New Jersey Devils GM gives vote of confidence to young goaltenders amid uncertainty in the crease

PUBLICATION

Joshua Deeds
November 12, 2022 (11:26)

SHARE THIS STORY

The New Jersey Devils have made an amazing start to the season, even after the "Fire Lindy Ruff" chants have proliferated on New Jersey's home ice.

The Devils are in a conundrum as Mackenzie Blackwood has had a dismal start to the year, along with his injury has put the team in a weird spot.

And recently their newly acquired goalie Vitek Vanecek who was acquired during the trade deadline is injured and considered day-to-day.

In an unlikely situation as a result of all of this, the team will have to rely upon current AHL goalie Akira Schmid. In spite of all of this, the team GM Tom Fitzgerald is confident in young goalies(Schmid and Nico Daws) ability to be plugged into the NHL roster and be serviceable with Bernier, Vanecek, and Blackwood out.

«The reason? We've got two young kids (prospects Akira Schmid and Nico Daws) who are now a year more experienced,» Fitzgerald told NJ Advance Media. «We're maturing as a group, understanding how to pull out games and not just scoring the goals, but getting big saves.

«We're doing that. So yeah, I would feel more comfortable plugging in one of these kids.»

Fitzgerald sounded like he plans to experiment with the goalie depth, in order to not overwork any goalies until their current tandem returns healthy.

That being said, Vanecek has been a godsend in net as he's currently 6-0-0 and has a .926 SV%, which is ironic as their current and possible 1A wasn't their 1st target at the deadline.

But as Fitzgerald admits, he almost didn't make the deal. The Devils had discussions about trading for then-Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev � which would have been their second trade with New York in franchise history � but he was dealt to the Avalanche one day before the Vanecek trade. Still, the Devils � who extensively scouted Vanecek's skills and analytics � are ecstatic about the player they received.

So the question is when Vanacek and Blackwood return, will Schmid get sent back down or will it be Blackwood?

POLL
Are the New Jersey Devils going to slide with no NHL calibre goaltending
Any team would	16	33.3 %
No they�ll be fine	18	37.5 %
Of course they will	14	29.2 %
List of polls