New Jersey Devils Prospect Update: 5/18/21

Welcome to the 32nd and final week of the 2020-21 New Jersey Devils prospect update! This week saw the Binghamton Devils end their season with a victory, Dawson Mercer represent Chicoutimi in the QMJHL Semifinals, and Akira Schmid sign his entry-level contract with New Jersey. Now for the last time this season, let’s take a look at what happened over the last week for the prospects.

AHL

Binghamton went 1-2 last week to finish the season 7-20-5-2, last place in the North Division. Binghamton lost 2-1 to Lehigh Valley on Wednesday with Brett Seney picking up the unassisted goal. Gilles Senn made 29 saves on 31 shots and Matt Hellickson picked up a game misconduct for boarding. Here was the announced line up:

Binghamton lost 3-2 to Hershey on Saturday. Tyce Thompson has the first Devils goal with A.J. Greer and Nikita Okhotiuk earning the assists. Mason Jobst had the other goal with Michael Vukojevic and Ryan Schmelzer picking up the assists. Jeremy Brodeur made 32 saves on 35 shots. Tyce Thompson committed a boarding penalty that started off a few fights. Thompson, in his 2nd AHL fight, took on Rob O’Gara immediately after the hit. Nikita Okhotiuk took on Eddie Wittchow and both players were given fighting majors and game misconducts. You can see the line up, highlights, and fights below:

Binghamton closed out their season with a 4-3 shootout victory over Lehigh Valley. Graeme Clarke led the way with a goal and an assist. Fabian Zetterlund and Nolan Foote had the other goals. Michael Vukojevic, A.J. Greer, Reilly Walsh, Mason Jobst, and Ryan Schmelzer had an assist each. Evan Cormier made 32 saves on 35 shots. Clarke converted for the Devils in the shootout while Cormier stopped all 3 attempts by the Phantoms. Check out the line up and highlights below:

Here’s the stat lines for the Devils U24 forwards on Binghamton (min. 5 GP):

Graeme Clarke finished tied-8th in scoring for U20 players in the AHL with 18 points in 31 games. Out of the 16 U20 players to play at least 20 games, his points per game rate of 0.58 ranked 11th.

Nolan Foote’s 0.71 points per game rate ranked tied-11th among U21 players in the AHL.

Tyce Thompson, Alexander Holtz, and Aarne Talvitie would certainly have hoped to produce more in their AHL introductions but at least they got a taste of what this level is like.

Here’s the stat lines for the Devils U24 defensemen on Binghamton (no min.):

Reilly Walsh was tied for 6th in rookie defensemen scoring in the AHL with 15 points in 33 games.

Michael Vukojevic was tied for 2nd in U20 defensemen scoring with 11 points in 26 games. Among U20 defensemen that played in at least 10 games, his 0.42 points per game rate ranks 4th.

Congrats to Matt Hellickson for making the USA hockey team for the upcoming World Championships. He’ll be competing with a few other Devils at the tournament: Matt Tennyson (USA), Nico Hischier (Switzerland), Jonas Siegenthaler (Switzerland), Yegor Sharangovich (Belarus), and Marian Studenic (Slovakia). The tournament starts May 21 in Latvia.

Goaltenders:

Gilles Senn: 17 GP 3-10-2, 3.56 GAA, .895 SV%

Evan Cormier: 11 GP 3-5-3, 3.40 GAA, .888 SV%

Mareks Mitens: 4 GP 1-3-0, 2.81 GAA, .899 SV%

Jeremy Broduer: 3 GP 0-2-1, 2.97 GAA, .922 SV%

Aaron Dell: 1 GP 0-0-1, 4.62 GAA, .839 SV%

It was certainly a tough year to play goaltender for the Devils. I do plan on taking a closer look at some of these goalies once I have a chance to gather the data and calculate stats like Goals Saved Above Average, Quality Starts, etc. Senn and Cormier are RFA’s and I expect the Devils to retain Senn. I think Cormier is likely to go with Nico Daws and Akira Schmid coming into the picture next season.

QMJHL

Last Monday, Dawson Mercer had 2 goals (1 EV, 1 PP), a PP assist, +2, 7 shots, and won 11/23 faceoffs as Chicoutimi finished off a sweep of Quebec in the Quarterfinals. Last night, Mercer had a PP assist, -1, 3 shots, and won 9/22 faceoffs as Chicoutimi fell 5-2 to Val-d’Or in Game 1 of their best-of-five Semifinals series. He’s currently tied for 2nd in playoff scoring with 14 points in 7 games.

Playoff Stats: 7 GP 6-8-14, +5, 2 PIM, 27.27 SH%, 3.14 SH/GP, 2.00 Pts/GP

NCAA

USHL

Yesterday, the Devils announced that they have signed Akira Schmid to a three-year, entry-level contract starting in the 2021-22 season. Utica could have an interesting goaltending battle next season with Schmid, Gilles Senn, and Nico Daws all projected to be in the mix as of right now. Here is Schmid speaking about the deal:

Russia

KHL

VHL & MHL

Finland

Liiga

Sweden

SHL

Switzerland & Germany

Swiss National League & Deutsche Eishockey Liga

Benjamin Baumgartner has been playing with Austria since his season ended. Unfortunately, it does appear that he suffered some sort of rib injury in a game against Slovenia last Saturday.

Your Take

Which prospects stood out to you this past week? Which players from the Binghamton Devils were you most impressed with? How do you feel about the Devils signing Akira Schmid? Leave your comments below and thank you for following along for another season of Devils prospect action!