Prospect Info: 2023 Development Camp

[Guttersniped]

Very excited to watch the scrimmage tomorrow, especially for Hameenaho. I'm a big fan of the pick so I'm excited for him to show some good stuff tomorrow, and hopefully prove some of the naysayers regarding his skating wrong.

Not surprised you had the same opinion on Salminen, though. Still cannot believe some people were comparing Hameenaho's skating to Salminen's. Not only does it look like Salminen is skating with shit in his pants, he is content with just meandering around in the middle of the ice like no one notices rather than trying to act normal or do something about it. The worst combination of skating and pace of play I have ever seen.

I’ve been hoping your harsh assessment has been a little too harsh but yesterday basically killed that dream lol.

 

[RememberTheName]

I’ve been hoping your harsh assessment has been a little too harsh but yesterday basically killed that dream lol.

I try to be fair in all my prospect and player assessments. I do my best to tell it as I see it, even if it is a little bit harsh. I think I am especially harsh when I hate the pick when it gets made on draft day and then the player continues to prove me right in terms of them being exactly what I thought they were, which might be a little unfair to the prospect, but such is life. I would love nothing more than for these types of prospects to prove me wrong, but to this date, it has yet to happen. The three most recent instances were Holtz, Stillman, and Salminen. I didn't like the Nemec pick either, but at least in that case, I still thought Nemec would be an awesome player. I just thought there were other better players available (I still take Cooley and Jiricek but Nemec impressed me more than I expected this year). The other three, I really did not like as players at all at any point in their careers.

For some reason or another, NJ really seems to struggle with evaluating forwards. I don't know what it is, but they don't seem to really do well with any forward outside of the top 1. Since 2018 or so, I'm not even kidding when I say this, the pool of forward prospects the Devils have gotten drafting in the 5th-7th rounds is equally as good as what they got in rounds 1-4 (excluding pick 1), which is really strange. Here's the list below if anyone is curious:

Forwards since 2018 NHL draft:
Rounds 1-4: Graeme Clarke, Tyce Thompson, Alex Holtz, Dawson Mercer, Jaromir Pytlik, Chase Stillman, Samu Salminen, Lenni Hameenaho, Cam Squires
Rounds 5-7: Yegor Sharangovich, Mitchell Hoelscher, Eetu Pakkila, Arseni Gristyuk, Patrick Moynihan, Nikola Pasic, Artem Shlaine, Ben Baumgartner, Zakhar Bardakov, Petr Hauser, Josh Filmon, Cole Brown

Rounds 1-4 might have the name recognition right now and obviously the best player of the bunch in Mercer, but when you look closer, it is way closer than it should be.

 

[R8Devs]

idk if there's enough there to say one way or the other about the Devils evaluation one way or the other, I think grouping rounds 1-4 together doesn't really make sense either.

Holtz, Mercer, and Stillman are the only ones there drafted in the 1st round, Mercer is already good and Holtz is tbd but if he was on a lesser team at this stage he would have had more opportunity in the NHL at this point. We'll see where he is come this year but I don't think the Devils rated Holtz that differently from the average NHL team at the time of the draft (just based on consensus rankings and Bob Mckenzie's who polls NHL scouts).

Stillman looks like the only real whiff but that pick had covid implications (they probably were projecting a lot more from him based on his DY-1 5v5 production) and I don't think the guy behind that pick is even with the team anymore (Andy Schneider was the head of CHL scouting at the time but now he's with the Rangers). So I don't think he's going to serve much of a basis for how the Devils go forward from here.

 

[Guadana]

I try to be fair in all my prospect and player assessments. I do my best to tell it as I see it, even if it is a little bit harsh. I think I am especially harsh when I hate the pick when it gets made on draft day and then the player continues to prove me right in terms of them being exactly what I thought they were, which might be a little unfair to the prospect, but such is life. I would love nothing more than for these types of prospects to prove me wrong, but to this date, it has yet to happen. The three most recent instances were Holtz, Stillman, and Salminen. I didn't like the Nemec pick either, but at least in that case, I still thought Nemec would be an awesome player. I just thought there were other better players available (I still take Cooley and Jiricek but Nemec impressed me more than I expected this year). The other three, I really did not like as players at all at any point in their careers.

For some reason or another, NJ really seems to struggle with evaluating forwards. I don't know what it is, but they don't seem to really do well with any forward outside of the top 1. Since 2018 or so, I'm not even kidding when I say this, the pool of forward prospects the Devils have gotten drafting in the 5th-7th rounds is equally as good as what they got in rounds 1-4 (excluding pick 1), which is really strange. Here's the list below if anyone is curious:

Forwards since 2018 NHL draft:
Rounds 1-4: Graeme Clarke, Tyce Thompson, Alex Holtz, Dawson Mercer, Jaromir Pytlik, Chase Stillman, Samu Salminen, Lenni Hameenaho, Cam Squires
Rounds 5-7: Yegor Sharangovich, Mitchell Hoelscher, Eetu Pakkila, Arseni Gristyuk, Patrick Moynihan, Nikola Pasic, Artem Shlaine, Ben Baumgartner, Zakhar Bardakov, Petr Hauser, Josh Filmon, Cole Brown

Rounds 1-4 might have the name recognition right now and obviously the best player of the bunch in Mercer, but when you look closer, it is way closer than it should be.

You are a pessimist. We are drafting in later rounds as good as in early rounds! (It looks like 7-8 players with nhl potential, not as bad)

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

It was true under Ray that it was good forwards, bad D. It’s mostly flipped since Fitz took over. Bratt, Zetterlund, Yegor, Gritsyuk, Bastian, Boqvist were all under Ray.

i do think that Fitz is targeting size too much, but i also think that’s cuz he and the scouts are making a concerted effort to find some Palat/Killorn type guys to complement the core.

However i don’t think that Holtz, Mercer, Filmon, Hauser, and then all the guys from the last two drafts feel like a major departure from what Shero was doing. Stillman is the one notable exception where it was a clear miss from the moment he was taken.

Also here’s the lines for the scrimmage cuz i can’t get them into a separate post

:

 

[Japam]

I saw a clip on Twitter of Parent scoring a nice snipe. I remember he looked good in last camp too. I remember asking about him last camp and no one was really that high on him. He just a career AHL'er?

 

[RememberTheName]

I saw a clip on Twitter of Parent scoring a nice snipe. I remember he looked good in last camp too. I remember asking about him last camp and no one was really that high on him. He just a career AHL'er?

He's looked really solid. Don't think he will ever be an NHLer but I think he can carve out a career as a really good AHLer.

 

[njdevils1982]

Do we really want to talk about your "thing", though?

 

[OmNomNom]

that's a crazy story about seamus casey (credit: Bogart)



so on broadcast, they mentioned that seamus's younger bro had what they thought was leukemia and were at beth israel hospital. devils players (including Dano) visited w the cup and from that point forward, seamus's bro's #s went way up. so funny full circle, seamus visited too

 

[Lou is God]

Is anyone watching the game? I was hoping for updates.

 

[OmNomNom]

Is anyone watching the game? I was hoping for updates.

YT feed is hard to track bc commentary is all over the place, but malek has been solid

 

[RememberTheName]

I'll give my thoughts, mostly on who I think the standouts are:

Seamus Casey: Easily the best player here. It's not even close. Not much else really needs to be said.

Jakub Malek: The Devils just can't stop with goalies. Their goalie scouting is ridiculous. He is very, very impressive. Keep an eye out down the road for this kid. Really positionally sound, really athletic, and a fantastic puck handler.

Chase Cheslock: Super raw, but you can see him oozing with potential. Loves to play physical, great puck handler, solid skater. There's a lot to like.

Lenni Hameenaho: Wasn't his best showing by any means, and even though he's not the greatest skater, he plays with such an awesome pace. He is flying all over the ice, disrupting plays everywhere, making things happen, always in the right spot. He's a gamer.

Ondrej Psenicka: This kid stood out to me all over the ice. He has great vision for someone of his size. He has a scorer's mentality but the skill level of a 13th forward right now. I'd love to give this kid a contract and let him develop in the AHL. I honestly think he has a lot of potential as a good 4th liner who can play well in the cycle game and be the "driver" of a fourth line in the offensive zone.

Cole Brown: Energetic player, well built. More impressive puck skills than I had expected and a wicked shot. He played great today and I am excited to see this kid continue to develop.

Josh Filmon: Really good player, but he definitely still looks like a Juniors player to me in the way he approaches the game in the offensive zone. Still very raw, will definitely need a year or two in the AHL after next season.

Topias Vilen: Didn't notice him a whole lot, but when I did, it was for all of the right reasons. Definitely a trait to love in a defenseman.

Charlie Leddy: Really solid defensively, safe player, don't know if he has the upside to play in the NHL. Curious to see if his offense takes an uptick next season playing on that loaded BC squad.

Timur Ibragimov: Could use a couple more seasons of development. Don't think he will ever be in the NHL, but he has a lot of creativity that he doesn't have the skill to match yet.


Don't really think anyone else warrants a writeup, but I did think Fitz's kid looked good, Hatakka is not an NHL defender (but I think a good AHL one), and Recchi's kid had a nice goal and I didn't notice anything else. Game was definitely a bit hard to track with all of the weird numbers and not very focused commentary. Most surprising moment of the day goes to turning to the screen and seeing Salminen receive an outlet twenty feet behind the nearest defender for the slowest breakaway opportunity I've seen. Have literally 0 clue what he was doing still in the neutral zone given the play had already developed in his defensive zone, but I guess when you are constantly lagging behind the play, lucky shit like that will happen.

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

It was agood time. I would have to re-watch it again to get a better understanding of some pf the players but Seamus Casey stood out to me.

It was nice seeing Brown net 2 goals and Squiers with the gorgeous finish on his goal. Filmon had a nice assist to on the red teams last goal.

It was a good time as always but it was different watching the game with no 1st round pick in the lineup. Seamus Casey in my eyes is basically a 1st round talent and certainly looks like one. Kinda hard to evaluate the players based off these kind of games though.

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

I think i saw Amanda call it a tournament but it’s just the one game today, right?

 

[Xirik]

Devils Director of Player Development Meghan Duggan Gives her thoughts on this weeks training camp.




-She likes the growth of Filmon
-Player development coaches keep in contact with the players and take them out to breakfast from time to time to give them things to work on
-They got the guys to wash Meghans car?

Miyagi would be proud!

Brennan! show me....Wax on wax off technique!

 

[Clam Jensen]

Hughes/Nemec/Casey/Vilen has to be the deepest D prospect group in hockey, right?

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

Hughes/Nemec/Casey/Vilen has to be the deepest D prospect group in hockey, right?

without question. Crazy that Muk and Walsh are afterthoughts, too.

 

[Triumph]

without question. Crazy that Muk and Walsh are afterthoughts, too.

Eh, I don't think Mukhamadullin was an afterthought, he was the most valuable player in the Meier deal. That said, most systems have a guy like Walsh in it somewhere and he did just turn 24 w/ 3 years of pro experience so I don't think he's a prospect. He'll have a long pro career either here or in Europe, though.

 

[Mgd31]

I'll give my thoughts, mostly on who I think the standouts are:

Seamus Casey: Easily the best player here. It's not even close. Not much else really needs to be said.

Jakub Malek: The Devils just can't stop with goalies. Their goalie scouting is ridiculous. He is very, very impressive. Keep an eye out down the road for this kid. Really positionally sound, really athletic, and a fantastic puck handler.

Chase Cheslock: Super raw, but you can see him oozing with potential. Loves to play physical, great puck handler, solid skater. There's a lot to like.

Lenni Hameenaho: Wasn't his best showing by any means, and even though he's not the greatest skater, he plays with such an awesome pace. He is flying all over the ice, disrupting plays everywhere, making things happen, always in the right spot. He's a gamer.

Ondrej Psenicka: This kid stood out to me all over the ice. He has great vision for someone of his size. He has a scorer's mentality but the skill level of a 13th forward right now. I'd love to give this kid a contract and let him develop in the AHL. I honestly think he has a lot of potential as a good 4th liner who can play well in the cycle game and be the "driver" of a fourth line in the offensive zone.

Cole Brown: Energetic player, well built. More impressive puck skills than I had expected and a wicked shot. He played great today and I am excited to see this kid continue to develop.

Josh Filmon: Really good player, but he definitely still looks like a Juniors player to me in the way he approaches the game in the offensive zone. Still very raw, will definitely need a year or two in the AHL after next season.

Topias Vilen: Didn't notice him a whole lot, but when I did, it was for all of the right reasons. Definitely a trait to love in a defenseman.

Charlie Leddy: Really solid defensively, safe player, don't know if he has the upside to play in the NHL. Curious to see if his offense takes an uptick next season playing on that loaded BC squad.

Timur Ibragimov: Could use a couple more seasons of development. Don't think he will ever be in the NHL, but he has a lot of creativity that he doesn't have the skill to match yet.


Don't really think anyone else warrants a writeup, but I did think Fitz's kid looked good, Hatakka is not an NHL defender (but I think a good AHL one), and Recchi's kid had a nice goal and I didn't notice anything else. Game was definitely a bit hard to track with all of the weird numbers and not very focused commentary. Most surprising moment of the day goes to turning to the screen and seeing Salminen receive an outlet twenty feet behind the nearest defender for the slowest breakaway opportunity I've seen. Have literally 0 clue what he was doing still in the neutral zone given the play had already developed in his defensive zone, but I guess when you are constantly lagging behind the play, lucky shit like that will happen.

Thanks for this. So if Holtz had Hameenaho's hockey IQ he would be a superstar?

 

[Saugus]

Hughes/Nemec/Casey/Vilen has to be the deepest D prospect group in hockey, right?

Next year it might be pretty barren if Hughes and/or Nemec graduates to playing full time at the NHL level.

That would be a good problem to have though.

 

[RememberTheName]

Thanks for this. So if Holtz had Hameenaho's hockey IQ he would be a superstar?

And pace of play, probably.

 

[My3Sons]

Devils Director of Player Development Meghan Duggan Gives her thoughts on this weeks training camp.




-She likes the growth of Filmon
-Player development coaches keep in contact with the players and take them out to breakfast from time to time to give them things to work on
-They got the guys to wash Meghans car?

Miyagi would be proud!

Brennan! show me....Wax on wax off technique!

Why breakfast? Why not a nice afternoon tea or a brunch on the weekend?

 

[RNCDevil]

Hughes/Nemec/Casey/Vilen has to be the deepest D prospect group in hockey, right?

Not even mentioning the Russians, which could be a huge boost, too.

 

[Bleedred]

That first goal for team white on Poulter that made it 1-0 had a lot of odor on it.

There was one other goal on him that may or may not have been brutal. Might have deflected off of something, but I think it just deflected off of him.

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

Eh, I don't think Mukhamadullin was an afterthought, he was the most valuable player in the Meier deal. That said, most systems have a guy like Walsh in it somewhere and he did just turn 24 w/ 3 years of pro experience so I don't think he's a prospect. He'll have a long pro career either here or in Europe, though.

i just meant “afterthought” in that they are gone now and we’re still loaded with young, talented defensemen