New Jersey Devils Preseason Top 25 Prospect Rankings

Arseni Gritsyuk is a really hard player to pin on this list. He’s currently playing in the KHL for Avangard Omsk, but after spending a few games in the owner’s box it’s hard to understand why they wouldn’t just send him to the MHL. There, he scored four points in four games earlier this season. Clearly, he’s a player that needs to find a better spot in the lineup. Would his development go better if he was the big fish in a little pond and score a ton in the MHL, or would playing against better competition in the top league get him to the next level?

Defensemen are just so hard to project. Michael Vukojevic is proof of this. He has a lot of the tools to become a really good defenseman, which drove the Devils to take him in the 3rd round last year. He just hasn’t put any of it together, which caused him to fall to the 3rd round. He’s already doing a lot well with the offensive aspects of his game. He obviously can skate, but Vukojevic has to find a way to play better in his own end. He makes mistakes, which most defensemen do in juniors. This is one of those “way too early to tell” prospects, but he still has so much upside that he’s absolutely a top-20 prospect for this team.

Aarne Talvitie could be 10 spots higher if it wasn’t for a knee injury he suffered in the championship game of the World Junior Championship. He was hit by Mikey Anderson (brother of former Devils prospect Joey) and immediately grabbed his leg. He had 16 points in 17 games for Penn State before the injury as a freshman getting used to playing in North America. He was absolutely electric. He was clearly not right for most of last season. He had a brutal stretch where he only scored two points in 12 games (both in the same game). They only won three of those games. Talvitie is the player to watch so far. He could rocket up this list now that he’s a full 18 months from his knee injury.

Obviously, goalies are hard to project, especially when the goalie was literally just drafted. No other goalie appears on this list (obviously, both Mackenzie Blackwood and Gilles Senn would appear if they were eligible). Akira Schmid, Evan Cormier, and Cole Brady don’t seem to be anywhere close to making a play for the NHL. Nico Daws is the closest of all of them, and they took him a couple of weeks ago. He led the OHL in save percentage, played with a gold medal-winning Canada team at World Juniors (after looking like he had no chance to make the team coming into last season), and single-handedly kept the Guelph Storm in a playoff position (that never ended up happening) last season. Daws will have a hard time finding an encore, but playing well in a big moment is something he hasn’t had to do. He blew his chance at the WJC, and he needs a shot in a high-energy scenario to show he’ll be able to excel on the big stage.

Nikita Okhotyuk is likely going back to the Ottawa 67’s powerhouse this season. The Devils 2nd-round pick is mainly a shutdown defenseman. He isn’t going to score a lot of points, and he might score none on the NHL level. Defensive defensemen are not a hot commodity in the NHL right now, but the Devils could really use one with young offensive defensemen in Damon Severson, Will Butcher, Ty Smith, and Reilly Walsh already close to the roster. He’s still 19 years old, and he could get more points if Rossi and Quinn lead another great 67’s team. It would be nice to see Okhotyuk get a look in New Jersey, possibly on a seven-game tryout at the beginning of the season, just to see where his talent actually is.