New Jersey Devils: Ty Smith Playing His Way Out of Roster Spot
The New Jersey Devils have multiple dynamic rookies in training camp this offseason. One we assumed would make the team in Ty Smith is actually playing himself out of a roster spot.
At the end of the New Jersey Devils preseason win against the New York Rangers, there was a ton of storylines. Nikita Gusev played great, making us excited to see what he’s going to do in the regular season. Mikhail Maltsev scored one of the best goals we’ve seen in the Ray Shero era. Cory Schneider looked like his old self. Of course, the Devils got the first win of the season in the Hudson River Rivalry.
One thing that also came out of this game that wasn’t a positive was the play that led to the Rangers second goal. Cory Schneider went behind the net, and we all know that his best attribute is not his puck handling, but this was extra bad. He froze there while trying to hand the puck off to Ty Smith. Smith stopped behind the net, Schneider tried to figure out what he was doing, and in the confusion Michael Haley stole the puck and put it in the net.
It was a bad play, and one that actually had Schneider responding to reporters after the game.
“So it’s just something, Ty’s a young kid, he’s a great talent, and we just need to sort that out behind the net a little bit cleaner, so that’s why we hopefully do it in September and not October. We’ll get it figured out.”
Smith came into this preseason as close to a lock in our minds as possible without being an NHL player. Ask anyone, including us at Pucks and Pitchforks, and we thought there was no way this kid wasn’t making the NHL despite his age. He almost made the team last season, but having players like Ben Lovejoy, Egor Yakovlev and Eric Gryba in his way made it impossible. This season, there’s a clear path to make the team.
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Now, it’s 50-50 at best that he makes the team. He’s looked different since the start of the offseason program. He didn’t stand out at the rookie scrimmage or prospects challenge. Then, his first two preseason games came with multiple defensive mistakes.
What’s worse is he’s not supplementing those mistakes with great offensive plays. In his first game, he went -3 with no shots. In his second game, he was a -1 with three giveaways, and again no shots.
Those are “calling for his head” numbers. Smith has been terrible over two preseason games, and we expected him to wow us. We’re trying to figure out the excuse here. Is the pressure to make the team actually getting to him? Last season, he had nothing to lose. This season, he literally has everything to lose. If he goes back to Juniors for a season, it’s almost a waste. We saw what happened when the Devils sent Michael McLeod to Juniors after a stellar season. He regressed more than Reid Boucher on the NHL roster.
Smith needs to figure it out, and fast. He hasn’t played well, and head coach John Hynes has enough defensive depth to send him back to Juniors without a sweat. He proved last season he’s NHL ready talent wise. The problem is he may not be ready in his mentality. It’s only two games, but he really only has four games to prove he belongs here. He needs to get it together, or we’ll all be paying attention to the Spokane Chiefs again.