New Jersey Devils Top 25 Prospects 2022-23 Season

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.