After New Jersey re-signed Luke Hughes at the beginning of the month, their focus shifted toward keeping one of their pending UFAs in the fold in goaltender Jacob Markstrom. Those efforts have paid off as the Devils announced that they’ve signed goaltender Jacob Markstrom to a two-year, $12MM contract extension.
The 35-year-old is in his second season with New Jersey after being acquired from Calgary a little before the 2024 draft in exchange for a 2025 first-round pick (used on Cole Reschny) and defenseman Kevin Bahl. The hope was that acquiring him, coupled with the addition of Jake Allen a few months earlier, would help stabilize a goaltending position that had been in some flux for a while.
Mission accomplished on that front. After allowing 281 goals in 2023-24, the Devils cut that amount by 61 last season, allowing the fifth-fewest goals in the league in the process. Markstrom played a big role in that success, posting a 2.50 GAA and a .900 SV% in 49 regular season starts while also putting up a 2.78 GAA and a .911 SV% in their first-round playoff exit at the hands of Carolina. He’s not off to a great start this season, however, with a 5.13 GAA and a .830 SV% in four appearances but he’s also just coming back from a lower-body injury.
Over his 16-year career between Vancouver, Florida, Calgary, and New Jersey, Markstrom has a 243-214-63 record with a 2.72 GAA, a .908 SV%, and 24 shutouts. He has typically been one of the more consistent goalies in recent years, providing a strong return on his current six-year contract, one that expires next summer and also carries a cap hit of $6MM per season. However, the Devils will be responsible for that full amount, unlike now, where the Flames are picking up $1.875MM of Markstrom’s price tag as part of the swap.
A few months ago, New Jersey signed Allen to a five-year deal, a surprising term for someone just a few months younger than Markstrom. But the benefit in doing so was that the cap hit came in at $1.8MM, well below his market value when many expected he’d get more than twice that much per season. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that Markstrom’s camp appeared to be looking for something similar, a fixed sum of money but they were open to spreading it out over a longer term like Allen. However, the Devils were firm on a shorter-term agreement, even though it means a higher AAV.
With this deal done, New Jersey now has their goalie tandem intact for the next couple of seasons at a combined $7.8MM price tag, just 7.5% of the projected $104MM Upper Limit for next season. That’s a solid price tag for a capable and experienced tandem, giving GM Tom Fitzgerald a bit of flexibility to work with. With this deal now done, the Devils have a little over $10MM in spending room for next season, per PuckPedia, with pending RFAs Simon Nemec, Arseny Gritsyuk, and Paul Cotter highlighting the list of players in need of new deals over the next ten or so months.
ESPN’s Emily Kaplan was the first to report the signing.
Photo courtesy of Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images.