Five New Jersey Devils to watch at the 2022 Prospects Challenge
From Brennan to Vilen, I took a look at five Devils prospects worth keeping your eye on this weekend.
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New Jersey Devils hockey is back! Well, sort of.
Most of their prospects – 28, to be exact – have gathered to take part in the annual Prospects Challenge.
The Devils will play three games over the next few days, squaring off against Montreal (Friday), Buffalo (Saturday), and Boston (Monday).
Since the games are expected to be streamed by the Devils across various social media platforms, I wanted to highlight a few players worth keeping your eyes on.
Simon Nemec
Nemec will be suiting up for his first game(s) in a Devils uniform.
The 18-year-old spent the last two full seasons playing professional hockey overseas, where he combined to produce 62 points over 95 regular season + playoff games.
Nemec absolutely has things to work on – picking his spots better with and without the puck, improving his shot, etc. – but the cerebral puck mover has enjoyed plenty of success against pros. It stands to reason we should see more of the same against players his age.
With Nemec a candidate to play NHL games as soon as this year – my guess is those will come further into the season – I want to see translatable traits and tendencies.
He doesn’t need to dominate the puck and dance around everyone in space but it’d be nice to see a level of reads, positioning, and poise, that stands out from the rest of the pack.
Chase Stillman
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