Just before 3:00 PM, the New Jersey Devils announced that goaltender Nico Daws has re-signed with them on a two-year deal with an AAV of $1.1 million. Per PuckPedia, this would bring the team’s projected cap space to $8.627 million for the 2026-27 season, though it may be nearly a million dollars higher when considering that Lenni Hameenaho (cap hit of $973,000) could start the season with the Utica Comets.
I am a big fan of bringing Nico Daws back in an NHL role. He will be 26 in December and has
bounced between the NHL and AHL on and off for some years now. With a new goaltending coach, working with veteran goalie Jake Allen, this is the time for Nico Daws to turn into a full-time NHLer. Over the past three seasons, since his hip surgery in 2023, Daws is 14-13-0 with the Devils in 30 appearances with a .902 save percentage and 2.83 goals against average. He also has one shutout. With his size in net and decent mobility, Daws has the ability to make some big saves.
Of course, he was also in net for the great Stadium Series win over Philadelphia in 2024, when he made 45 saves on 48 shots. Throughout his career, Daws’s composure in net and largely simple positional style has made him a welcome change of pace when he has gotten into games, especially in comparison to streaky goaltenders like Vitek Vanecek or goalies with more hectic styles such as Jacob Markstrom.
Fans are going to be understandably shaky about the current tandem of Jake Allen (who has not played over 40 games since 2022-23) and Nico Daws without the addition of another goaltender, but they are a very low-cost tandem. With Jakub Malek now the pure number one in Utica, the Devils can see what they have in Daws while giving the younger Malek more games in the AHL under this paradigm. Also remember: the longer the Devils keep some cap space this season, the more additions they will be able to make at the trade deadline.
Analytics on goaltenders are hard to come by, but HockeyViz estimates his shot saving impact as +6.9% above expected over his career.
Indeed, Daws has been solid since his hip surgery. Per Natural Stat Trick, Daws has faced a total of 77.32 expected goals against in all situations since 2023, allowing 75 real goals against in that time. Since 2024-25, Daws has faced 22.77 expected goals against and allowed just 15 to actually hit the net. The problem for Daws will be limiting his bad starts. When he’s on, he’s a brick wall, but Sheldon Keefe will need to grow a bit as a head coach and have his finger on the pulse of when to pull goalies a little better with this tandem.
But Sunny still has work to do on his end with goaltending. What do you think is next, Devils fans? Do you think Sunny will look for a true 1A or 1B goalie to push Daws back down the depth chart? Do you think he will look for a third rotational goalie to pick up 15-20 games with Allen and Daws? Or do you think he will look for an AHL goaltender and use Malek (who is waiver exempt and can be brought up and down) occasionally in the third role?
