New Jersey Devils: Top 25 Prospects At Midseason

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.