The New Jersey Devils have a great prospect on their hands in Jesper Boqvist.
The New Jersey Devils have a lot of really intriguing prospects that have fans talking. The thoughts of what could be with players like Nolan Foote, Kevin Bahl, and Janne Kuokkanen makes these dreams better than the reality of what the Devils have on the ice. We dream about these prospects because they are unfinished, so their possibilities are endless. Especially now, when the Devils have revamped their prospect pool in a matter of a couple of years.
The Devils have one prospect who’s probably better than just about everyone else. Jesper Boqvist looked like a man amongst boys towards the end of the season. He took some time to get used to what the Devils were asking of him, but by the end, he was the best player on the ice for the Binghamton Devils on most nights.
Yet, when fans are talking about the optimism for the future, we don’t hear a lot of them talk about Boqvist. Everyone was talking about Boqvist as a lock to make the Devils last season after a decent year as a teenager with the SHL. He ended up making the team out of training camp, but now that looks like it was a paper move at best. He barely played at the beginning of the season, seeing himself as a healthy scratch for almost all of October.
He played most of November and December but wasn’t very good. Boqvist ended his first professional season with only four goals in the NHL and zero assists. In the AHL, he was much better as could be predicted. He had eight goals in just 19 games. His first big game came against the Hershey Bears on Valentine’s Day. Boqvist scored two goals and added an assist, including the game-tying goal with about two minutes left in the game.
Indeed, Boqvist did not prove himself in the NHL last season, but we’re talking about someone who just turned 21 years old and moved from Sweden to America before getting a guaranteed job. He was played mostly in a third and fourth-line role where he wasn’t meant to excel. This was a long-term role for Boqvist. If he scored a lot, it would be great, but the fact that he didn’t wasn’t anything to worry about.
Boqvist is still on track to be a very good player. He’s one of the most skilled players in the entire system, whether that’s on the Devils or the prospects as a whole, Boqvist needs to be a player we’re excited about.