Trade Officially Complete Between the Montreal Canadiens and New Jersey Devils

In recent years, the New Jersey Devils have struggled mightily in net.

In fact, the organization had some of the worst goaltending in the NHL prior to acquiring Jacob Markstrom last summer.

Markstrom has settled things down in net for the team quite nicely, putting up a 22-13-5 record along with a .902 save percentage and 2.45 goals-against-average so far in his tenure in New Jersey.

That being said, he has actually been quite bad for the team since returning from a lower-body injury that kept him out well over a month.

Regardless, Markstrom will have plenty of runway to get back into form before the playoffs begin.

After all, he is the starter for the team and things will remain that way unless something drastic happens.

As a result, backup goaltender Jake Allen probably won't be getting into too many more games this year.

But even if he were to start every match, it still wouldn't affect the trade the Devils made when they acquired him.

This is because the Devils originally gave up a conditional 3rd-round pick when they traded for Allen at last year's deadline.

The condition on that pick was that if Allen appeared in 40 or more games this season, it would upgrade to a 2nd rounder, assuming the Devils qualified for the playoffs.

There is little doubt that the Devils will make the playoffs this year, but it is no longer possible for Markstrom to appear in 40 games.

So far he has made 25 appearances, going 11-13-1 with a .910 save percentage and a 2.10 goals-against-average.

The Devils have just 14 games left on their schedule though, so the most games he could theoretically get into would be 39.