5 New Jersey Devils Prospects Who Fell Below Expectations This Season
The New Jersey Devils have a lot of exciting prospects around the world, but not all of them are going in the right direction. These prospects need to show a little more in 2022-23.
The New Jersey Devils are hoping by next season they will have enough prospects graduating into the NHL to put together one of the best young teams in the league. They made a lot of moves that brought them young players and extra draft picks. Since 2019, the Devils made 12 trades looking for prospects and picks exclusively. They’ve made 26 draft picks in the past three years, including six first-round picks.
This is going to really give the Devils a leg up when it comes to young players. The Devils have also shown a history of finding gems late in the draft. Jesper Bratt is hardly alone when it comes to players taken after the third round where the Devils hit a home run. Yegor Sharangovich was a fifth-round pick. Arseny Gritsyuk has been amazing in the KHL this season after the Devils took him in the fifth round of the 2019 NHL Draft. Nico Daws has been the Devils best goalie after taking him in the third round of the 2020 NHL Draft.
The Devils hit more often than most other teams. It’s one of the reasons the Devils have one of the best prospect rankings in the league despite having the very worst just five years ago.
Which New Jersey Devils prospects fell below expectations this season?
However, with so many prospects to choose from, the Devils are always going to have some disappointments. Now, most of these young players aren’t “done”, they are just falling below expectations. Some had rough seasons due to injury, while others struggled in a new environment. All of them fell from what we expected of them and their future in the system is slightly in question.
Nolan Foote
It hurts to put Nolan Foote here because he’s shown some flashes where he could be a really good player, but the consistency hasn’t been there when he’s on the ice. On top of that, he’s had trouble staying on the ice in general. He’s played 51 of the Utica Comets‘ 65 games this season. He missed some after a two-game callup with the Devils and others for an injury. It’s not like he’s been injury-prone, but it’s part of the narrative of his season.
Foote has 30 points in those 51 games. That puts him eighth on the team in points and his 13 goals are tied for seventh (with Nate Schnarr doing it in eight fewer games. Foote is third on the team in +/-. We can’t take too much from +/-, but maybe it shows the type of player Foote is trying to become.
What’s really concerning is Foote on the power play. His ridiculous shot should be an incredible asset on the PP. Instead, he only has two power-play goals this season. Tyce Thompson has played 12 games this season and he has more.
Foote will always have higher expectations than most because a) he was a first-round pick and b) he was the main prospect to come in the Blake Coleman trade. At the time of the trade, it looks like the Devils got themselves a haul for Coleman, but the longer we watch, the more it seems like the Devils might have come short in the deal.
Michael Vukojevic
The Devils took three defensemen within 21 picks in 2019. They took Nikita Okhotyuk with the 61st-overall pick, Daniil Misyul with the 70th-overall pick, and Michael Vukojevic with the 82nd-overall pick. All three have been somewhat disappointing, and none of them are really considered very likely to make the NHL anytime soon. Okhotyuk is a bruiser who is doing well at that role in the AHL, but Kevin Bahl is pretty similar and he’s in the NHL right now.
When it comes to Vukojevic, he’s been struggling just to stay in the AHL lineup this year. In fact, he spent some time with the Adirondack Thunder this year of the ECHL. Vukojevic has done well to cut down on his penalties, an issue he had in his first year last year. However, his offensive numbers have dropped. He only has 14 points in 47 games in the AHL after scoring 11 last season in just 26.
Vukojevic is incredibly young still. He only made it to the AHL last season because the OHL wasn’t playing. This is supposed to be his first season in professional hockey, but he was forced to go pro early. Give him some time to develop and maybe he can one day be something, but he’s clearly taken a step back this season compared to last year. He was a pleasant surprise in 2021, but this season he fell below those expectations.
Graeme Clarke
Alright, one more from the AHL. Graeme Clarke was a player that looked like his offensive abilities could translate to the NHL right away. He had great instincts in juniors, and when he was healthy, he was as good offensively as most first-round picks. The injury history was what helped him available into the third round. The Devils were able to take a chance on him because they had so many other prospects to build around.
At first, it looked like the Devils got themselves a gem. After returning from his injury in his last season with the Ottawa 67’s, Clarke had 17 points in 16 games. He was scoring at will and getting the puck to open players on an incredibly talented team. Last season with Binghamton, Clarke had 18 points in 31 games after spending part of the season in a professional league in Slovakia.
This season, with a full season under head coach Kevin Dineen, many expected Clarke to become one of the best players on the Comets. Unfortunately, he seems to be falling under those expectations. Alexander Holtz was always going to be the best scorer on the team. Many expected Foote and Clarke to be second and third. Instead, it’s Fabian Zetterlund and A.J. Greer.
Clarke is going to be in Utica again next season, and that’s okay. There really isn’t room for him in New Jersey anyway. The Devils need prospects who are playing lights out to make it on the NHL roster, and Clarke still has time to prove himself.
Jaromir Pytlik
This one might have fallen under the radar, but where is Jaromir Pytlik even playing this season? Don’t worry, we’ll Google it for you. He started the season in the Finish Elite League Liiga, he was sent to another team on a loan within the league, and now he’s playing in Czechia for Rytíři Kladno. He has five points in 30 games for his latest team, and nothing is really standing out for him this season.
The 2020 fourth-round pick came with a lot of upside when the Devils chose him. He was given a big role in his draft year for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, but he wasn’t as good as previous first-line centers like Morgan Frost and Barrett Hayton.
He came out of the draft considered a “complete” player due to his ability to impact different parts of the game. His development seems to have struggled now that he doesn’t have the structure that comes with playing in the OHL. His upside wasn’t terribly high, but he seemed to understand the game of hockey as well as any player in the draft.
This season has been a mess for him. This happens quite often with overseas players who come to North America to play junior hockey. Once junior hockey is over, what’s next? Some go to the AHL or NHL right away, and then it’s usually a pretty good trajectory to become a professional player. If they have to go back to Europe, it’s a much riskier proposition. We see that with Pytlik, who is now must figure out what’s next. Playing in the Czech league likely isn’t the best option to make the NHL. However, he has to go somewhere that’s willing to give him big minutes after a five-point season.
Cole Brady
As if the Devils needed more bad news at the goaltender position, Cole Brady had a bad season. It went so bad he decided to transfer out of Arizona State after he was basically relegated to a backup role after an impressive freshman season. The Sun Devils aren’t the best hockey team to play for in the league, but he’s someone who played well despite the situation. He had a .910 save percentage his freshman season, and his confidence was going up.
This season, things started to fall apart. He finished his season with a .900 save percentage, and Ben Kraws took over the starting job despite only having a .907 save percentage. Kraws did allow fewer than three goals per game while Brady was allowing close to four goals per game. Brady clearly looked worse than he did in 2020-21.
Brady is quickly falling to the sixth or seventh most important goalie in the Devils’ system. Nico Daws and Akira Schmid are the goalies to lead Utica (when Daws isn’t the starter in the NHL). Mackenzie Blackwood is still the “goalie of the future” until the Devils find a better option. Jonathan Bernier is still here until we hear his hip injury will keep him out next season. And Jakub Málek has been an exciting player in international play.
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Brady announced he was going to UMass. They have a wide-open goalie competition with Matt Murray ending his college career after five years. Brady can be on a completely different list next season by taking the UMass goaltending position and playing well. He’s still a junior, and he could really show the Devils he’s more than he showed while at Arizona State.