The New Jersey Devils and Montreal Canadiens made a deadline deal on Friday, which would be the only deadline deal for the Canadiens as the Devils, on the other hand, made multiple moves on deadline day. One of the biggest trades the Devils made was on deadline day for Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jake Allen in exchange for a conditional 2025 third-period round pick, which becomes a second-round pick if Allen plays 40 games or more next season. Most trades have winners and losers, but in this deal, both sides got what they wanted.
Montreal
Montreal has spent the entire season with a three-goalie committee of Jake Allen, Samuel Montembault, and Cayden Primeau. It’s not usual to see a team in the NHL have a three-goalie committee, but Montreal, a team that is still currently rebuilding with a lot of young pieces, ran with the three-goalie committee for most of the season, and one of the pieces includes Primeau. Now that Montreal has shipped away Allen, it gives a chance for the Canadiens goaltenders of the future, Samuel Montembault and Cayden Primeau, to get more time between the pipes. Montreal knows what Montembault is capable as the team extended him earlier this season, which signaled to most people that Jake Allen would be the odd man out in Montreal. Montembault has a record of 13-12-5, along with a 3.14 GAA and .904SV% in 31 games this season. In his career, he holds a 46-57-17 record with a 3.40 GAA, .898SV%, and one shutout.
Primeau has played in 35 NHL games over the course of his career, putting up a record of 8-17-4 with a 3.75 GAA, .885SV%, and one shutout. This season, he has a record of 5-6-2 with a 3.04 GAA, .901SV%, and one shutout and leads the Canadiens in SV%. Primeau has been up and down all season but has seemed to find his grove lately, allowing three goals or less in four of his last five starts. It’s taken Primeau a little longer to develop than most fans would have liked, but there was never an opportunity for him in Montreal until now, as he officially now holds a full-time backup role for the Canadiens.
New Jersey
New Jersey had a busy deadline in which they reconfigured their goaltending tandem for the rest of the season as it will roll with their two newest acquisitions in Kaapo Kahkonen from the San Jose Sharks and Jake Allen from Montreal, once Allen is able to get to New Jersey. Vitek Vanecek was a solid addition to the Devils and had solid numbers for them as he put up a 50-20-7 record with a 2.73 GAA, .903SV%, and three shutouts in 84 games with New Jersey. The Devils needed a little bit more experience in net and wanted to get younger, and Allen brings that veteran presence to the Devils and comes in at a cap hit of less than $2 million with Montreal retaining half of his salary. There’s no question that the Devils will be a team that will take a look at goaltenders in the off-season, but if worse comes to worse, you have a guy like Allen in your back pocket. Allen, who is in his 12th season in the league, has a record of 195-174-44 with a 2.80 GAA, .907% and 24 shutouts
The Devils will also have some choices to make, as Akira Schmid is waiver-exempt at the moment, and Kahkonen, Daws, and Schmid are all on expiring contracts. The Devils certainly do have options in the pipeline when it comes to goaltenders, in guys like Isaac Poulter and Tyler Brennan. It will be interesting to see what route the Devils take in net not only for the remainder of this season but also how they decide to set themselves up for the future.
Who Won The Trade?
I think that both New Jersey and Montreal came out of this deal with a win, Montreal can finally go back to a two-goalie rotation and the Allen rumours are now put to rest after he was dealt and the Devils get some more experience in net with Jake Allen and now have some time to decide what they want to do in net for their future.
