the duo didn't appear to be the answer since the New Jersey General Manager made a big splash with the deal to bring Jacob Markstrom in from Calgary.
After four full seasons at the helm, during which the Devils have compiled the 21st-best record in the NHL at 136-137-29 (.498%), Fitzgerald has finally assembled a goalie tandem with his fingerprints all over it.
With a contending lineup anchored by Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, and Nico Hischier, the Devils' future success will rely on a combination of Markstrom, Allen, and Daws, all wearing red because of Fitzgerald's decisions.