This past summer, a clear goal of Sunny Mehta and company was to drastically improve the New Jersey Devils’ pipeline by pouring focus into improving the Utica Comets. From the top down, there was transformative change. It started with hiring Braden Birch as the GM of the Comets (and Assistant GM to the Devils themselves), hiring two new major staff members on the development side of things (Brian McCabe, Vice President of Prospect Personnel and AGM of the Comets, and Jessica Campbell, Manager of Player Development), and wholly transforming the roster with players with skill, speed, and top-notch work ethic.
Suffice to say, the early results are incredibly encouraging.
Entering 2026-27, the Comets hadn't won an October game since 2023, going 0-12-1 in 2024 and 2025. As it stands, three games into the season, Utica is undefeated and has only allowed four goals. In their season opener, they defeated the AHL's best-last-season Providence Bruins 2-1, surrendering only 21 total shots against a team that lost just 18 of 72 games in 2025-26. They followed it up with 2-1 and 4-2 wins over division rival Rochester Americans and Belleville Senators, respectively.
It's obviously extremely early into the campaign, but the early individual results are also extremely strong. Through three games, Utica has four players who are producing at least one point per game. Lenni Hameenaho, who has three goals and five total points, leads the bunch, while Marc McLaughlin, Matyas Melovsky, and Topias Vilen each have three points.
The Utica Comets are bringing positivity to the New Jersey Devils organization
For context, the last time the Comets had a point-per-game player was 2021-22, when Chase de Leo had 56 points in 55 games. It's still a minuscule sample size, to be clear, but the fact that the players are playing as well as they are on an individual level and the team in front of them looks wholly competent is extremely promising. Realistically speaking, the Comets have a solid five forwards who could reasonably contribute to the Devils' main roster in an injury pinch, with an additional handful of defensemen who could do the same. Hell, there's an NHL veteran in net for the Comets.
Having those players as minor-leaguers will do the Devils' farm system as a whole a lot of good, and that will have a trickle-up effect on the organization. High standards throughout the system will only queue up more competition, and with it, more NHLers will be developed.
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