New Jersey Devils Prospect Update: 11/15/16

This post will recap the 6th week of Devils prospect action for the 2016-17 season. It's highlighted by Brandon Gignac signing his ELC, the OHL prospects taking on Russia, Mikhail Maltsev and Blake Pietila earning hat tricks, and the ADevils acquiring a new player in Petr Straka.

QMJHL

Brandon Gignac had a busy week on and off the ice. He made one appearance for Shawinigan before heading off to join the QMJHL team as they prepare to take on Russia this week. In that game he had a power play goal, -1, 2 PIM, 4 shots, and won 17/30 faceoffs. Off the ice, he signed his three-year, entry-level contract with the Devils on Saturday.

OHL

Blake Speers is continuing his recovery from wrist surgery. In this interview with the Sault Star, he said that he's hoping to return in early to mid December. His Greyhounds teammate, Colton White had a busy week for both the Soo and the OHL team in the Canada/Russia series. In 2 games with Sault Ste. Marie, White had an assist, even rating, and 3 shots. White played in Thursday's game against Russia for the OHL and was a -2.

Michael McLeod and Nathan Bastian had a busy week for Mississauga and the OHL team. In 2 games for the Steelheads, McLeod had 2 assists, -2, 4 shots, and won 64.81% of his faceoffs. In 2 games against Russia, McLeod had a goal, assist, -1, 3 shots, and won 68.29% of his faceoffs. Bastian had a goal, +1, and 5 shots in 2 games for Mississauga. In 2 games for the OHL against Russia he was a -1 with 2 PIM and a shot.

Evan Cormier led Saginaw to a 4-0 win over Sault Ste. Marie on Friday with a 37 save performance to earn 3rd star honors. He defeated Peterborough the next night by stopping 29 of 33 shots. Earlier in the week he played for the OHL against Russia, stopping 20 of 24 shots in a loss.

WHL

Colby Sissons and Swift Current took on Brandon twice last weekend. He finished with an even rating, 2 PIM, and a primary assist at even strength.

NCAA

Alexander Kerfoot has 2 assists, +2, a shot, and won 6/11 faceoffs against Princeton on Friday. The following night against Quinnipiac he had an assist, -1, 2 PIM, 2 shots, and won 5/11 faceoffs.

JD Dudek had a goal, +1, 4 PIM, 2 shots, and won 7/13 faceoffs against New Hampshire last Tuesday. On Sunday against Arizona State he was a -1 with 1 shot.

Brett Seney had a quiet week by his standards with no points in 2 games against UMass and New Hampshire last weekend. He finished with an even rating, 2 PIM, 5 shots, and won 1/3 faceoffs.

Joey Anderson continued to be productive for Minnesota Duluth. In Friday's game against Western Michigan he had a goal, assist, even rating, and a shot. The following night he had 2 PIM, an even rating, and a shot.

Jeremy Davies had 2 power play assists, -2, 2 PIM, 2 shots, and 2 blocks against Notre Dame on Saturday night. Northeastern took on Notre Dame again the next night but the game was suspended due to zamboni failure during the second intermission.

Europe

Yegor Rykov returned to SKA's line up after international duty. He played in 3 games and finished with an even rating, 3 shots, and 4 blocks. He had around 11-12 minutes of ice time in the first 2 of those 3 games, only playing around 3 minutes in Sunday's contest against Lokomotiv. I haven't been able to find out why his ice time was so low for that game yet.

Mikhail Maltsev had a busy week between the VHL and MHL teams. On Wednesday he had an even rating, 2 PIM, 3 shots, and 10:31 of ice time in VHL action. Later in the week he would play 3 times for the MHL team, adding 4 goals, an assist, +3, 15 shots, and won 74.14% of his faceoffs.

Jesper Bratt had an assist, +1, 2 shots, and 17:24 of ice time in a game against MODO last week.

AHL

Albany won both of their games last week and currently sit in 3rd place in the North Division with 16 points after 12 games played. Their all situation PDO is currently 100.65%. They currently have a Shots For% of 49.03%. The PP is currently operating at 17.65% which is 16th in the league, while the PK is at 84.21% which is 17th in the league.

Injury Update: Carter Camper (upper body) has remained out.

Transactions: The Devils acquired Petr Straka from the Flyers on 11/12 for a conditional 7th round pick in 2017 or 2018 and sent him to Albany. Luke Gazdic was sent to Albany on 11/14.

Friday 11/11: Albany defeated Hershey 6-3. Joe Blandisi led the way with 2 goals (1 PS) and 2 assists. Other goal scorers were Rod Pelley, Brian Gibbons, Kevin Rooney, and Vojtech Mozik. Blake Pietila had 2 assists followed by Seth Helgeson and Miles Wood with one each. Reece Scarlett led the team with 4 shots as the ADevils outshot the Bears 26-11. Scott Wedgewood made 8 saves on 11 shots. Here is the gamesheet.

Line Up:

Quenneville-Gibbons-Sexton

Wood-Pietila-Blandisi

Thomson-Rooney-Novak

Coleman-Pelley-Kujawinski

MacWilliam-Scarlett

Helgeson-Mozik

Stolley-Santini

Saturday 11/12: Albany defeated St. John's 4-3. Blake Pietila had the hat trick with Rod Pelley scoring the other goal. Karl Stollery had 2 assists followed by Seth Helgeson, Jan Mandat, Ben Sexton, John Quenneville, Ryan Kujawinski, and Reece Scarlett with an assist each. Pietila had 5 shots followed by Quenneville with 4 as the ADevils outshot the IceCaps 31-30. Mackenzie Blackwood made 27 saves on 30 shots. Here is the gamesheet.

Line Up:

Quenneville-Gibbons-Sexton

Wood-Pietila-Blandisi

Thomson-Rooney-Novak

Mandat-Pelley-Kujawinski

Helgeson-Mozik

Stollery-Santini

MacWilliam-Scarlett

The Newest Devil: As mentioned above the Devils acquired left handed RW Petr Straka from the Flyers a few days ago for a conditional 7th round pick. The 24 year old Czech was originally a 2nd round pick of Columbus in 2010, so Director of Amateur Scouting, Paul Castron, will be very familiar with him. Straka is listed at 6'0, 185 lbs. and has 42 goals and 46 assists in 192 AHL games. This article from the Times Union has quotes from Albany general manager Tom Fitzgerald and coach Rick Kowalsky in which they praise his skill. Kowalsky even put Straka on the top line with Blake Pietila and John Quenneville in practice on Monday.

Coming Up: Albany will take on Rochester tomorrow night, Binghamton on Friday, and Syracuse on Saturday.

ECHL

Ken Appleby made 2 starts for Adirondack last week. He won against Idaho on Wednesday stopping 26 of 29 shots. On Saturday he lost to Idaho as he stopped 27 of 31 shots.

Prospect of the Week

Mikhail Maltsev picks up this week's honors after an impressive week in the MHL. The large, physical center had a goal, assist, 4 shots, and won 16/21 faceoffs against Cherepovets on Thursday. The following night against the same opponent, Maltsev had a hat trick, 6 shots, and won 13/18 faceoffs. On Monday he was held off the scoresheet but still made his prescence felt with 5 shots and won 14/19 faceoffs. Maltsev is still a bit of a raw prospect, trying to get his skill to catch up to his strong physical play that makes him tough to play against at both ends of the rink and along the boards. I'm interested in seeing how he does the rest of the year between VHL and MHL play as he tries to develop his game so he can move to the next level.

ADevil of the Week

Blake Pietila earns this week's honors after putting up 3 goals, 2 assists, +2, and 5 shots over the course of 2 games last week for Albany. He's been playing on their top line and is now getting close to a point per game pace. While much of his offense will likely not translate to the next level, he's displayed a solid defensive and physical game at every level he's played at, which surely helped him earn 7 games with the NJ Devils last season. If he keeps this up he will have his name right towards the top of the list for the next wave of call ups.

Your Take

What prospects have been standing out to you in a good or bad way? What do you think of Mikhail Maltsev as a prospect? What about the acquistion of Petr Straka? Leave your comments below and thank you for reading!