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New Jersey Devils Prospect Update: Week 30

The Albany Devils saw their season come to a close in the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs. There is just one Devils' prospect left playing this season, and he has been quite impressive for his team thus far.

They may have been eliminated, but the Albany Devils do have some things to be happy about.
They may have been eliminated, but the Albany Devils do have some things to be happy about.
Bruce Bennett

It ended as quickly as it began - the Albany Devils fell to the St. John's IceCaps in four games. While they didn't get the results they were hoping for in the playoffs, it was an extremely successful season in Albany and there are many reasons to get excited about their future. Keep reading for the final playoff stats and other notes.

REGULAR SEASON
Player Birth Year Team League Position GP G A PTS PPG +/- PIM PP SHG
Joe Whitney 1988 Albany AHL LW 73 22 31 53 0.73 0 34 6 0
Mike Sislo 1988 Albany AHL RW 59 23 17 40 0.68 7 24 7 2
Kelly Zajac 1988 Albany AHL C 67 12 32 44 0.66 8 4 3 0
Scott Timmins 1989 Albany AHL C 61 13 26 39 0.64 10 26 3 1
Reid Boucher 1993 Albany AHL LW 56 22 16 38 0.68 -3 10 7 0
Tim Sestito 1984 Albany AHL C 51 13 14 27 0.53 -1 79 2 1
Harri Pesonen 1988 Albany AHL LW 75 15 21 36 0.48 13 52 2 0
Stefan Matteau 1994 Albany AHL LW 67 13 13 26 0.39 6 66 2 0
Mike Hoeffel 1989 Albany AHL LW 53 7 12 19 0.36 5 40 2 0
Chris McKelvie 1985 Albany AHL LW 57 9 12 21 0.37 6 86 0 1
Rod Pelley 1984 Albany AHL C 74 13 7 20 0.27 5 55 0 2
Raman Hrabarenka 1992 Albany AHL D 48 6 15 21 0.44 -3 26 5 0
Reece Scarlett 1993 Albany AHL D 48 6 14 20 0.42 11 18 6 0
Mattias Tedenby 1990 Albany AHL LW 42 9 13 22 0.52 5 24 1 0
Dan Kelly 1989 Albany AHL D 71 3 14 17 0.24 13 86 0 0
Adam Larsson 1992 Albany AHL D 33 3 16 19 0.58 2 16 1 0
Artem Demkov (X) 1989 Albany AHL C 22 6 5 11 0.50 6 6 1 0
Brandon Burlon 1990 Albany AHL D 54 5 6 11 0.20 3 39 2 0
Jon Merrill 1992 Albany AHL D 15 2 8 10 0.67 -1 0 2 0
Seth Helgeson 1990 Albany AHL D 75 1 9 10 0.13 12 100 0 0
Corbin McPherson 1988 Albany AHL D 69 0 10 10 0.14 16 41 0 0
David Wohlberg 1991 Albany AHL LW 62 5 7 12 0.19 1 41 0 0
Eric Gelinas 1990 Albany AHL C 13 1 4 5 0.38 6 10 1 0
Alexander Urbom 1989 Albany AHL D 35 1 10 11 0.31 -3 26 0 0
Riley Boychuk (X) 1984 Albany AHL RW 18 1 1 2 0.11 2 14 0 0
Cam Janssen 1986 Albany AHL C 27 0 3 3 0.11 -1 24 0 0
Darcy Zajac 1990 Albany AHL D 19 1 5 6 0.32 -1 43 0 0
Harry Young (X) 1991 Albany AHL D 10 0 0 0 0.00 -1 15 0 0
Ben Johnson 1994 Albany AHL C 5 0 1 1 0.20 1 0 0 0
Graham Black 1993 Albany AHL C 2 0 0 0 0.00 1 0 0 0
Curtis Gedig 1991 Albany AHL D - - - - - - - - -
Joe Faust 1991 Albany AHL D - - - - - - - - -
PLAYOFFS
Name Pos Team GP G A PTS +/- PIM PPG SHG Pt/G SOG
Jon Merrill D Albany Devils 4 1 1 2 -2 10 0 0 0.5 7
Mike Sislo RW Albany Devils 4 1 1 2 -2 0 1 0 0.5 10
Mattias Tedenby LW Albany Devils 4 1 1 2 -2 0 1 0 0.5 10
Kelly Zajac C Albany Devils 4 0 2 2 -2 2 0 0 0.5 2
Reid Boucher LW Albany Devils 4 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0.25 12
Stefan Matteau LW Albany Devils 4 1 0 1 -1 4 1 0 0.25 5
Joe Whitney LW Albany Devils 4 1 0 1 -3 0 1 0 0.25 9
Eric Gelinas D Albany Devils 4 0 1 1 -1 0 0 0 0.25 11
Harri Pesonen LW Albany Devils 4 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0.25 8
Dan Kelly D Albany Devils 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2
David Wohlberg C Albany Devils 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Chris McKelvie LW Albany Devils 3 0 0 0 -2 9 0 0 0 7
Alexander Urbom D Albany Devils 3 0 0 0 -3 0 0 0 0 2
Seth Helgeson D Albany Devils 4 0 0 0 -2 2 0 0 0 5
Keith Kinkaid G Albany Devils 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Adam Larsson D Albany Devils 4 0 0 0 -2 2 0 0 0 5
Corbin McPherson D Albany Devils 4 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 3
Rod Pelley C Albany Devils 4 0 0 0 -2 2 0 0 0 8
Tim Sestito C Albany Devils 4 0 0 0 -2 6 0 0 0 6
Scott Timmins C Albany Devils 4 0 0 0 1 7 0 0 0 9
Darcy Zajac C Albany Devils 4 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 2
Min GA SO GAA W L SOL SA SVS SAV%
Keith Kinkaid G Albany Devils 4 238:27:00 9 0 2.26 1 3 0 132 123 0.932

Albany Notes:

  • It was a difficult way to end the season as the Devils fell 4-1 to the IceCaps in the Eastern Conference Semifinals of the Calder Cup Playoffs. Jon Merrill scored the lone goal for the team while Keith Kinkaid made 29 saves. Albany had 40 shots on goal, but they weren't able to force a fifth game in the series.
  • There were a lot of positives to take out of this season in Albany. The team finished with a franchise-best 40 wins and 93 points. They finished the season strong with a five-game winning streak when the team has struggled during the final months of the season in the past.
  • The Devils were one of the youngest teams in the AHL this season. 15 of the players were in their first or second AHL season out of 35. Of those players, some were extremely impressive:
    • Reid Boucher had 22 goals during the regular season, tied for second on the team.
    • Seth Helgeson played in 75 games (tied for first on the team), and was a +12 (second on the team).
    • Kelly Zajac finished the season second in points with 44.
  • Eric Gelinas sprained his ankle during the final game. Lou Lamoriello said it does not require surgery and he will be fine.
  • Lamoriello was quite pleased with the season Albany had. He told Tom Gulitti,

"I thought they had an outstanding year. I thought the progress of the players and the players that we had here and then went there (was good), so in my opinion they had an outstanding year."

Goalies GP Mins W L SOL SO GA GAA SVS SV%
Keith Kinkaid 1989 Albany AHL G 43 2518:58:00 24 13 5 4 96 2.29 990 0.912
Scott Wedgewood 1992 Albany AHL G 36 1979:42:00 16 14 3 4 79 2.39 702 0.899
Maxime Clermont 1991 Elmira ECHL G 17 915:00:00 6 9 1 0 51 3.35 474 0.892
Anthony Brodeur 1995 Gatineau Olympiques QMJHL G 30 1467:39:00 13 10 1 2 71 2.9 560 0.887

Player Birth Year Team League Position GP G A PTS PPG +/- PIM PP SHG SOG SH%
Artur Gavrus 1994 Dinamo Minsk KHL C 30 1 3 4 0.13 -11 8 1 0 36 2.78%
Vladimir Zharkov 1988 CSKA Moskva KHL RW 49 2 5 7 0.14 0 6 0 0 75 2.67%
CSKA Moskva - Playoffs KHL RW 4 0 0 0 0.00 -2 2 0 0 4 0.00%
Graham Black 1993 Swift Current Broncos WHL C 69 34 63 97 1.41 18 43 9 2 - -
Swift Current - Playoffs WHL C 6 2 2 4 0.67 1 4 2 0 - -
Myles Bell 1993 Kelowna Rockets WHL LW 69 42 35 77 1.12 21 51 10 2 - -
Kelowna - Playoffs WHL LW 4 3 1 4 1.00 0 2 2 0 - -
Damon Severson 1994 Kelowna Rockets WHL D 64 15 46 61 0.95 47 63 5 1 - -
Kelowna - Playoffs WHL D 14 4 14 18 1.29 4 18 2 0 - -
Ben Johnson 1994 Windsor Spitfires OHL C 59 28 25 53 0.90 18 30 5 2 - -
Windsor - Playoffs OHL C 4 4 2 6 1.50 -4 2 2 1 - -
Ben Thomson (total) 1993 North Bay Battalion OHL LW 55 27 18 45 0.82 15 90 6 2 - -
North Bay - Playoffs OHL LW 21 5 9 14 0.67 7 64 2 1 - -
Ryan Kujawinski 1995 Kingston Frontenacs OHL C 45 23 18 41 0.91 3 39 8 0 - -
Kingston - Playoffs OHL C 7 1 1 2 0.29 -5 2 0 0 - -
Blake Coleman 1991 Miami Ohio NCAA C 23 18 6 24 1.04 8 63 6 0 96 18.75%
Miami Ohio - Playoffs NCAA C 4 1 3 4 1.00 0 2 0 0 14 7.14%
Alexander Kerfoot 1994 Harvard University NCAA C 25 8 6 14 0.56 0 8 3 0 40 20.00%
Blake Pietila 1993 Michigan Tech NCAA LW 37 8 19 27 0.73 -3 82 7 0 112 7.14%
Michigan Tech - Playoffs NCAA LW 2 0 1 1 0.50 -1 2 0 0 2 0.00%
Derek Rodwell 1990 University of North Dakota NCAA LW 25 5 2 7 0.28 5 20 0 0 53 9.43%
UND - Playoffs NCAA LW 8 0 3 4 0.50 0 8 0 0 3 0.00%
Miles Wood 1995 Boston College NCAA LW - - - - - - - - - - -
Joe Faust 1991 University of Wisconsin NCAA D 34 2 12 14 0.41 11 6 0 0 29 6.90%
University of Wisconsin - Playoffs NCAA D 2 0 0 0 0.00 -2 2 0 0 3 0.00%
Curtis Gedig 1991 Ohio State University NCAA D 30 2 7 9 0.30 2 8 2 0 47 4.26%
Ohio State - Playoffs NCAA D 3 0 1 1 0.33 2 0 0 0 12 0.00%
Steve Santini 1995 Boston College NCAA D 29 2 8 10 0.34 27 44 0 0 33 6.06%
Boston College - Playoffs NCAA D 7 1 0 1 0.14 -5 14 0 0 5 0.00%
Players in italics have been eliminated from the playoffs. Their season is done.

Other Notes:

o   Ben Thomson was named the OHL Player of the Week for the week ending May 4th. He had three points in two games (1g, 2a).

o   Speaking of Thomson, he and the North Bay Battalion are currently trailing the Guelph Storm three games to one in the OHL Finals. They will try to begin their comeback on Friday night.

Prospect of the Week:

He was named Player of the Week, so it's only fitting. Ben Thomson has been huge for North Bay throughout the playoffs, and if he can stay out of the penalty box, he can help them string together a few wins and a comeback to win it all. He worked hard this season to show he could do more than fight and make big hits, and he did just that this season scoring 24goals in 43 regular season games after scoring 65 in 303 games with the Kitchener Rangers.

What did you take from the Albany Devils season? Who would you like to see make the jump to the NHL? Who are you excited to see join the team in Albany next year? Who do you think will get an entry-level contract before June 1? Please leave your thoughts and comments on the prospects below. Thanks for reading!