Seamus Casey signs ELC with New Jersey Devils
Seamus Casey signs ELC with New Jersey Devils
The 20-year-old is coming off an impressive 45-point season with the Michigan Wolverines.
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Seamus Casey has opted to forgo his junior season at Michigan, instead turning pro and signing a three-year entry-level contract with the New Jersey Devils.
Casey is coming off a remarkably strong sophomore campaign with the Wolverines. He put up seven goals and 38 assists for a total of 45 points over 40 games.
Unsurprisingly, that was enough for Casey to be one of the team’s leading scorers. Those outputs put him 27 points clear of the closest Wolverines defenseman to him.
Impressive…but not surprising! HockeyProspect gave Casey a first-round grade in his draft year and he appeared a fantastic value pick the moment he was drafted.
As a refresher, Casey is a smooth-skating defenseman who uses elite-level hockey IQ and elusiveness to navigate his way around opponents in all three zones.
He moves the puck extremely well and can make people look silly in space when they try and take him on.
Although in-zone offense, and transition play, are Casey’s calling cards, he is a capable defender as well.
He uses his excellent lateral mobility, hockey IQ, and stick work to gap up on opponents and kill a lot of plays in the neutral zone.
This prevents his team from spending much time on their heels and helps mitigate his ‘weakness’ defending against bigger bodies down low, which is an area he is also improving in.
Casey should immediately step into a big role with Utica. He’ll play a lot of minutes at even-strength and will have every opportunity to flex his offensive muscles on the power play.
Casey could get into some NHL games next season – particularly if/when a young puck-mover is injuried – but I imagine he’ll spend the vast majority of the year seasoning his game in Utica before pushing for a full-time job in 2025-26.
With Luke Hughes, Simon Nemec, and Casey in the mix, the Devils have as much young talent on the backend as anybody in hockey.
The future of the defense is in extremely good hands.
Love to hear this news. It's an exciting future with Luke, Simon and Seamus. LGD
At worst this makes one of the three kids trade bait... Very enticing trade bait. At best NJ has three studs for the long haul.