The New Jersey Devils have acquired goaltender Jake Allen from the Montreal Canadiens for a conditional third-round pick.
Allen Leaves Canadiens’ Crowded Crease
Allen, 33, is an experienced netminder and has been the topic of many trade rumours this season. The Canadiens have carried three goalies for almost the entire campaign and many thought he (or another Canadiens goalie) would have been moved months ago to a team requiring help in the crease.
Samuel Montembeault has gotten the lion’s share of the starts for Montreal recently and Cayden Primeau has gotten a few starts here and there as well. Both are much younger than Allen and it’s now clear general manager Kent Hughes saw them as the future in his team’s crease, making Allen expendible.
Allen has a 6-12-3 record to go along with a 3.65 Goals Against Average (GAA) and .892 SV% this season. In 416-career games, the second-round 2008 pick of the St. Louis Blues has 189-162-41 record, 2.75 GAA, .908 SV%, and 24 shutouts.
Allen has one year left on his contract after this one that pays him $3.85 million per year. The Canadiens, who are in a rebuild and are amassing future assets, will retain 50 per cent of his salary.
Devils Gets Much-Needed Help In Goal
The Devils have had a terribly disappointing season and are likely to miss the playoffs after finishing second in the Metropolitan Division in 2022-23. There’s been a number of reasons for their downturn, but a major one has been poor play by netminders Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid. The Devils have allowed 3.48 goals per game, the sixth-worst mark in the NHL.
While Allen’s numbers this season don’t jump off the page, they’re more a result of playing for a young Canadiens’ club than an indicator of declining skills. While Allen isn’t a long-term solution for the Devils, he should be able to act as a mentor for the 23-year-old Nico Daws, who has now made 19 starts for the Devils this season due to Vanecek and Schmid’s struggles.
Earlier today, the Devils traded Tyler Toffoli to the Winnipeg Jets. On March 4, they fired head coach Lindy Ruff and later named assistant coach Travis Green their interim head coach.
