Nathan Bastian
The New Jersey Devils came into last season thinking Nathan Bastian had a chance to break the roster this season. With Brian Boyle moving on, and never really replacing Patrick Maroon, it made sense to bring on the 6’04 Bastian in the middle of the forward group.
However, he just didn’t step up in the preseason, and it took him a really long time to get going in the AHL. He didn’t have the excuse that players like Zetterlund and Maltsev had. He’s been playing in North America his entire career. There was just something completely off with this entire organization to start the season. He was one of the many disappointments out of the gate.
Now? He’s put together a good season with Binghamton. He’s third on the team (outside of Kuokkanen who most of his points with the Charlotte Checkers) with 38 points. A lot of those points have come in the Binghamton Devils recent hot streak. When we pushed him down to 12 on the list of top Devils prospects last month, he only had 22 points. That gives him 16 points in the last 22 games.
Bastian has the size the Devils may want, and during his latest hot streak we feel like he proved he can score points on all levels. He’s the kind of player that we expected Wayne Simmonds to be.