The five best off-season moves by Metro Division teams

Led by the New Jersey Devils, Metro teams were quite busy this summer. Let's take a closer look at the finest work.

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Although plenty of time remains before training camps open up in September, the reality is most teams have finished their off-season work.

With that in mind, I wanted to zoom out and – in no particular order – highlight some of the best moves made by Metro Division teams.

New Jersey acquiring Jacob Markstrom

The Devils have not had consistently good goaltending in a long, long, time. They have even struggled to find average.

The team ranked 30th in total save percentage over the last three seasons – despite Vitek Vanecek actually performing fairly well in his debut year with the team – while only the Seattle Kraken slotted below them in high-danger save percentage.

For years the Devils have largely played well at 5v5, only for seemingly every mistake to end up in the back of their net. They haven’t gotten saves of any kind anywhere close to as often as needed.

Sick of trying to patch a tandem together with justifable yet still risky bets, Tom Fitzgerald went out and acquired arguably the best goaltender available this off-season in Jacob Marsktrom.

Markstrom ranks 7th among all goaltenders in Goals Saved Above Expected over the past three seasons. He also sits 7th in high-danger save percentage, ahead of names like Juuse Saros, Thatcher Demko, and Andrei Vasilevskiy.

With one swing of his sword, Fitzgerald addressed the team’s goaltending position as well as he possibly could have – and the cost was more than reasonable.

I like Kevin Bahl and think he’s a good depth defender. But it’s fair to say he wouldn’t crack the top-6 Fitzgerald has put together.

So, the team moved on from a defenseman who wouldn’t play nightly and a 1st round pick that should be in the 20s (or even 30s) next season.

That’s not a lot to pay for someone with the pedigree of Markstrom – especially considering the Flames ate money and the Devils owe just $4.125 million per season as a result.

New York (I) signing Anthony Duclair