New Jersey Devils OHL Prospects Review

[Brock]

http://ohlprospects.blogspot.ca/2016/07/30-teams-in-30-days-new-jersey-devils.html

Each summer I review the progress, rank, and provide prognostication for each NHL team's OHL prospects. Today is New Jersey.

Obviously, you guys have a lot of talent in the OHL and a lot invested in the league right now. As always, I'd be willing to answer any questions you might have.

Click to read more...

 

[DanteDevilsHockey]

I would love as many responses as possible. Do you guys think Pavel Zacha will be a better impact player and have a better chance to become an elite NHLer on the wing or down the middle for the Devils.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

Good and informative read. Thank you for posting it! Some thoughts:

1) On Zacha, I'm glad that you think so highly of him, and I definitely agree about him most likely being in the NHL this year. The difference between what we saw of him in training camp and in the game against Toronto was huge, so I feel like he is ready to make that next big step to the NHL. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do in the NHL.

2) On McLeod, the more I read about him, the more I like him, and his showing at the development camp demonstrated his incredible hands and speed, which you mentioned. I'm getting happier and happier with the pick that the Devils made. Very optimistic about what him and Zacha could bring to our forward corps in the future.

3) Nice to hear good things about Blackwood. I'm a supporter of his and think he's going to continue to prove his worth. I hope he can earn a spot in the AHL this year and develop well there.

4) I love what I read about Speers. He seemed like a great pick for the Devils where he was taken, and he seems to be on the right track developmentally. Excellent to read.

5) Bastian seems to have been a solid pick based on his own merits as a player in addition to his "bromance" with McLeod. Will be nice to monitor his growth as a player as well.

6) I agree that Jacobs probably doesn't have much in the way of offensive potential, but good to read that you seem him as a future NHLer.

7) White was definitely a project pick when he was taken, but good to hear that he is moving in the right direction. As long as we see progression rather than regression from him, I'm satisfied at this point.

8) It seems like mental toughness might be the biggest issue for Cormier, so hopefully he can improve his consistency and confidence this upcoming season, and have a better year.

 

[Ripshot 43]

Good read. Probably shouldntve started off such a well thought out article with a Jersey Shore dig though. But hey, that's just my opinion since the show ended over 5 years ago and had all people from NY on the cast.

 

[devilsblood]

Bastian as a center? That's an interesting possibility.

Also interesting to know Cormier was at one time thought to be higher up on the draft year food chain, shed's some light as to why we drafted him, cause I couldn't figure it out.

In regards to Wedgewood, I think he's not waiver eligible. I'm expecting him in NJ.

 

[OmNomNom]

Bastian as a center? That's an interesting possibility.

Also interesting to know Cormier was at one time thought to be higher up on the draft year food chain, shed's some light as to why we drafted him, cause I couldn't figure it out.

In regards to Wedgewood, I think he's not waiver eligible. I'm expecting him in NJ.

where does KK go then

 

[devilsblood]

where does KK go then

I understand there is a dilemma, but if I have to expose one to waivers, I'm choosing Kink.

 

[Bleedred]

I think I might choose to keep Kinkaid, but I don't think either are very good.

It was just that up until this past year, Kinkaid was much better than Wedgewood.

Wedgewood needs to put together two consecutive seasons of being good, before I'll be convinced that last season wasn't an anomaly. Wedgewood was literally one of the AHL's worst goaltenders for two years prior to last.

Kinkaid was a bad NHL backup last year, Wedgewood was a brutal AHL starter/1b for the two AHL seasons that preceded the most recent one.

 

[Devils Dominion]

I think I might choose to keep Kinkaid, but I don't think either are very good.

It was just that up until this past year, Kinkaid was much better than Wedgewood.

Wedgewood needs to put together two consecutive seasons of being good, before I'll be convinced that last season wasn't an anomaly. Wedgewood was literally one of the AHL's worst goaltenders for two years prior to last.

Kinkaid was a bad NHL backup last year, Wedgewood was a brutal AHL starter/1b for the two AHL seasons. that preceded the most recent one.

Both are serviceable backups but MBW has the ability to possibly be a NHL starter.

Appleby may make it to the bigs to. As a backup.

 

[Bleedred]

Both are serviceable backups but MBW has the ability to possibly be a NHL starter.

Appleby may make it to the bigs to. As a backup.

I'm not sure either Wedgewood or Kinkaid are serviceable NHL backups. Kinkaid was good in 14-15, but stunk last year. He was better than some backups, like Blimpback. But that doesn't say much. And Wedgewood was horrible at the AHL level before last year.

It's not the blowout games that hurt with Kinkaid, like that game against Pittsburgh right after Cory got injured. He only allowed one bad goal in that game and we likely lose with Cory anyway and the score of that game was 6-1. Those games happen to every goalie. The games that hurt are games like the one he played against St Louis, where we lost 4-2 and he allowed two bad goals. Or the game against the Panthers late in the year where he allows a brutal dead angle goal and we lose by one. Or that weak 5 hole goal to Drouin in the last game he played this season, where we lost by just one goal. Or the two softies against Edmonton and that Nashville game that we won in spite of him.

Those are the games that hurt. He allowed 3 fewer bad goals than Cory all year in like 36 or 37 fewer games played. If he allowed the same percentage of bad goals that Cory allowed, he would have had a .915 save percentage like he did in 14-15. And maybe Cory stops about a handful of additional goals that aren't necessarily bad goals but saves he makes from being amazing positionally and maybe a couple deflected pucks that wind up hitting him instead of the back of the net, whereas they'd be goals on Kinkaid and over 50% of other NHL goalies.

 

[devilsblood]

Wedgewood is coming off a season that Kink, who is 3 years older, never had.

I mean you kill Wedge for his first couple AHL seasons, but they are very much like Kink's first couple in albany.

And at 27 I don't see much room for growth for Kink. Where as Wedge, at(soon to be) 24, coming off a very impressive year, there is still room for optimisim.

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

Wedgewood doesn't have enough structure in his game to consistantly be good in the NHL. Curtis Joseph type goaltenders are to be avoided.

 

[devilsblood]

Wedgewood doesn't have enough structure in his game to consistantly be good in the NHL. Curtis Joseph type goaltenders are to be avoided.

a)I haven't seen him enough to say he relies heavily on athleticism.

b)Structure is learnable. It comes almost naturally with maturity.

c)Kink to me doesn't come off as guy who depends on playing a sound fundamental game.

 

[tr83]

I think Kink makes nice trade bait to a team like Montreal who lost their starter for the year and need a depth goalie. You might get a 4th or 5th rounder at best for him

Wedge is fun to watch just like Quick, but he needs to control himself better. I thought he did that much better last year than the year before (where he looked like a fish out of water)

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

a)I haven't seen him enough to say he relies heavily on athleticism.

b)Structure is learnable. It comes almost naturally with maturity.

c)Kink to me doesn't come off as guy who depends on playing a sound fundamental game.

I have seen enough of him. I don't think his game works well as a backup goaltender. Most likely a career AHL starter to me.

 

[Bleedred]

Kinkaid was a little bit better than Wedgewood in the AHL, at least in his first few seasons.

With all due respect, I think a lot of people are overrating Wedgewood on his 4 NHL games this past season.

Scott Clemmensen had an identical 4 games in the 03-04 season, only to be completely ****ing terrible in the NHL for his next 3 seasons and didn't play good again until a hot streak when Brodeur got injured 5 years later. Clemmensen wasn't even a serviceable backup for us in 05-06 and 06-07, he made last year's Kinkaid look decent.

And make no mistake about it, I think Kinkaid was every bit as bad as I made him out to be last year. He averaged a bad goal a game and when he went a game or two without allowing a bad goal, he'd allow 2 bad ones in a game or 3 bad goals in the next 2 games. He was trash last year. I think he had 6 or 7 games where he didn't allow a bad goal, and two of them were shutouts where he didn't allow any goals. The only other ones I remember were against Toronto, Boston, LA (non shutout game), Nashville and Anaheim. And maybe a couple of those games that he only played in relief.

 

[Sgt Brylin]

That writeup of Jacobs makes me so hyped for him to make it. It literally sounds like he's describing Lars for most of the paragraph.