The New Jersey Devils prospects had less of an impact than we hoped at the World Junior Championships.
There were some big hopes for the New Jersey Devils prospects coming into the 2021 World Junior Championships. They had a chance to be the quintessential franchise at the yearly tournament. There were major players in three of the four favorites, and there was a depth player on the other. That depth player ended up winning the only gold medal for Devils’ prospects.
It was the ending that most Devils fans rooted for since Team USA won the gold medal, beating a dominant Team Canada team in the gold medal game to boot. However, most Devils fans wanted a bigger output from its top prospects. Some looked alright, but the production didn’t follow. Others were downright laughing stocks, whether they deserved it or not (they didn’t deserve it THIS bad).
The Devils prospects were honestly outdone by the Los Angeles Kings prospects, which makes a lot of us cringe. Anaheim Ducks prospect Trevor Zegras ended up winning MVP of the tournament. Florida Panthers prospect Spencer Knight shook off a bad start to lead his team to the gold medal with a shutout in the final game. Dylan Cozens (Buffalo) and Tim Stuetzle (Ottawa) rounded out the forwards on the All-Star Team. Bowen Byram (Colorado) and Ville Heinola (Winnipeg) were the All-Star defensemen.
There are no Devils who even sniffed the All-Star team. That part of this equation is a major disappointment, but these prospects got very important experience in an international tournament that should drive them all to get better. The Devils had six prospects on five teams going into the tournament. So, how did they do?