New Jersey Devils Top 25 Prospects 2022-23 Season

The New Jersey Devils have been on fire this season. After years of futility, it seems like the rebuild is finally over. 10 years at the bottom of the standings outside one outlier is finally paying off. The two former number-one overall picks, Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes lead the way. They are the top two players in goals on the team, and they’ve been near the top of the league in advanced stats.

The Devils are here because of quality drafting and smart asset management. 13 players in lineups this season were drafted by the Devils. Seven were drafted after the first round of the NHL Draft. Whether it’s Tom Fitzgerald, Ray Shero, or even some leftovers from Lou Lamoriello’s drafts, the Devils have done a phenomenal job keeping and identifying great talent.

The Devils fought the urge to trade major prospects for pieces. They haven’t moved desirable draft picks. That leaves them with a quality pool of prospects despite still having one of the best teams in the league. That’s what brings us here. We’re talking about the top 25 prospects in the Devils system.

There are some changes from the last season’s list. Remember, prospects must be under 24 years old, have their rights owned by the Devils, and cannot be an NHL regular. The following players did not make this year’s list because of the above factors or because other players replaced them:

Michael Vukojevich
Daniil Misyul
Jaromir Pytlik
Yegor Zaitsev
Cole Brady
Fabian Zetterlund
Nate Schnarr
Jesper Boqvist
Marian Studenic

So, who are the nine new players on this edition of the Top 25 Prospects list? Let’s start with number 25.

The Devils have a ton of depth on the blueline. There are nine defensemen on this list, more than any other position. We start with Topias Vilén. The Devils loaned him back to his Finnish team the Lahti Pelicans in Liiga. He has been in a men’s league for the past three seasons; an impressive feat for a 19-year-old. One of the biggest problems with his game is he was missing offensive instincts. Well, as of this writing, he has six goals and three assists through 18 games. His game is growing, and he will likely be a lot higher on the list in its nest iteration.

This one is really hard to rank. Artem Shlaine was at UConn last season but transferred to Northern Michigan University for this season. He’s centering their second line and has eight goals and six assists through 16 games. That’s second on his team. He scored a power play goal this past weekend against eighth-ranked Minnesota State that started their comeback and led to a major upset. Shlaine is worth paying attention to, but it’s hard to tell where his development goes next.

Jakub Malek could be the biggest Masterclass of the Tom Fitzgerald regime, or he could be a huge reach that backfires. Nobody even considered Malek a draftable goalie prospect in the 2021 NHL Draft. Malek originally started his season with Ilves of Liiga in Finland, but he struggled mightily. He had an .896 save percentage (but only a 2.62 GAA), which wasn’t acceptable for a team trying to compete like Ilves. He was loaned to KOOVIE, which is the second-tier league in Finland. He has dominated there, allowing less than a goal per game in just two games. We’ll see how the rest of the year goes.

Jack Dugan is not a prospect that was always in the system. In fact, he just joined the Devils this year. He was one of the prized prospects in the Vegas Golden Knights system, but something just didn’t click. He signed out of Providence College, where he tore up the NCAA with Tyce Thompson (who will join us later). He was really good in his first professional season, putting up 31 points in 37 games and adding three goals in five playoff games. Then, he fell off a cliff. He had 18 points in 35 games last season with Henderson, and he only has 10 points in 17 games this season. He still clearly has talent, but someone needs to find out how to unlock it.

This one will come off as controversial. Nikita Okhotiuk almost made the Devils out of training camp this season. He was giving a long look for his size, strength, and ability. He can hit, fight, and put fear into opposing skill players. The Devils don’t have a lot of that on the roster. Unfortunately, his skill is pretty limited beyond that. He needs to get better with the puck on his stick if he wants to stay in the NHL for a long period of time. The former second-round pick is really good at stopping the puck, but it’s what comes next that has him so low on this list.

Patrick Moynihan is famous because Ray Shero drafted him in 2019 after Jack Hughes asked him what he thought of him. Moynihan is an interesting prospect, but he’s incredibly flawed. He does a lot of the little things right. Unfortunately, he isn’t scoring a ton. As a winger in the NCAA, that’s a bad sign. However, the Devils like players who can do a little bit of everything. Moynihan needs to do everything right if he’s going to make it to the NHL. He currently only has seven points in 17 games despite a college career best 17% shooting percentage. He needs to do more in the second half of his senior year to prove he can be an NHL prospect.

The University of Michigan is home to three New Jersey Devils defensemen. This is the lowest ranked on this list. Ethan Edwards is on the second line for the now-eight-ranked Wolverines. He’s playing with Seamus Casey. He is probably one of the least talked about Devils strictly because of the team he plays for. He’s literally the third-most likely Michigan defenseman to make the Devils roster. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have NHL skill. It just means he’s behind two phenomenal players. He’s smaller (5’10), and he isn’t great offensively, but he can skate. Sometimes, that is just enough to get NHL minutes.

Zakhar Bardakov is one of the hardest prospects to rank on this list. There is always one player, usually in the KHL, who starts to put up stats in a men’s league. It’s hard to see when, or if, that will ever translate to the NHL. After playing a full season with SKA St. Petersburg, one of the best teams in the top Russian league, he’s now contributing on a nightly basis. Bardakov’s biggest asset is his compete level. Bardakov is a seventh-round pick, so being named on this chart is impressive enough. However, for some prospect experts to call him a likely NHL player one day is even better. Bardakov has to improve, but he’s shown he’s got the mindset to succeed in this sport.

What a strange journey it’s been for Samy Salminen. He falls on the prospects list after ranking 13th last season. He was supposed to play for the University of Denver, but he faced admissions issues. So, he had to transfer to UConn, but visa issues caused a delay to his season. This really is a nightmare, and the Devils are watching the progress of a great prospect stall. Luckily, he has a really good head on his shoulders. He’s got hockey IQ coming out of everywhere. He was the captain of his Swedish junior team, and after a slow start, he is starting to show up on the score sheet for a surging Huskies team. Salminen could rocket up this list by the end of the year. Just hard to give him the benefit of the doubt without seeing how he reacts to the North American game. We still expect him to be a top-10 prospect eventually.

The Canadian World Juniors rosters were announced, and Tyler Brennan was always a lock to make the team. The fourth-round pick in the most recent NHL Draft has been playing well in the WHL, and many believe he will be the starting goalie for Team Canada once final cuts are announced. It is ironic seeing how Brennan’s season has gone a little sideways. His .884 save percentage is… concerning. However, he has all the tools to be an elite goalie someday. Hopefully, he wins the Canada job outright and can prove himself in this tournament. Gaining a little confidence could help the second half of his season.

Of all the prospects in no man’s land, Reilly Walsh tops the list of “what to do next.” He made his NHL debut last season, and he expects to take a leadership role with the Utica Devils this year. So far this season, he has 10 points in 18 games. There is something weird happening in the AHL this season, so his point drop is on par with the rest of the team. Eventually, we expect Walsh to get back to the 43-point pace he had last season. He looks just as good as he did, and there is actually some interesting talent on that team.

Tyce Thompson just has to stay healthy. Every season, it seems like the same thing happens. He almost makes the NHL roster, he gets hurt in training camp, he gets to spend time with the Devils team doctors, then he’s forced to go back to Utica once he’s healthy. Thompson has nine points in 15 games this season. He’s watching his brother Tage become one of the world’s best players. Does that add to the pressure? Luckily, he’s on a Devils team that’s in no rush. He can take his time. However, there are other prospects and future drafts where he could get passed up. For now, Thompson’s future with the franchise is exciting.

Coming into the season, Nico Daws felt like the future of the Devils’ goaltender position. He was the best goalie on the team last season. We’re not talking about Utica. He was the best goalie on the Devils last year. This season, things have started slow. He’s seen his counterpart play insanely well in the NHL, while he’s struggled a little in the AHL. He has a .908 save percentage this season. It’s worse than the .916 save percentage from last season, but his GAA is about the same. If you take out one blowout by Rochester, his season is going really well. Let the season play out, and we expect Daws to be right where he was before.

This is the first time where we get to a tweener prospect who’s basically on the Devils, but it’s close enough to keep him on the prospects list. Kevin Bahl has been really good when given the chance this season. It’s clear his movement is better, he makes better decisions, and he can play at an NHL level. He’s only been in four games so far this season. However, his time practicing with the AHL team has gone a long way. Bahl has grown every season since the Taylor Hall trade. This year, he looks like an official NHL player.

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Maybe this is recency bias, but Akira Schmid looks like the Devils goalie of the future. At the beginning of the season, he was behind Nico Daws, but he’s been absolutely dominant. He hasn’t only been dominant in the AHL, but he’s been statistically one of the best goalies in the NHL. He is in the lineup while Mackenzie Blackwood recovers from an injury. In his time with the Devils, he won all five games he played (including one he didn’t even start). His .949 save percentage is the best in the league for any goalie who’s played at least four games. Some will think he’s too low and deserves to be in the top five, while others think this is too quick a reaction to put him ahead of Daws. Either way, Schmid might be making Blackwood expendable.

Arseni Gritsyuk had a concerning start to the season, but he’s starting to come into his own. While his point production is down with Avangard, he has a full-time role with the big club at 21 years old. The points are starting to come now that his KHL team is putting him in a position to succeed again. In his past 11 games, he has 10 points. He had 10 points in his first 27 games. If he can get his offensive fire power back, Gritsyuk could get a look in the NHL sooner rather than later.

The Devils got incredibly lucky in this year’s NHL Draft. Seamus Casey was a player a lot of analysts liked a lot. Some even thought he should go in the middle of the first round. Instead, the Devils got Casey with the 46th-overall pick. He has 16 points in 18 games for the University of Michigan. The main issue for Casey is size. He’s 5’9. If Casey was even 6’0, he would easily be a first rounder. His skills look like they will translate to the next level. They are helping him overcome the size issue, and it has him rocketed up to the top five in the Devils prospect rankings.

Alex Holtz was expected to graduate into the NHL this season. He was really good in the AHL last season, and it seemed like it would be a natural progression to the big leagues. He really dominated at the start of the preseason with Ondrej Palat and Jack Hughes, but an issue with speed kept him off that line and out of the lineup in general. After an injury to Nathan Bastian, Holtz finds himself back into the lineup. This time, he’s playing with Jesper Boqvist and Yegor Sharangovich. Listen, he’s still an incredible shooter. He should be a 30-goal player at some point in his career. For now, he needs to work on the little things before they become big problems. We should still be incredibly excited to have him as part of this franchise.

The top three prospects for the Devils are clear. Holtz, Simon Nemec, and Luke Hughes are incredible players. The order doesn’t necessarily matter, because they all project to be great players. Nemec was the second-overall pick in this year’s draft. After playing well in the Slovak men’s league, Nemec jumped straight into a North American professional league. We shouldn’t say he’s struggling, because there are moments where he looks dominant with the puck. He just hasn’t had consistency on the offensive end of things. He’s an 18-year-old defenseman playing in the AHL. It might take a year or two, but the Devils are going to build the blue line around him and the next player eventually.

The top player in the Devils system is Luke Hughes. He’s gotten better every single season, he’s build like a brick house, he has intense offensive skills, and he’s taken on a leadership role with the Wolverines. Many expected his numbers to drop off after Michigan lost a plethora of incredible players, including Owen Power, Kent Johnson, Matty Berniers, and others. Luckily, they added Adam Fantilli, who is likely going to go in the top three of this year’s draft. He is replacing a lot of the offense and is keeping Michigan in the top 10 in the NCAA. They are still a contender for a national championship. If Hughes can take this team further than Power and the star-studded team of last year could, then it will increase his star power. He also gets to lead Team USA at World Juniors over the next few weeks. There’s a lot to love about Hughes, and the Devils seem to be in an incredible position thanks to their defensive prospects.