Devils place Mackenzie Blackwood on IR, recall Nico Daws

The New Jersey Devils have made a pair of roster moves in advance of Saturday’s game against Arizona, announcing that goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood has been placed on injured reserve, while netminder Nico Daws has been brought up from AHL Utica.

Blackwood landing on IR is no surprise as he has already been out for more than a week with an MCL sprain. Technically, his placement was backdated to November 3, which means he could theoretically be activated at any time. That said, his expected timeframe for recovery is three to six weeks.

New Jersey needed a roster spot freed up as Vitek Vanecek was injured in Thursday’s victory over Ottawa and will not dress against the Coyotes (but is listed as day-to-day), so Daws will come up to serve as Akira Schmid’s backup for this one. Daws played in 25 games with the Devils last season, posting a respectable 3.11 goals-against average along with a .893 save percentage on a team that battled goalie injuries all season long. This year, he has platooned with Schmid with Utica and has a 2.41 GAA and a .908 SV% in five appearances so far.

The Devils have enough cap space left using Jonathan Bernier’s LTIR placement to fit in Daws’ contract.  However, if they have anyone else go down with an injury, they will likely either have to push Blackwood or winger Ondrej Palat to LTIR to be able to afford to bring someone else up from the Comets.