Needless to say, things aren’t looking too good for the Devils’ NHL team after their ninth straight loss against Ottawa last night, another frustrating game where we outshot the Senators by a 33-11 margin and yet lost 2-0.  My game recaps are pretty much over for the season at this point barring something bizarre happening down the stretch, though I’ll still be looking at the playoff races to see how it all shakes out – particularly in the East.  If there are two things to hang your hat on as a Devils fan, one is the continued effort the team has shown in the face of an incredible stretch of offensive futility and ill-timed mental breakdowns.  

The other shining light right now is the continued improvement of some of our key prospects.  After a well-publicized debut season in the NHL, Stefan Matteau is currently lending a helping hand in Blainville-Bosibrand’s QMJHL playoff run as they’ve won two fairly easy series to advance in the sixteen-team tournament and will play Bale-Comeau in the semifinals starting on Friday.  Matteau has three goals, eight points and a +3 in nine playoff games thus far.  Down in Albany, their own fading playoff chances (six points back with just five games left) have at least gotten a boost from the joint arrivals of defensemen Jon Merrill from Michigan, and winger Reid Boucher from Sarnia of the OHL, both signed to AHL tryout contracts within the last few weeks.

Due to suspension and injury, Merrill only played 40 games at Michigan in the last two years, but his talent as a puck-moving defenseman has always been there.  Merrill had 47 points in 82 career games with a +25 at one of the top hockey programs in the country.  Since coming to Albany, the former second-round pick (#38 overall in the 2010 draft) has proven he can play in the AHL with six points in seven games thus far for the baby Devils.  Assuming he can avoid the off-ice issues that have plagued him in the past – and the reason he dropped out of the first round – the twenty-one year old Merrill should be patrolling the blueline sooner rather than later for the big club.

Boucher wasn’t always the most highly regarded of the Devils’ prospects, being a fourth-round pick in 2011, but the nineteen-year old winger exploded onto the scene in the OHL this year with sixty-two goals in sixty-eight games, breaking an OHL season scoring record previously held by some guy named Steven Stamkos.  After his own team’s playoffs ended, Boucher joined Albany and has continued his torrid year putting up a point a game, with three goals and two assists in five games.  In a system previously bereft of true forward prospects (and hurt by the failures this year of former first-rounders Jacob Josefson and Mattias Tedenby), Boucher and Matteau have provided a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel, though the cupboard still needs more stocking up front, as evidenced by the NHL Devils’ problems this year.

On defense, current Devils’ defenseman Adam Larsson, Merrill and fellow Albany defenseman Eric Gelinas (2009 2nd rounder, #54 overall) are the Devils’ best hopes for a successful changing of the guard from their current older stay-at-home defense, to a more mobile, younger defense with offensive capabilities.  Gelinas had 16 goals in a full season at Albany last year, but his scoring has been down a bit this year, partly due to Larsson playing half the season in the AHL during the lockout.  At 6’4, 205 Gelinas could add size and more puck-moving ability on a defense that desperately has needed it for years.  Make no mistake, the system also has plenty of stay-at-home types to balance things out like Brandon Burlon – Merrill’s teammate at Michigan and a 2008 2nd rounder, Seth Helgeson a 2009 4th rounder who also recently signed with Albany and 2009 3rd rounder Alex Urbom, who’s actually seen time with the NHL Devils in the prior two seasons.

Of course what everyone wants to know is what the Devils’ future in net looks like considering the combined 80 years on the birth certificates of Martin Brodeur and Johan Hedberg.  There are plenty of young goalies in the system, but it’s not yet known whether any of them will be able to fill the skates of our HOF goaltender.  Albany goalies Jeff Frazee (2005 2nd rounder) and Keith Kinkaid (undrafted FA) have both played respectably in the AHL for a team that would be in the playoffs except for their lack of prowess in the shootout, going just 2-12 in the skills competition.  Frazee is not looked on as a big prospect at this point though, and the 23-year old Kinkaid probably has the best chance to crack the Devils’ lineup in the near future.  Also in the organization is Scott Wedgewood, playing for the ECHL’s Trenton Titans.  He’s the youngest of the three at 20 years old, and perhaps more importantly has exhibited puck-handling skills that have proven so vital to the Devils’ various systems over the years.  He’s still at least a couple years away though.

It’ll also be interesting to see who else the Devils add to the system in June, when the NHL draft is held in Newark.  Despite the ungodly 3 PM Sunday start time on the 30th, I definitely plan to be there.  Even if the Devils are missing their 3rd, 5th and 7th rounders, they’ll probably wind up with high first and second-rounders with the way things are going.