Devils Discussing Extension With Jacob Markstrom

After being speculatively linked to New Jersey for a big portion of the 2023-24 season, goaltender Jacob Markstrom accepted a trade to the Devils last summer a little before the draft with a first-round pick and defenseman Kevin Bahl going the other way.  The netminder is now entering the final year of his contract and speaking with reporters today (video link), GM Tom Fitzgerald indicated that there are talks about signing Markstrom to a contract extension.

The 35-year-old had a decent first season with the Devils in 2024-25.  While he dealt with a knee injury late in the year, he still got into 49 games where he posted a 2.50 GAA and a .900 SV% along with four shutouts.  While those aren’t elite numbers, they were still a fair bit better than the 3.12 GAA and a .896 SV% that New Jersey’s netminders played to the year before so it’s understandable that Fitzgerald would like to keep that stability in the fold a little longer.  Markstrom also stated a willingness to sign a new deal back in the spring after the team was eliminated in the first round.

Markstrom is set to make $6MM this season although the Devils are only responsible for $4.125MM of that with Calgary picking up the rest as part of the trade.  In order to keep him around, they’ll likely have to give him a raise on his current full salary, given the inflationary rate of salaries.

While he’s no longer in the tier of netminders that have pushed past the $8MM mark on their respective deals in recent seasons, there’s a case to make that Markstrom could split the difference and land somewhere in the $7MM territory.  That, coupled with the $1.8MM that Jake Allen will take home for the next half-decade, would allow them to have their goaltending tandem locked up at a reasonable combined rate.

The future of Nico Daws is in question now with Allen signed for so long, while their other prospects (Jakub Malek, Tyler Brennan, and Mikhail Yegorov) aren’t close to being NHL-ready (or even signed, in Yegorov’s case).  Accordingly, getting Markstrom signed for another two or three seasons would give them continued short-term competitiveness between the pipes while allowing them ample time to assess if any of their prospects have a viable NHL future.  This isn’t necessarily a pressing case, especially compared to unsigned defenseman Luke Hughes but it wouldn’t be surprising to see the two sides work something out in the coming weeks.