New Jersey Devils: Top 25 Prospects At Midseason
By Nick Villano
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.