New Jersey Devils player profile: Jacob Markstrom

The Devils' new starter is coming off a terrific season with the Flames.

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The top item on the New Jersey Devils’ off-season task list was, once and for all, to go out and acquire an undisputed No. 1 goaltender.

The Devils were able to do just that, shipping Kevin Bahl and a 2025 1st round pick – which should be in the 20s (or 30s!) – to the Calgary Flames in exchange for Jacob Markstrom.

In an off-season that has featured plenty of sizeable moves by GM Tom Fitzgerald, it’s fair to consider the Markstrom trade the biggest; at least in the immediate future.

Let’s take a closer look at the season that was for Markstrom, and the outlook for 2024-25, as we continue our player profile series.

2023-24 review

Markstrom bounced back in a big way following a disappointing 2022-23 campaign. He finished 3rd in the NHL with +28.93 goals saved above expected, slotting behind only Vezina winner Connor Hellebuyck and Jordan Binnington.

His calling card was making high-danger saves at an elite clip. Markstrom posted an .850 save percentage on HD shots across all situations.

That was the best mark in the league, with Connor Ingram (.841), Ilya Sorokin (.839), Binnington (.838), and Thatcher Demko (.835) coming closest to matching Markstrom’s outputs.

Markstrom winning that category by a healthy margin is impressive when you consider he also faced Grade A looks at a high volume.

Markstrom was tasked with stopping 8.65 high-danger shots per 60 minutes. Mackenzie Blackwood, John Gibson, Binnington, Lukas Dostal, Elvis Merzlikins, Sam Montembeault, and Petr Mrazek were the only netminders who played 2,000+ minutes and faced Grade A shots at a higher clip than Markstrom.

For Markstrom to see such a difficult workload – rivalled almost exclusively by netminders on bottom-feeding teams – and still lead the charge in HD save percentage is impressive, to say the least.

What’s crazy is Markstrom’s numbers dipped quite a bit down the stretch, which is understandable given he was disgruntled and playing for a Flames squad that sold off prominent defenders like Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin at the deadline.

There was a drop-off and the guy still finished 3rd in GSAE, 1st in high-danger save percentage, and 1st in save percentage over expectation.

2024-25 outlook