Jake Allen has saved the New Jersey Devils in 2025

Allen has done a spectacular job holding the fort while things have crumbled around him.

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When the New Jersey Devils acquired Jacob Markstrom to pair with Jake Allen, they looked to have assembled one of the league’s best veteran goaltending tandems.

While that has proven to be the case, I don’t think anyone expected it would be Allen driving the bus for the team during its most important stretch of the season.

He has started more games than Jacob Markstrom in 2025 and is one of the biggest reasons – if not the biggest – they’re still comfortably holding onto a playoff spot.

The Devils have struggled at 5v5 much of the season but things have been especially bad since the calendar flipped.

They’ve scored just 2.07 goals per 60 minutes of 5v5 play in 2025, a rate even the San Jose Sharks, Chicago Blackhawks and Nashville Predators – the three worst teams in the NHL – have bested.

Combine the offensive woes with injury problems, and more recently struggles, for Jacob Markstrom, and the team’s No. 1 goaltender has won only three games through more than 2.5 months this year. That’d be a death sentence for plenty of teams.

The Devils have had to rely heavily on Allen as a result. Not just in terms of carrying a larger workload as the replacement starter – but in needing elite-level play to help compensate for scoring issues.

Simply put, they’ve asked Allen to perform like one of the league’s best goaltenders. And he has done just that.