thethinglonger
Castron & Crew
while i can see the argument you make, clarke is a long shot to have a role on the devils mid term.
not only does he come back from a serious injury, he got also passed on the depth chart by other prospects, which could play his role of a shooting rw. i expect both holtz and thompson to get the first looks on the scoring lines by the coaching staff. for a more defensive assignments there are also other (better, more polished) options in mercer, merkley, bastian and potentially moynihan. after the draft rw probably is the deepest position of the devils prospect pipeline with a very nice mix of player types. i could see a few of them in play for trades to fill other roster needs or in case of mercer, that he is developed to play center.
Clarke definitely had a rough 2020...missing significant time due to injury and then the Devils picking RW's with two of their first round picks? Yikes.
And you're 100% right, he still has a lot to work on in his game and is quite far down on the depth chart. Even still, after Holtz I think he's our best goal-scoring prospect. To be honest, I'm not so much concerned with his defensive game (which does need a lot of work) as I am with his skating - and now injury history, since we've got a decent number of forwards that are good in their own end. His skating will be the difference between an AHL top-6 role and an NHL depth scoring role.
It's interesting to see how folks make their selections with these later round rankings too. I've seen some make their pick based on NHL readiness or safeness, others, like myself, picked on perceived upside. I looked and saw that you picked Talvitie here, which is almost a combination of those two. He's going to have a great season.