The Utica Comets have been slowly trying to play meaningful hockey after the worst start in franchise history. Ryan Parent took over as head coach from Kevin Dineen, and the New Jersey Devils have been focusing on the development of young players. One of those young players who could turn into something is Adam Beckman.
The former top prospect was traded to the Devils this offseason in a swap that sent Graeme Clarke to the Minnesota Wild organization. The Devils felt that Beckman could do well with a change of scenery after 23 games and zero NHL goals. It seems to be working. Beckman has 19 points in 23 games, and he might be next in terms of call up.
Which makes what happened on Wednesday night even stranger, unless there's a good explanation that hasn't been revealed.
Beckman was a healthy scratch on Wednesday night in the Comets' game against the Syracuse Crunch. Players miss games for a variety of reasons, with sickness, injury, paternity leave, and other situations causing a single-game absence. However, when asked after the game about Beckman missing the game, Parent was direct about why.
I asked Ryan Parent about Adam Beckman not being in the lineup Wednesday.
— Ben Birnell (@BB_URSentinel) January 9, 2025
“Called up? Injured?”
His response: “He was just out of the lineup.”
So, a healthy scratch?
“Yup.”
We now know that Beckman, the Comets' best forward, was left out of the game for no reason besides a lineup decision. While that's the facts as we see them, there's some context here we're not getting. The first inclination is the Devils could be using this to call up Beckman. With Erik Haula out of the lineup for the foreseeable future, the Devils could be calling him up to the big show.
Beckman makes sense on the Devils fourth line, giving them a different look. The questionable reason why that might not work is Justin Dowling was also not in the lineup. He makes sense as a Haula replacement because he was already on the Devils this season as a Curtis Lazar replacement when he got hurt. Plus, he was also out of the lineup Wednesday.
So what could it be? Could Beckman be a part of a larger move by the Devils? With so many trade rumors, could this be a trade piece? That seems farfetched, but it's definitely not impossible. What seems even less likely is the Comets decided their lineup was better with Beckman on the bench, even if they did score five goals and win the game.