New Jersey Devils: Finding Michael McLeod’s Ceiling
By Nick Villano
Michael McLeod was once of the New Jersey Devils best prospects. Now, we can’t figure out what to expect from his career.
The New Jersey Devils have a stacked prospect pool. They have amazing talent at the top, some really good complimentary pieces in the middle, and incredible upside on about two dozen other players. GM Ray Shero has accumulated a lot of draft capital in his time here, and he used it to make some great moves and picks over the years. The Devils could start the year with Jack Hughes, Ty Smith, Jesper Boqvist, Mackenzie Blackwood, Jesper Bratt, Pavel Zacha and Nico Hischier on the roster, and all under the age of 23.
This is obviously very exciting, but just three years ago the most exciting prospect in the Devils system was Michael McLeod. As captain of the Mississauga Steelheads, he led the team with 73 points in 57 games. In the OHL playoffs, he was even better. He scored 11 goals in 20 games and added 16 assists. McLeod carried the Steelheads on his back. That was his game, he dominated in the offensive zone.
McLeod went to Devils camp in 2017, and he looked pretty good. He wasn’t going to make the roster, but there was a ton of promise. He didn’t end up getting any points in preseason, so it was clear he needed a little more grooming in Juniors. The problem is he ended up getting a knee injury before he went back to Mississauga.
It feels like he was never the same after that. He went back to his old team without Nathan Bastian, a good friend of his and also a good Devils prospect, and now he wasn’t 100 percent. McLeod pushed through for 38 games, and he attempted more heroics in the playoffs. McLeod scored 10 points, including six goals, in just six games. It wasn’t enough to beat the Barrie Colts in the first round, but it showed he still had something amazing to produce.
His first season as a professional went about as bad as possible. He was having trouble finding a role with Binghamton, and in New Jersey he just looked out of place. It was clear he was pushing too hard, and didn’t have confidence in his shot. He only took one shot per game. This, as he was playing with a less than stellar line. He seemed to give up quality shots to try to get his teammates involved.
So, after seeing what we have, what does it look like if McLeod hits his best case scenario?
After the 2017 season, he looked like the best case scenario was an 80-point player who scored 30 goals. McLeod had the right mindset to go to the net and make a play. That’s the kind of mentality that’s hard to teach. Now? That seems impossible.
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It seems impossible if only because the Devils now have two centers on the roster that are younger than him. Hughes and Nico are 18 and 20 years old respectively. There’s nothing short of an injury that McLeod could do to pass them on the depth chart. Then, in the third-line role is Travis Zajac. John Hynes loves having him there, so that’s not a spot we see changing.
We’re talking about ceiling here, so eventually McLeod could take that spot. He’s also going to be competing with Pavel Zacha, but he may end up moving to the wing eventually. Opportunity is limited for McLeod now and in the future. That makes it difficult to find his upside.
Still, this kid has a lot of skill. We’ve seen his speed on the ice. When he’s at his best, his passing is second to none. There is still a playmaker in there somewhere. When talking about McLeod’s ceiling, we need to focus on a distributor more than a goal scorer. We just haven’t seen anything that showed he can score like he once did in Juniors.
At his very best, this feels like a poor-man’s version of Joe Thornton. Again, that’s the best possible Mikey McLeod we can expect. We’re thinking around 15 goals and 50 assists. If he reaches that ceiling, it would be amazing. He needs to do some work before getting there, but we’re nowhere near giving up, even if some fans have. This is a former 1st-round pick that’s still only 21 years old. There’s a lot more hockey to be played for him.