New Jersey Devils Prospect Update: 10/13/15

This post will recap the 2nd week of Devils prospect action for the 2015-16 season. It's highlighted by Pavel Zacha's return to Sarnia, John Quenneville's continued strong play, Miles Wood's long awaited debut for Boston College, and Joseph Blandisi getting on the board in Albany's season opening game. Check out the stats and recap below!

OHL

Connor Chatham had a goal and an assist over 3 games last week. He had his second 7 shot game of the season against Sault Ste. Marie on Wednesday and is averaging a solid 4.25 shots per game. Hopefully his point production starts to increase as the season goes on.

Over in Sarnia, Josh Jacobs had an assist to go along with a +2 rating and 7 shots over the course of 3 games last week. Pavel Zacha has made an impact since being returned by the Devils and had a goal and 2 assists with 6 shots over those 3 games.

Moving on to the Soo, Blake Speers is still looking for his first goal of the season but has been active in the shot department with 9 shots over the course of 3 games last week. He also had an assist to go along with a -5 rating. It's a matter of time until his shots start to hit the back of the net. Colton White had an assist along with 7 shots over those 3 games.

Mackenzie Blackwood only played in 1 of the 2 Barrie games last week due to an unspecified minor injury. He returned to action on Saturday but had his first "tough" outing of the year, surrendering 4 goals on 33 shots against Ottawa. He's still at the top of most of the goaltending statistics for the OHL thanks to his hot start.

WHL

John Quenneville continued his great start to the season with a couple of multi-point games. He had 2 goals and 2 assists against Vancouver last Tuesday and followed it up with a goal and 2 assists against Kootenay on Friday. Obviously he won't keep up a 2.20 Pts/GP pace, but hopefully this is a sign of him being able to produce consistently for Brandon.

Ryan Rehill had an assist, -2 rating, and 11 penalty minutes in 2 games for Kamloops. Brandon Baddock had an assist, -2 rating, and 8 penalty minutes in 3 games for Edmonton.

NCAA

The NCAA season began for the trio of Devils prospects at Boston College. Steve Santini ate a fair amount of ice time as is expected of him. He managed a +1 rating, 12 penalty minutes, 3 shots, and 2 blocks. Miles Wood's BC debut went very well against Army on Friday as he had a goal, 2 assists, +2 rating, and 3 shots. He was held off the scoresheet on Sunday against RPI but still managed 3 shots on goal. JD Dudek was a healthy scratch for the opening game against Army but played against RPI with a shot and winning 1/2 faceoffs.

KHL

Artur Gavrus appeared once for Dinamo Minsk last week before heading off to play exhibition games for the Belorussian national team ahead of their November Euro Ice Hockey Challenge in Latvia. In his lone KHL appearance of the week he had 3 shots in 17:16 of ice time but was held off the scoresheet.

AHL

Injury Update: Pete Dougherty of the Times Union passed along the first wave of injury news for the season. Graham Black (lower body), Matt Lorito (upper body), Vojtech Mozik (knee), and Scott Wedgewood (ankle) were unavailable for the first game.

Transactions: The Devils acquired the services of 26 year old, veteran RW, Corey Tropp on loan from the Chicago Blackhawks last Thursday. He's had success in the AHL with 66 points in 110 regular season games but hasn't been able to come close to that at the NHL level. The team also recalled Ken Appleby after his preseason game for Adirondack over the weekend. Doug Carr had been serving as Yann Danis' backup while on a PTO.

Saturday 10/10: Albany lost to Binghamton 4-1. Scoring the lone Devils goal was Joseph Blandisi on the power play with Marc-Andre Gragnani picking up the assist. Jim O'Brien led the team with 6 shots followed by Max Novak with 5 and Paul Thompson with 4. Yann Danis made 28 saves on 32 shots. Albany outshot Binghamton 33-32 and went 1/6 on the PP and 3/4 on the PK. Dan Kelly and Ben Thomson were the healthy scratches. Here is the gamesheet. Below are the highlights:



Coming Up: Albany will play in Toronto on Saturday and Sunday. Both games start at 3:00 PM EDT.

ECHL

Adirondack opened their preseason with a 5-4 overtime loss to Manchester on Saturday night. Ken Appleby made 23 saves on 28 shots in a full game appearance. Joe Faust was a +1. The two teams played again the following night with Adirondack winning the game 3-2 in overtime. Joe Faust had a power play assist.

Prospect of the Week

This week's honors have to go to John Quenneville. He put up 7 points across 2 games and is off to a great start in Brandon after a solid training camp with New Jersey. It's encouraging to see that most of his points are primary and he's getting the job done at both even strength and on the power play. The season is still very young but so far CHL Stats has him with 3.41 goals created for an average of 0.682 per game. We know he has decent puck possession skills and can be counted on in defensive situations and to kill penalties, so it's good to see signs that his offense is starting to come around. Like I said earlier in this post, it will be interesting to see if he can continue to produce points consistently for Brandon this season.

ADevil of the Week

Joseph Blandisi gets this week's honors after scoring the only Albany Devils goal in the opening game and his first professional goal. Coming off of a strong training camp that earned him praise from the coaching staff and fans alike, Blandisi will have a great opportunity to play a lot of minutes in Albany to round out his game. He should be among the first callups to New Jersey this season as long as he is producing. While it wasn't a great performance by Albany, Blandisi getting on the scoresheet early in the season is an encouraging sign.

Your Take

Which prospects stood out to you this week? How do you feel about Zacha's return to Sarnia? Does Quenneville's hot start to the season encourage you or is it too small of a sample size? What do you expect out of Blandisi in Albany? Leave your comments below and thank you for reading!