BUFFALO, N.Y. — While there could be one or two openings at forward for a Devils rookie to earn a spot during training camp, New Jersey has gathered a few veteran insurance policies over the past week.
That looked prudent Friday night after the Devils’ top prospects not named Dawson Mercer struggled at times against the Sabres. Two days later, Mercer and his linemates put on a show against the Bruins’ prospects, offering more hope they might be ready to compete with the veterans in the coming days.
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Mercer, Alexander Holtz and Nolan Foote all scored for New Jersey in a 4-2 win Sunday at HarborCenter. Foote and Holtz set up Mercer’s goal to open the scoring. Mercer set up Foote with a beautiful move and feed. Holtz blistered a shot from his favorite spot on the power play that sent the goalie’s water bottle flying.
After a bit of a rough introduction to this prospects challenge, the second chance to leave a strong impression was more like what the Devils were looking for.
“I feel like we are all high-end players,” Mercer said. “After (Friday’s) game, we had created a lot, but today we had that finishing touch on our game. We gelled together and found some chemistry.”
Mercer left little doubt that he was the club’s best player on the weekend with another well-rounded performance. Holtz has a more premium upside as a potential world-class goal-scorer, but Mercer looks more NHL-ready right now. His ability to impact the game in all three zones, and in particular his knack for creating turnovers by deflecting or intercepting passes, is the type of work that coaches fall in love with.
He was a menace for the opposing team on the forecheck in both games, and it appeared his linemates were doing more to follow his lead Sunday. Holtz and Foote appeared to have a little more jump in their step without the puck.
Mercer credited his uncle and his father for their coaching when he was in youth hockey. He disrupted multiple passes again Sunday. One was a potential backdoor pass in the defensive zone that might have been trouble for his goaltender, but he read the play and snuffed it out. He also stopped the opposing goaltender from getting the puck out of danger along the wall by essentially snatching it off the top of the dasher boards with his stick.
“That’s hand-eye coordination,” Mercer said. “I was a big multi-sport player. Growing up, I never really played hockey in the summer. I played soccer. I was a competitive swimmer. I played ball hockey all the time, was a defenseman in ball hockey, actually. Lots of Ping-Pong. We were really competitive in my family, so we were playing multiple, different games all the time. Then my dad was a big fan of Patrice Bergeron, and that was my favorite player growing up. He’s just that well-rounded player.”
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Foote seemed to fight the puck a little early in Sunday’s game, but he settled and a few key plays. He helped set the Devils up for the first goal by engaging a couple of Bruins along the wall after a dump-in. He also looked pretty comfortable moving through the neutral zone with the puck. The Devils are going to expect him to use his size and strength to grind on the walls and in front of the net, but he made a really nifty play to himself to avoid a poke check and start a transition through the neutral zone.
“I thought he was just OK in Game 1,” Utica coach Kevin Dineen said. “I thought there were some areas of his game that he needs to continue to work on. I was kind of looking for an opportunity to chat with him and decided to just kind of leave him alone. I’m getting to know him a little bit, and his game plan is not to play for me this year. I think he made really good strides today in making a statement that he’s here to compete for a job.”
The Holtz goal was pretty, and that’s what he’s going to be expected to do. He’s also going to have to do other things, which we saw in this game: Holtz was more active without the puck and it helped his line control the game.
🚨 HOLTZ!
They say this kid has a good shot. What do you think? pic.twitter.com/vc64q7Yer6
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) September 19, 2021
New Jersey probably has 10 or 11 forwards who are either locks or close to locks for opening night, if everyone is healthy. Mercer, Foote and Holtz aren’t likely to make the team as an extra forward, so they will probably need to earn a spot on one of the top four lines. And it might be the top three lines because keeping one of your top prospects in the NHL to play eight to 10 minutes a night on the fourth line when he could be playing 20 in the AHL is often ill-advised.
“I think they’re in the early stages of a very, very long process,” Dineen said. “It takes a little while before you establish yourself at the NHL level. I think you see growing pains whether you’re a first overall pick or not. There are a lot of great players out there and they are about to find that out.
“It’s an exciting time for them. They need to go out and enjoy it, soak up as much knowledge as you can and don’t have any stage fright. Just play like you did this weekend.”
Here are some other observations from Sunday and the overall weekend in Buffalo:
1. Multiple people inside the Devils organization have indicated the entire active roster has received the COVID-19 vaccination. Active roster is a slight caveat there because the club just signed a handful of guys to player-tryout contracts and their status is not confirmed, but it appears the guys who have been under contract are all set in that department. There has been plenty of debate about the vaccine with other sports leagues, but NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Athletic he expects fewer than 15 players league-wide to be unvaccinated when the season starts.
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The NHL Players’ Association has strongly encouraged its members to get the shot(s), and following the NFL’s lead, the NHL has made the repercussions for not being vaccinated very significant. There are heavy restrictions on players and coaches who aren’t vaccinated — multiple assistant coaches around the league have left their positions or been fired because of it. Players who contract COVID-19 and are vaccinated will be treated like a regular injury — those who are not vaccinated are at risk to be suspended and lose pay for games missed.
Players, even the vaccinated ones, are going to contract the virus during this season. We’ve seen it with the other sports. But they are far, far less likely to get seriously ill or transmit it to others. There shouldn’t be team-wide breakouts like last season. After some Devils dealt with significant symptoms last year, it certainly makes sense for even the team’s wavering players to fall in line. And the threat of losing money is a strong motivational tool, as well.
2. Everyone in the organization is excited about Dougie Hamilton … and Ryan Graves as well. There were lots of conversations about the upcoming season, and Hamilton was at the center of most of them. The coaches are excited to coach him. The other established players are excited to play with him.
Kevin Bahl is also excited about the additions. Bahl, who is listed at 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, will be at training camp. He’s got an outside chance to make the club but most likely will start the year with Utica. Still, the next few days/weeks could be quite valuable for him.
To put it simply, guys like Bahl don’t always get to be around guys their size at that position. Hamilton and Graves are both very large humans.
“I’m excited to learn from them and how they play,” Bahl said. “To play with that height and that size is very difficult, so just to learn little tricks, little things they do will be important.”
3. Akira Schmid looked sharp at even strength, but the Bruins beat him three times on the power play. The first one was a nice play from the top Boston prospect in the game, Fabian Lysell. He found Jesper Froden in the high slot, and Froden re-directed the pass through Schmid’s legs before he set to make the stop. Another of the goals went through Schmid from the left circle, but it looked like it was either a fanned shot or someone from the Devils got a stick in the way at the last second and the knuckle/flutter seemed to catch Schmid in between plans to make the save.
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Schmid made a big save on a shorthanded breakaway in the third period when it was a one-goal game, and generally was calm around the net. He and Nico Daws were both pretty solid in Buffalo. It’s going to be an interesting competition between the two of them that could last for the next couple of seasons. Neither looked out of place this weekend.
4. Reilly Walsh said after practice Saturday that he didn’t play very well Friday night. He switched partners, moving to play with Bahl, and special teams assignments. Normally a power-play quarterback, Walsh played on the penalty kill against the Bruins and saw limited PP time.
“I think he had a pretty good self-assessment of his play in Game 1,” Dineen said. “He’s a guy with the skills that thinks he’s got to do so much to make an impression on everybody and give himself that best opportunity to make the Devils. Sometimes when you push that hard, it makes things harder for you. I thought he had a simpler game tonight and I thought it was a good showing.”
5. Two lineup changes that appeared to help — Aarne Talvitie moved to center and played with a couple of guys he knows from the end of last season, Fabian Zetterlund and Nate Schnarr, while Chase Stillman moved to the wing alongside Graeme Clarke and Tyce Thompson.
Neither of those lines created a lot of offensive chances in this game, but Talvitie and Stillman both looked more active and comfortable in those roles. Talvitie and Schnarr are probably both going to play center a lot for Utica this year.
6. Dineen mentioned that he’s still learning about Clarke and Thompson. While the top line all popped against the Bruins, those two had some nice shifts but not a lot of flashy moments.
Thompson looked like he had an extra gear Sunday. He was flying around and got into a couple of post-whistle altercations. Both he and Clarke made sound plays in the defensive zone and worked hard in the offensive zone, but not a lot came from it. Both are going to at least be on the fringe of the battles for the final couple of roster spots up front. If we’re just going by these two games, it seems like Clarke and Thompson are behind Mercer, Holtz and Foote in the pecking order, but that could change pretty quickly once training camp starts. What they do against NHL veterans is going to count for a lot more.
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7. The power play looked much better. There was the Holtz goal, but also a couple of opportunities where the team got set up and moved the puck around pretty well. The penalty kill still struggled. If Bahl or Nikita Okhotiuk is going to push Jonas Siegenthaler or Christian Jaros for a spot on the NHL roster, they’re almost certainly going to have to show they can handle playing on the PK against NHL scorers.
Lysell looked like a future NHL player, and he carved them up pretty good with the man advantage. He set up two Froden goals, but also was dancing around the zone with the puck and creating issues consistently.
8. Yes, that was Martin Brodeur’s son, Jeremy, in net for the Bruins. He even had his Binghamton/Devils pads on. He played pretty well early on, but New Jersey touched him up in the final two periods.
9. While the prospects were playing a couple of games in Buffalo, a large chunk of the New Jersey roster was at MetLife Stadium on Sunday for the Jets-Patriots game.
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A couple of their former teammates were also in the building. There was also a suite full of Islanders for New England’s 25-6 win. Ex-Devils Andy Greene and Cory Schneider were there.
The #Isles are having a blast cheering on the @NYJets today! 🏈👏 pic.twitter.com/0oJzqJEd7s
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) September 19, 2021
Yes, that is Schneider, a diehard Patriots fan, wearing a Jets jersey. Given the outcome, I’m sure he didn’t mind playing along.
10. It’s almost time to get this started for real. Media day, physicals and off-ice testing are on Wednesday, the first practice of training camp is Thursday, and the Devils will be in Washington to play the Capitals for the first exhibition game in nine days.
(Photo of Nolan Foote: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)