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Welcome to the New Jersey Devils prospect roundup. This week saw success from Boucher and Pietila and some surprising additions and cuts to the Devils' opening roster. Keep reading to see how everyone did in the most recent games.
| NAME | League | Team | POS | GP | G | A | PTS | plus/minus | PPG | PP | SHG | SOG | SH% |
| Graham Black | WHL | Swift Current Broncos | C | 46 | 19 | 17 | 36 | -4 | 0.78 | 6 | 0 | ||
| Reid Boucher | OHL | Sarnia Sting | LW | 45 | 38 | 23 | 61 | 13 | 1.36 | 12 | 1 | ||
| Artur Gavrus | OHL | Owan Sound Attack | RW | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Ben Johnson | OHL | Windsor Spitfires | C | 45 | 12 | 10 | 22 | -12 | 0.49 | 3 | 0 | ||
| Alexander Kerfoot | BCHL | Coquitlam Express | C | 16 | 8 | 11 | 19 | 1.19 | |||||
| Stefan Matteau (X) | QMJHL | Armada | C | 35 | 18 | 10 | 28 | 19 | 0.80 | 7 | 1 | 121 | 14.88% |
| Reece Scarlett | WHL | Swift Current Broncos | D | 43 | 6 | 21 | 27 | 6 | 0.63 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Damon Severson | WHL | Kelowna Rockets | D | 46 | 6 | 27 | 33 | 23 | 0.72 | 4 | 0 | ||
| Ben Thomson | OHL | Kitchener Rangers | LW | 45 | 9 | 8 | 17 | -10 | 0.38 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Jon Merrill | NCAA | University of Michigan | D | 5 | 0 | 3 | 3 | -1 | 0.60 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0.00% |
| Blake Coleman | NCAA | Miami University | C | 24 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 0.38 | 2 | 0 | 82 | 6.10% |
| Curtis Gedig | NCAA | Ohio State | D | 22 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 0.23 | 1 | 0 | 36 | 2.78% |
| Blake Pietila | NCAA | Michigan Tech | LW | 21 | 13 | 3 | 16 | -3 | 0.76 | 3 | 2 | 62 | 20.97% |
| Derek Rodwell | NCAA | University of North Dakota | LW | 20 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0.10 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 3.57% |
| Seth Helgeson | NCAA | University of Minnesota | D | 24 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0.13 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 0.00% |
| Joe Faust | NCAA | University of Wisconsin | D | 22 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0.05 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 5.26% |
| Name | League | Team | Position | GP | G | A | PTS | plus/minus | PPG | PP | SHG | SOG | SH% |
| Bobby Butler | AHL | Albany | RW | 34 | 15 | 9 | 24 | 7 | 0.71 | 5 | 1 | 99 | 15.15% |
| Joe Whitney | AHL | Albany | LW | 28 | 9 | 12 | 21 | 11 | 0.75 | 1 | 0 | 94 | 9.57% |
| Steve Zalewski | AHL | Albany | C | 36 | 6 | 13 | 19 | -8 | 0.53 | 1 | 0 | 72 | 8.33% |
| Matt Anderson | AHL | Albany | RW | 37 | 6 | 13 | 19 | 6 | 0.51 | 1 | 1 | 93 | 6.45% |
| Harri Pesonen | AHL | Albany | LW | 35 | 7 | 9 | 16 | 0 | 0.46 | 2 | 0 | 70 | 10.00% |
| Tim Sestito | AHL | Albany | C | 37 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 0 | 0.38 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 10.00% |
| Eric Gelinas | AHL | Albany | D | 21 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 0.48 | 3 | 0 | 59 | 6.78% |
| Adam Henrique | AHL | Albany | C | 16 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 0.50 | 1 | 0 | 40 | 12.50% |
| Chad Wiseman | AHL | Albany | LW | 16 | 3 | 5 | 8 | -4 | 0.50 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 12.00% |
| Brandon Burlon | AHL | Albany | D | 22 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 0.36 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 0.00% |
| Darcy Zajac | AHL | Albany | C | 32 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 0.22 | 0 | 0 | 41 | 9.76% |
| Mike Sislo | AHL | Albany | RW | 24 | 2 | 5 | 7 | -1 | 0.29 | 0 | 1 | 40 | 5.00% |
| Mike Hoeffel | AHL | Albany | LW | 27 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 0.22 | 0 | 0 | 41 | 4.88% |
| Jay Leach | AHL | Albany | D | 32 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 0.19 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 7.69% |
| Chris McKelvie | ECHL | Trenton | LW | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1.00 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 20.00% |
| Raman Hrabarenka | AHL | Albany | D | 19 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0.21 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 2.86% |
| Alexander Urbom | AHL | Albany | D | 33 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0.12 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 0.00% |
| Phil DeSimone | ECHL | Trenton | C | 3 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1.67 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 23.08% |
| Dan Kelly | AHL | Albany | D | 23 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 0.13 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0.00% |
| Corbin McPherson | AHL | Albany | D | 35 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0.09 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 0.00% |
| Kelly Zajac | ECHL | Trenton | C | 12 | 4 | 5 | 9 | -4 | 0.75 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 19.05% |
| Scott Parse | AHL | Albany | RW | 9 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -5 | 0.22 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0.00% |
| Matthew Corrente (X) | AHL | Albany | D | 11 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -1 | 0.18 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0.00% |
| David Wohlberg | AHL | Albany | C | 16 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0.13 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 0.00% |
| Bryan Haczyk | ECHL | Trenton | RW | 18 | 5 | 1 | 6 | -2 | 0.33 | 1 | 0 | 38 | 13.16% |
| Harry Young | AHL | Albany | LW | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Name | League | Team | POS | GP | Mins | W | L | OTL/SOL | SO | GA | GAA | SVS | SV% |
| Maxime Clermont | ECHL | Elmira | G | 17 | 979 | 7 | 6 | 4/1 | 0 | 58 | 3.41 | 483 | 0.893 |
| Jeff Frazee | AHL | Albany | G | 12 | 727 | 3 | 6 | 0/3 | 0 | 30 | 2.50 | 297 | 0.908 |
| Keith Kinkaid | AHL | Albany | G | 22 | 1329 | 11 | 8 | 0/3 | 2 | 54 | 2.45 | 580 | 0.915 |
| Scott Wedgewood | ECHL | Titans | G | 25 | 1388 | 11 | 11 | 2/1 | 0 | 71 | 3.07 | 628 | 0.899 |
Notes:
Reid Boucher had three goals this week including a two-goal outing (scored less than three minutes apart) against the Erie Otters. He has been going strong all season and has not shown any signs of slowing down. He now has a league leading 38 goals.
Cutis Gedig had his first goal on the season for Ohio State. He has been a solid defender for the struggling team, so it was nice to see him rewarded with a powerplay goal. The goal was scored in a 3-2 loss to Northern Michigan.
Speaking of college hockey, Blake Pietila seems to have found his scoring touch for Michigan Tech once again. He had three goals and one assist last weekend against Bimidji State.
There were a few surprises with the Devils roster for the start of the regular season - the first round pick from the draft last year, Stefan Matteau made the final cut for at least the start of the season. He still has three more games he can play before a year would be taken off of his entry level contract, so it will be interesting to see what Lou decides to do with him after that. Here are his stats from this first two NHL games:
|
Game |
G |
A |
P |
+/- |
PIM |
PP |
SH |
S |
S% |
Shifts |
TOI |
|
Jan 22 '13 PHI @ NJD |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0.0 |
13 |
10:37 |
|
Jan 19 '13 NJD @ NYI |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0.0 |
12 |
7:26 |
Another surprise was seeing Bobby Butler sent back to Albany. He may get another shot if there are injuries or changes in the roster, but he was expected by many to make the roster for opening night.
Prospect Spotlight:
It's hard to highlight anyone but Reid Boucher with the way he has been playing all season. As noted above, he has a league leading 38 goals along with 23 assists in just 46 games. The Sarnia Sting is leading the West Division of the OHL, which has much to do with Boucher's success.
Other note-worthy news:
- Jon Merrill got his first win since returning from injury two weeks ago. He was part of a 6-4 win over Lake Superior State and got two assists in that game.
- Albany went 1-1-2 last week with their only win coming against Adirondack on January 18. In that game, Joe Whitney got a season high three point game with two goals and an assist. That was the sixth straight game in which Albany scored four or more goals.
- Two of the losses for Albany came in the shootout, which has been a struggle for the team all season.
- In a 4-2 loss to Springfield, Mike Sislo scored Albany's fifth shorthanded goal of the season.
That's it for the roundup this week. What are your thoughts on Matteau making the Devils' roster instead of going back to juniors? Were you surprised to see Butler sent back to Albany? Feel free to discuss, and thanks for reading!