The Utica Comets are getting quite a few reinforcements today.
All six players the New Jersey Devils sent to waivers on Sunday afternoon have cleared, with all of Riley Tufte, Colin White, Marc McLaughlin, Topias Vilen, Vladislav Kolyachonok, and David Rittich slated to begin the 2026-27 campaign in the AHL.
Most of these names were completely expected -- given the incredible depth Sunny Mehta and company have afforded the Devils up front, all of Tufte, White, and McLaughlin should have been expected to hit waivers prior to the Monday deadline to get rosters down to 23 players. Tufte, 28, and White, 29, were signed in free agency to greatly bolster the offensive capabilities of the Devils' AHL affiliate, while McLaughlin was brought back as an expiring RFA. All three of them should be expected to be top-nine fixtures for the Comets.
Vilen was a no-brainer, too, being that he appears to be fifth in line to be the Devils' extra defenseman behind all of Kolyachonok, Seamus Casey (when healthy), Anton Silaev (who impressed at training camp despite needing to improve his poise with the puck), and Ethan Edwards. Vilen is a perfectly fine prospect, but it seems as though he might cap out as more of a top-pair AHLer than anything else at this point in time.
Kolyachonok was somewhat surprising to see on waivers considering that the Devils seem set to roster just six defenseman while Johnathan Kovacevic is poised to start the year on injured reserve (IR), which can be a bit of a risk in the case of the injury bug hitting the team. Though, it does make sense if the organization is anticipating Kovacevic to return on short-ish notice.
When the Devils claimed goaltender Remi Poirier from the Dallas Stars, it was crystal clear that they would be putting Rittich on waivers -- carrying four goaltenders is not allowed (on top of just being silly). Their Poirier claim signifies that they do indeed want to have a three-goalie rotation, however.
Rittich's move to Utica will be an interesting one to monitor, in the sense that he is a perfectly capable spot-starter at the NHL level and, thus, it could be perceived that he will take a lot of starts away from prospect Jakub Malek. I don't think that's realistic, though, and rather believe that Malek will still take the bulk of starts barring some poor play.
With the reinforcements all getting through waivers, including an NHL-caliber netminder, Utica should certainly be a powerhouse in the AHL.
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