The New Jersey Devils have some tier three prospects that could be great.
Tier three on the Prospect Pyramid is probably the hardest tier to read because each player in the tier can either become a star one day or a complete bust. For the New Jersey Devils, it is probably the most skill diverse tier of them all. Some have fallen to that tier and some have risen the ranks rapidly. Fans can be happy where they sit in terms of tier three quantity. Championships can be won or lost based on the development of these types of players.
Going into 2020-21, Reilly Walsh, Dawson Mercer, Michael McLeod, Nolan Foote, Janne Kuokkanen, and Tyce Thompson make up tier three of the Prospect Pyramid. Each of these players took a different route to get here.
Michael McLeod took the most hate online for being in tier three. A lot of people are out on him and rightfully so. He was the 12th-overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft. Not only was he selected that high, but some good players were also left on the board. It was a bad pick, but he was still projected to be a 1st-round pick based on his talent regardless. This is probably going to be his last chance to do something about his NHL career.
New Jersey fans were pleasantly surprised when they woke up one morning and saw that Reilly Walsh and the New Jersey Devils came to a deal. He was considered to be a prospect that was going to leave as a college free agent. Many thought he would stick it to the Devils and go play with his friend Adam Fox and the New York Rangers but he chose to stay. Lucky for them because he has a chance to be a great player one day.
Nolan Foote and Janne Kuokkanen came to the Devils in trades this past season via the Blake Coleman and Sami Vatanen trade respectively. Foote is a goal scorer who can score in all different ways where Kuokkanen seems to be more of a multi-skill type of offensive player. Both of them could see NHL time within the next year or two and both could be mainstays not long after that.
Dawson Mercer might be the most exciting one in the tier because he brings more of the unknown. He has been in the organization the least out of them all because he was just drafted in 2020. The Devils made him their 18th-overall pick (via the Taylor Hall trade) and have high hopes for him as a two-way player. It will be a while before he is with them but fans should be excited about his potential.
Tyce Thompson’s rise up the ranks should intrigue everyone. He was in the “Everybody Else” tier-six category on the 2019-20 Prospect Pyramid and now he is in tier three with some of the most important prospects in the organization. He was a fourth-round pick in 2019 after a good year with Providence College. In 2019-20, however, he was a phenomenal player (19 goals and 25 assists for 44 points in 34 games) there with Providence. He has a chance to keep rising until he is an impact player in the NHL.