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Devils Prospects

Devils Top Five Prospects Stocks Are Rising

With hockey underway around the world, let’s take a look at how NJHN’s top five Devils prospects are doing to start the season.

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New Jersey Devils

Over the summer, New Jersey Hockey Now ranked the top 25 New Jersey Devils prospects, culminating in our top five, which features future NHL stars. While the NHL season is in its infancy, some Devils prospects have been in action for weeks.



Let’s take a look at how our top five Devils prospects are doing to open up the season.

Anton Silayev

The Devils 2024 first-round pick has started this season off like he did last year: producing offense from the backend at a historic rate for a teenager. The 18-year-old has five points through 11 games and has missed two games through injury. Anton Silayev continues to play a big role for Torpedo, averaging 17:22 of ice time as a regular top-four defenseman.

Silayev has continued to develop his game over in the KHL and looks as though he’s ready to take the next step this season. He’s already shown off his tremendous skating ability, and his size is hard to miss. The next checkpoint for Silayev in his development is how he reacts to playing major minutes and being leaned on as an everyday contributor in the KHL.

Arseni Gritsyuk

Some were surprised when we put Gritsyuk as the Devils second-ranked prospect, but the start of the 2024-25 KHL season has only proved that the Arseni hype is real. On a stacked SKA St. Petersburg team, Arseni Gritsyuk leads all players in points (12) and assists (8) and is fourth on the team in both time on ice (15:37) and hits (16).

Gritsyuk is showing that he can do it all and is a legitimate future top-six winger for the Devils. He boasts a heavy shot, which SKA utilizes on their power play, but his most impressive attributes are his skating, edge work, and hands. He’s a slippery player, weaving in, out, and around opposing players and stickhandles through traffic to either set up himself or a teammate for scoring chances. Gritsyuk is currently on pace to have his best season ever, scoring at a point-per-game pace.

Seamus Casey

Devils fans have already gotten their first taste of Seamus Casey at the NHL level, and there is a lot to like. He rightfully deserved to make the team out of camp and made an instant impact in the Devils opening two games. In just 12:42 of ice time, Casey has already notched his first goal of the season on the power play.

How long Casey’s tenure in the NHL this year depends on the injuries to Brett Pesce and Luke Hughes, but the 20-year-old has already earned the trust of new head coach Sheldon Keefe, something that will benefit him greatly in the long run.

Lenni Hameenaho

If Gritsyuk is the Devils hottest prospect to start the season, then Lenni Hameenaho is right on his heels. Hameenaho took a big jump forward in his draft +1 season in 2023-24 and is on pace to take an even more sizable leap this year. Through 10 games with Assat of Liiga in Finland, he’s first on the team in points with 11 and second on the team in goals and assists with four and seven.

Hameenaho’s uptick in offense will take him a long way in earning a spot on the Devils over the next year or two. He’s touted for having exceptional hockey IQ and an ability to put himself in the right areas on the ice. Clearly, it’s working because Hameenaho is finding himself in scoring positions more often, and it’s showing up on the scoresheet. Add to that a noticeable improvement in his skating (a prior weakness of his game), look out for Hameenaho to have yet another breakout year before coming over to North America in 2025-26.

Mikhail Yegorov

While it’s been mainly positive for the Devils top four prospects, fifth-ranked prospect and highest-rated goalie prospect Mikhail Yegorov has had a difficult start to his season. The Devils 2024 second-round pick is back for another season with the Omaha Lancers of the USHL, and the team struggles continue to weigh Yegorov down.

The 6-foot-5, athletic goalie has started his season 0-2-0, with a 3.80 GAA and a 0.846 SV%. Not great numbers for a goalie looking to take the next step this year. However, the season is still very early, and he’ll have plenty of runway to improve those numbers throughout the season. The Devils will certainly hope they can improve before he makes to the switch to college hockey next season.

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