Two reasons to be pessimistic about the New Jersey Devils in 2024-25

There is a lot to be excited about with this year's Devils team – but there are also a couple areas of concern.

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We started the week by taking a closer look at three of the many reasons you should be optimistic about the New Jersey Devils and what they can accomplish next season.

This time around I’m going to take a glass half empty approach and look for potential holes and red flags on the roster that could prevent the team from getting where it wants to go.

While I personally am very high on the Devils – I think they’ll contend for a Metro Division title and be a real threat come playoff time – it’s not as if they are without any concerns.

Let’s dive into a couple of the biggest.

Aging goaltenders

Jacob Markstrom and, to a lesser extent, Jake Allen have done a really good job of keeping themselves available in recent years. It’s not a given that will continue.

Playoffs included, Markstrom has averaged 60.66 games played over the past three seasons. He’s logged the 5th most regular season minutes in the NHL during that span, sitting behind only Juuse Saros, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Connor Hellebuyck, and Ilya Sorokin – younger goaltenders with, in some cases, less wear and tear on their bodies.

Markstrom turns 35 this coming season and, clearly, has played a lot of hockey the past few years.

At some point, he’s going to slow down, either by way of performance or simply by his body starting to give out on him.

That would spell trouble as Allen is 34 and has suffered three lower-body injuries since January of 2022. He’s also not a starting caliber goaltender.

If either of these guys run into injury troubles, the other will have more than he should on his plate – which could lead to additional injuries or dips in performance.

Now, the benefit of having two quality goaltenders who can handle meaningful workloads is that Sheldon Keefe doesn’t need to run either into the ground. That should give them a better chance of staying healthy.

But, obviously, there’s risk in relying on a pair of guys in their mid-30s to play a very physically demanding position.

Injuries, injuries, injuries