New Jersey Devils: Top 25 Prospects At Midseason
The New Jersey Devils prospects were bolstered after the Taylor Hall trade. Here’s where the top 25 stand at midseason.
The New Jersey Devils season has gone so bad that we need to look ahead once again. At least the bi-yearly prospect report looks a lot better than it did five years ago. The intrigue around the top 25 grew after the Devils traded their superstar Taylor Hall to the Arizona Coyotes for three prospects and two draft picks.
Those prospects add to a very intriguing pool of prospects the Devils already have. Former general manager Ray Shero had been revamping the prospect pool for years, and now there are some players there that might turn into something.
This prospect report is going to look a lot different, and honestly a lot worse. Jack Hughes and Jesper Boqvist graduated from this list as they are both on the main roster now. Losing the number one and number three prospects from the list really hurts the over quality of a prospects list, but there is still a lot of intrigue surrounding the following 25 players.
One of the most intriguing prospects is Tyce Thompson. He didn’t even make the preseason top-25 prospects list, but now he’s one of the best players in college hockey. Look ahead to see how high he landed.
The only other prospects to fall off the list is Nikola Pasic and Brandon Gignac. We have high hopes Pasic can become something one day, but he was near the end of the list, and with the addition of the Coyotes prospects and his disappointing output at the World Junior Championship, he ended up falling off. As for Gignac, he’s 23 years old, and was going to fall off the list soon anyway. He’s been in and out of the Binghamton lineup.
Now, to the players who DID make the list. First, some quick rules:
1. They cannot be guaranteed a roster spot on the NHL team.
We went over this in September. Jack Hughes wasn’t guaranteed a spot before the season. Now, he’s on the New Jersey Devils for good. The same goes for Mackenzie Blackwood, who’s their bonafide starter from here on out.
2. They must be under 24 years old.
This is surprisingly not a problem with almost anyone. Nobody was calling Ben Street a prospect, so it’s no surprise we aren’t either. There were zero prospects who we put on the list but had to take them off when we realized they were too old. Now, to the top 25.
25. 85. Michael Vukojevic. player. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. D. Kitchener Rangers
Previously Ranked: 22
Michael Vukojevic fell three spots from his preseason rankings. There’s nothing wrong with his season, it was and still is just incredibly hard to rank him. He’s made some minor improvements this season with the Kitchener Rangers, and he’s starting to develop an offensive game. He certainly has the size the Devils are looking for in defensemen, standing at 6’3. Still, he has some work to do on some very important aspects, like puck handling. There is definitely a future for this 3rd-round pick, and he’s still just 18 years old (doesn’t turn 19 until June), and has a lot to build on.
C. Yegor Sharangovich. 24. player. Scouting Report. Binghamton Devils. 85. Pick Analysis
Previously Ranked: 23
Yegor Sharangovich has worked his way on to the top line of the Binghamton Devils, playing between two players ranked 11 and 10 on this list most nights. It’s…. strange. He only has nine points while playing most games. Binghamton coach Mark Dennehy has a weird faith in him. We originally had him off the list, but can we take off the first-line AHL center who’s just 21 years old and only in his second professional season in North America? He has a lot of skill, but we need to see more.
RW. Adirondack Thunder. Nikita Popugaev. 85. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. 23. player
Previously Ranked: 15
This is the biggest drop on the entire list, but you wouldn’t know it based on the stats. We thought this might be the season Nikita Popugaev finally showed the chops that had some draft analysts saying he had 1st-round talent. Well, he hasn’t even been able to play himself on to the Binghamton Devils. He’s in the Devils ECHL affiliate. Adirondack has been pretty bad this season, but Popugaev has been pretty good considering. He has 21 points in 33 games. We expected more, thus the eight spot drop. We expect to see him in Binghamton when the New Jersey Devils make a few call ups.
Pick Analysis. Providence College. Patrick Moynihan. Scouting Report. C. 22. player. 85
Previously Ranked: 25
Patrick Moynihan is the first player on this list who’s got good news to share. He’s the first one to move up on the list (although it is still early). Moynihan is having a decent season at Providence College, where he has 16 points in 25 games in his freshman season. In just his last game, Moynihan scored the game-winning game against the University of New Hampshire, helping lead the number 11 team in the country to victory. He’s gotten better as the season has gone, and he could see himself fly up these charts by the time we get to the preseason chart.
Scouting Report. Nate Schnarr. player. Pick Analysis. C. Binghamton Devils. 21. 85
Previously Ranked: NR
We come to the first prospect that the New Jersey Devils got from the Arizona Coyotes in the Taylor Hall trade. Schnarr is by far the prospect we expect the least from, but he could surprise us as a nice fourth-line player in the future. He’s been playing well with Binghamton, scoring five points in 10 games. He’s been on the fourth line there, so the former 3rd-round pick has some work to do. In his last OHL season with the Guelph Storm, he scored 102 points. He has ability, but he’s having trouble It’s his first pro season, so he’s going to take some time to adjust to the speed and physicality, but he could very well be an NHLer one day.
Marian Studenic. 85. Pick Analysis. LW. Binghamton Devils. 20. player. Scouting Report
Previously Ranked: 13
Marian Studenic is another player that’s seen a steep decline to his play this season. We’re not sure what happened. Studenic was playing on Binghamton’s top line for most of last season, but this year he’s fighting to stay in the lineup. He has six points. That’s in 21 games. This is coming off a season where he had five points in the IIHF World Championships. What happened? We still think he can eventually turn it around, being only 21 years old, but the chance that last season’s breakout (which still was only 28 points) might be the outlier.
Pick Analysis. Ottawa 67's. player. 85. Scouting Report. LW. Graeme Clarke. 19
Previously Ranked: 12
This one feels a little unfair, but sometimes that’s how hockey works out. Graeme Clarke was working to push himself into our top ten. We admitted in the preseason report that we loved Graeme Clarke, and we overrated him in the preseason rankings based on his insane ceiling. Then, it looked like we were seeing the future. Clarke scored seven goals in his first nine games, but then a shoulder injury that likely knocked him down in the draft came back up, and now he’s out four-to-six months. He may or may not return this season. He could still be an amazing scorer, but this shoulder thing has us spooked.
Akira Schmid. 18. player. 85. Pick Analysis. G. Sioux City Musketeers. Scouting Report
Previously Ranked: 17
Akira Schmid was the highest ranked goalie in the preseason list. He isn’t the highest ranked Devils prospect anymore. Schmid was traded after a rough six starts with the Omaha Lancers in the USHL. He’s now with the Sioux City Musketeers, and he had a really good first start with them. However, starts are few and far between for him. He got no starts at World Juniors. There were murmurs that he could steal the job from Luca Hollenstein, but he was unable to make it work. He’s a teenager and a goalie, so we expect to see him on this list for a while, but right now we didn’t like what we’ve seen so far. It’s still better than his one start for the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
Notre Dame. 17. player. Scouting Report. D. Matthew Hellickson. 85. Pick Analysis
Previously Ranked: 14
Notre Dame started off the season on fire, going 8-0-1 to start the season. Then, they’ve fallen completely off the map. They are now 10-10-4, and have fallen all the way to 18th in the rankings. Matthew Hellickson is not taking the jump in his junior season that we were hoping we’d see. During his freshman season, we thought he’d be NHL ready by now. It seems like he has a long way to go, which we should probably expect from a 7th-round pick.
Scouting Report. G. Binghamton Devils. Gilles Senn. 16. player. Pick Analysis. 85
Previously Ranked: 20
Gilles Senn is one of the only players on this list to actually get NHL action this season. He had a .902 save percentage, which is actually better than his overall save percentage in Binghamton. That doesn’t tell the whole story. Senn has been playing much better as of late. Still, Senn is gigantic, standing at 6’5. He’s coming off three full seasons at HC Davos, so we’d expect it to take some time to get used to the changes. He has some work to do, and he’s already 23 years old, but there’s at least flashes he could one day be an NHL goalie.
85. Scouting Report. Ottawa 67's. Mitchell Hoelscher. 15. player. Pick Analysis. C
Previously Ranked: 19
The New Jersey Devils have a lot of players on the Ottawa 67’s. It’s a strange team to put all your chips on, but here we are. Mitchell Hoelscher has been very, very good this season. He already has 53 points, 13 more than he scored all of last season. He’s really contributing on the team’s second line. He showed flashes last season during the playoffs, so this jump isn’t terribly surprising. Still, he has some space to grow, and he could see himself in the top ten if he stays on this projection.
14. 85. Pick Analysis. D. Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. Daniil Misyul. Scouting Report. player
Previously Ranked: 10
It’s hard to rank defenseman when they are as young as Daniil Misyul, and it’s hard to rank Russians going through the motions in the KHL. Still, we haven’t been terribly impressed with Misyul. He did play on the Russian WJC team that took home silver, but he was demoted to the third line in the middle of the tournament. His most prominent moment was getting a head butt that led to a Canadian player getting suspended. However, he’s playing the full season with the Lokomotiv KHL team. He’s getting very valuable experience against the men in the second best league in the world. He’s just 19 years old, and we could see them try to pry him from his home country sooner rather than later.
Pick Analysis. D. Nikita Okhotyuk. 13. player. Scouting Report. 85. Ottawa 67's
Previously Ranked: 16
Honestly, Nikita Okhotyuk and Daniil Misyul can be flip flopped to your liking. They are both very promising defensemen. Nikita Okhotyuk is actually scoring points, despite being against an inferior league, so he gets the slightest of edges. Okhotyuk also just signed an entry-level deal a few weeks ago, so we will likely see him in Binghamton soon, maybe as soon as the end of this season. He has some things to work out, but he’s very far along when considering he just turned 19 in December.
85. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. RW. Nathan Bastian. 12. player. Binghamton Devils
Previously Ranked: 8
Another top-ten player falls outside after an up-and-down start to the season. Nathan Bastian was a player many wanted to make the team out of training camp after seeing what he could do last season. He scored three goals in seven NHL games last season. This year, he has eight in 40 AHL games. Bastian has 22 points total, so it’s not all bad, but we expected more growth this season on offense. He’s still using his size to get in peoples’ faces, but we haven’t seen it evolve into using that size to become a Brian Boyle type like we thought he might.
player. LW. Binghamton Devils. Brett Seney. 11. 85. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis
Previously Ranked: 11
Brett Seney is the only player on this list that is in the same place as he was in during the preseason rankings. Seney is actually having a very nice season in Binghamton. The former 6th-round pick has 32 points in 36 AHL games. He got a quick call up earlier this season, but didn’t record a point in two games. He’s currently on the top line, and he’s been scoring more than we even thought he could. He’s still 23 years old. Actually, he’s technically only going to have his seventh birthday this season (he was born on February 29th). This is the last time we’ll see him on this list, and he just missed the top ten.
Scouting Report. RW. Nick Merkley. player. Pick Analysis. Binghamton Devils. 10. 85
Previously Ranked: NR
Nick Merkley feels like the forgotten player from the Taylor Hall trade. Everyone was up in arms because Kevin Bahl was considered the player Ray Shero demanded, and Nate Schnarr was who everyone was trying to figure out. Then, there’s this former 1st-round pick who clearly needed a change of scenery, and got exactly what he needed. Merkley has 10 points in 12 games with the B-Devils. He already has more goals in Bingo than he had the whole season in Tucson. We could see him making the New Jersey Devils after a few players get traded, but we just want to see him make it past the honeymoon stage before moving him up the list.
Kevin Bahl. 9. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. D. Ottawa 67's. player. 85
Previously Ranked: NR
Kevin Bahl is a player that severely separates the fanbase, experts, prospect reports and just about everyone. Some think Bahl is going to make the Devils next season (that’s mostly fans), while others believe his ceiling is as a third-pairing defenseman, and he’s not much else. Bahl won a gold medal with Team Canada at the World Junior Classic, but he found himself falling down the lineup at times. He’s having a much better season with the 67’s. Bahl is 6’7 but moves like he’s five inches shorter. He has immense skills, but can he put it all together? That’s a story that’s yet to be written.
8. player. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. Penn State. LW. Aarne Talvitie. 85
Previously Ranked: 9
Penn State hockey has been a little all over the place this season, but as of right now they are ranked 6th in the country. The Big 10 has been insane, and it’s only going to bring the best out of these prospects. Aarne Talvitie is coming off a major injury he suffered at last year’s World Junior Championship Game, so we can understand him starting slow. Instead, he’s scored 15 points in 20 games. He chose to go to Penn State instead of playing in his native Finland, and it’s looking like it was the right decision. He’s getting more used to the speed and strategy of the North American game. He’s just a sophomore, and he seems to like life as a Nittany Lion, but we see the Devils trying to sign Talvitie in the offseason to get him going in the NHL/AHL.
Tyce Thompson. 7. player. 85. Scouting Report. C. Pick Analysis. Providence College
Previously Ranked: NR
We reeeeeeaaaaalllyyy missed the boat on this one in the preseason. Tyce Thompson just got lost in the mix of 11 draft picks in the 2019 NHL Draft. Now, the Devils have a player that is up for the Hobey Baker Award, something given to the best player in college hockey. Thompson is second in the country with 37 points, second only to his teammate Jack Duggan. He’s tied for the nation’s lead with 17 goals. He’s currently leading a Providence team that’s beating all expectations as they are ranked eighth in the nation. He’s someone we thought could be okay, but we just didn’t expect this, however it seems legit.
Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. LW. Binghamton Devils. Fabian Zetterlund. 6. player. 85
Previously Ranked: 7
First, we have to be clear, we don’t think Fabian Zetterlund deserves to move up on our list based on how he’s played this season. The ranking of Zetterlund always had to do with his development and his ceiling over what he was going to do in the 2019-20 season. He only moved up because Jack Hughes and Jesper Boqvist fell off the list. Still, he has close to a half-point per game. It’s not anything to go home about, but it’s definitely not as bad as it could have been. He’s scoring some goals, and he’s playing better now that he seems to be used to the North American play. He’s still a year or two away, but we see some things that could be built upon.
Scouting Report. Mikhail Maltsev. player. 85. Pick Analysis. LW. Binghamton Devils. 5
Previously Ranked: 18
This Russian youngster really impressed in the preseason, even though it took a little while to gain some consistency once he went to Binghamton. Now, he constantly shows a propensity to impress. Every so often, he’ll pull off an NHL-worthy play to score a goal, or to end a game in the shootout. He only has six goals and nine points in 28 games. It doesn’t seem like the kind of stats that should propel a player to the top five, but we’ve seen something out of this kid that we weren’t sure existed. Maybe this ranking will look bad in two years, but as far as hope goes, Maltsev provides a ton of it.
Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. C. player. 85. Binghamton Devils. Michael McLeod. 4
Previously Ranked: 5
This one was hard to peg down. Michael McLeod seems to be playing the John Quenneville role as the player who’s going up and down between the NHL and AHL. In the NHL, he looked pretty good in limited time. He only has 18 points in 32 games, but he’s doing a lot of the little things in Binghamton to make the team better. However, he was the 12th overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft. He needs to be better than a glorified defensive center. Sure, this is going to help the B-Devils win now, but it’s going to severely hurt his development. His ranking shows the Devils are missing those top-of-the-line prospects after losing Hughes and Boqvist from the ranks.
Binghamton Devils. player. Pick Analysis. RW. Joey Anderson. 3. 85. Scouting Report
Previously Ranked: 6
Joey Anderson is having himself a good season with the Binghamton Devils, and he’s the highest ranked prospect that the Devils could call up right now. He has 32 points so far this year in the AHL, which is the jump we really needed from him. He actually spent a good amount of time in the NHL last year (34 games is more than a cup of coffee). He looked a little out of place at times, but the Devils seemed committed to trying it out. Many thought Anderson would make the team out of camp, but his spot ended up going to Kevin Rooney. Anderson will be a mainstay next season, and hopefully beyond.
Pick Analysis. D. Harvard. player. Scouting Report. 2. 85. Reilly Walsh
Previously Ranked: 4
Reilly Walsh was expected to jump right into the top line on the Harvard Crimson hockey team after Adam Fox declared for the NHL. Well, here we are and Walsh is still on the team’s second line. He’s having another good offensive season, with 16 points in 17 games. Either way, the Devils are going to make a push to sign the junior away from his senior season once this season is over. They want to get him in the room to avoid an Alexander Kerfoot (also Harvard) situation. It’s probably more likely now that he got a full season minus Fox, but it’s still something that will be held over the head of the Devils all offseason.
Next. 5 Left-Handed Defensemen Devils Should Target. dark
1. D. Spokane Chiefs. Ty Smith. player. 85. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis
Previously Ranked: 2
There was no other player this was going to be. Ty Smith is the only player on this list that even has a chance to become a superstar one day. The former 1st-round pick was supposed to be on this team this season, and honestly probably should be. He did not look good in preseason, but preseason is usually a mess. Now, Smith spent his season helping Canada win the World Junior Championship, scored close to a point per game with Spokane of the WHL and is working more on his defensive game. He’s focusing on the mistakes he made in the preseason so he starts in New Jersey next season. Smith is the number one prospect, and honestly it’s not even close.