The New Jersey Devils and Binghamton Devils had matching disappointing seasons this past year. With a bunch of young players who could sign soon, the AHL squad should get a major upgrade.
It was reported on Saturday that 19-year-old Jeremy Groleau is heading to the Binghamton Devils to finish the season. He spent 221 games with the Chicoutimi Saguenéens of the QMJHL. The defenseman was decent, but he gets to grow with the Devils AHL team. This gives the New Jersey Devils direct oversight over his development.
Groleau went undrafted in the 2018 NHL Draft, so it’s not like they are getting a 1st-round prospect here, but he’s a good defenseman for his age, and he brings some youth to Bingo.
This seems like the direction this team will go in from here on out. Obviously, Binghamton has a large amount of their roster in the NHL due to a long list of injuries, contributing to a down season. This also gives them a chance to test out players like Ludvig Larsson and JD Dudek. Giving them a chance to get ice time could produce an unexpected good NHL player.
They’ve already made a play in this direction when they signed Nikita Popugaev away from Russia to better focus on his development. He had been misused for years, so Ray Shero took it over. Add him to likely Binghamton players like Mike McLeod, John Quenneville, Nathan Bastian, and Brett Seney who seemed to get better this season. Those players are on the cusp of being NHL regulars, but might need a start in the AHL to get going.
It seems like the Binghamton Devils defense really needs the youth movement. Obviously, the team was overall still young, but players like Eric Gryba, Eric Tangradi and John Ramage are taking up spots of players who could be on the NHL roster eventually.
It looks like next year’s team is preparing for some really, really good young players in terms of AHL players. The Binghamton Devils biggest weakness was on defense. In net, the future is there with Cam Johnson and Evan Cormier, but both those players need a chance to succeed, and the defense wasn’t giving it to them. It makes sense on paper, since the Devils NHL team has a below average defensive core, the AHL team is likely below average as well.
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Adding Groleau helps for now, but next year there could be even more help. We haven’t had a decision from Reilly Walsh or Jeremy Davies, but if they sign their entry-level deals after the season, at least one of them will be playing in Binghamton next season, if not both of them. Imagine replacing the Devils defense in Binghamton with Walsh and Davies. It looks something like this:
Colton White – Reilly Walsh
Jeremy Davies – Ryan Murphy
Josh Jacobs – Jeremy Groleau/Tariq Hammond
Now, that looks a LOT better than what we’re dealing with right now.
The offense already has some youth, but it might get even younger. Ray Shero could be going after some of these college prospects who’s seasons will soon come to an end, but we won’t know them until they sign. Either way, Binghamton is getting younger and that’s a very good thing.