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It’s time for the seventh installment of the all-encompassing breakdown of the New Jersey Devils’ pipeline, where I’m tasking myself with grading the skillsets of all 38 prospects aged 25 or younger. Without wasting any words, let’s get into it:
For part one (No. 39 - No. 35), click here.
For part two (No. 33 - No. 29), click here.
For part three (No. 28 - No. 24), click here.
For part four (No. 23 - No. 19), click here.
For part five (No. 18 - No. 14), click here.
For part six (No. 13 - No. 9), click here.
2nd Round, 2022 (46th Overall) — 29 Games Played | 1 Goal | 18 Assists | 19 Total Points | Utica Comets (AHL) | 22 Years Old | 5’10 & 181 Pounds
It’s become increasingly difficult to truly evaluate Seamus Casey as a prospect, given that he has been so injured over the last couple of seasons. He missed significant time yet again in 2025-26, only suiting up for 29 games for the Comets. He produced well enough in those 29 games to earn a nod to the 2026 AHL All-Star Game, but was ultimately unable to participate and ended up missing the remainder of the season. Apparently, it was a nagging injury that had been plaguing him since before the campaign even began — Casey ended up having surgery and will hopefully be 100% come 2026-27.
Casey is a fantastic skater. I think he has just an average top speed, but he reaches it in just a couple of strides and has incredible edgework. His acceleration gives him the ability to get to loose pucks first, allows him to have immediate separation speed from pressure, and gives him excellent recovery ability if he makes a bad pinch or read. His edges, meanwhile, give him the agility to get past multiple defenders with the puck on his stick in all three zones, allow him to maneuver the blueline and manipulate time, space and the defense in front of him, and give him the chance to peel away from pressure if he doesn’t like what he sees.
Again, his top speed is just alright, but the other two aspects of his game are so excellent that it doesn’t matter. Casey had 17 speed bursts of 18-20 mph in his two NHL games, which, extrapolated to a full 82-game season, would have been first in the entire NHL (697), 45 more than Matthew Schaefer.
Casey is an extremely intelligent defenseman in terms of facilitating play. From within the offensive zone, he is constantly looking for the highest-danger play, and has an inherent ability to force the puck into the slot. His passes are tape-to-tape, and he can thread them through multiple layers of sticks and legs en route to executing high-danger plays.
Casey is an expert manipulator, too, drawing in pressure while he has possession of the puck before exploiting the opponent trying to force a turnover with his legs, hands, and brain. He can escape a jam like very few in the AHL, sometimes eluding multiple players along the blue line.
He makes the subtle plays, too; little chip passes to the right areas, usage of the boards to execute a pass to the right spot, head fakes to feign going in one direction before moving the other, et cetera. He constantly knows how to get the puck to an open teammate, even if the method of getting the puck there is a bit unconventional. For example, a poke-pass in the offensive zone:
Without the puck on his stick, Casey is still an asset in the offensive zone. He loves to activate into the play, timing his pinches well more often than not and roving throughout the zone to give his teammates a constantly-moving pass outlet.
In transition, Casey is constantly scanning the ice for outlet passes upon retrieval. Opposing players know he has the skill to break the puck out himself, and they’re forced to respect that, giving him multiple ways of contributing to zone exits and entries. It’s that variability that makes him dangerous.
If there are any gripes with Casey’s offensive hockey sense, it’s that perhaps he is too eager to jump into the play. At times, this leaves his defensive partner in poor position; even though he has great recovery abilities, if he’s playing deep in the zone there’s nothing he can do about preventing an odd-man rush the other way. I think he would also be served well to improve upon his playmaking from the defensive zone while under duress from forecheckers — he doesn’t handle pressure very well, even if he’s working on it.
For a defenseman, Casey has excellent hands. He has quick-twitch ability on his lateral dekes, a deep bag of tricks to pull from, and the wherewithal to use certain dekes in certain situations. Oh, and he can string together multiple moves while skating at top speed, eluding multiple defenders en route to creating a chance for himself and his teammates. That skillset is just so atypical for a defenseman.
I don’t think Casey’s shot is spectacular by any means, and I think he would be well-served to improve it. He is constantly getting himself in open shooting lanes with the puck on his stick and is always trying to present himself as an open option for his teammates, so one would think that his wrist shot is dangerous. It is, but not to the extent it should be. His release is deceptive enough, and he can toe drag around defenders to change the angle of attack, but he struggles to put power and accuracy on his shots for the most part. Casey’s one-timer is scarcely used, being far more of a proponent of using that wrister or a snap shot instead. I don’t think he’s confident with the amount of power he generates on his slapshots.
I do think Casey put in effort to improve his defensive game in Utica this past season. He understood that it was a major deficiency within his game, and now, at least, looks serviceable in this regard at the AHL level. His positioning improved in terms of getting into shooting and passing lanes and preventing the puck from getting to the slot. He can still struggle with pressure from forecheckers, though, once he does retrieve a loose puck. He turns over the puck too much for my liking, and most of it is a direct product of handling in-your-face opponents. If he were turning the puck over trying to execute high-reward plays, that’s something that can be coached out — I’m not sure his ability to handle pressure can be.
Casey is small; there’s no doubt about that. As much as he wants to involve himself in the play, he frequently finds himself getting pushed off the puck and shoved out of board battles. I must admit, though, he has improved his feistiness a bit. He had his first professional fight in his second-to-last game this season and has made a concerted effort to involve himself more in the dirty areas of the ice. He’ll have to develop a bit here before or while playing in the NHL, as NHLers are only stronger and faster than the competition he’s facing now.
Casey still has high upside as a potential #3/4 defenseman, but the truth is that time is running out a bit for the youngster. Yes, he is only 22 years old, but his injury history has held him back from developing as much as he should have, and history says that first- and second-rounders usually make the NHL by now if they ever become mainstays in the league. I like Casey a lot, and I think he has the skillset to succeed in the NHL as a puck-mover, but he needs to be able to handle pressure better (which, to his credit, he has worked on in Utica) and be more difficult to remove from the play with physicality.
2nd Round, 2023 (58th Overall) — 33 Games Played | 2 Goals | 6 Assists | 8 Total Points | New Jersey Devils (NHL) | 21 Years Old | 6’1 & 198 Pounds
Lenni Hämeenaho began the year in the AHL, where he admittedly had a slow start (zero points in his first nine games) while self-proclaiming that he was simply getting comfortable with the defensive side of North American professional hockey. I’m taking his word for it, though, because he produced 27 points in 28 games once he was able to focus on producing offensively.
He was rewarded with his first taste of the NHL this season, logging a surprising 33 games from January until the end of the 2025-26 season. He got off to a scorching start, with two goals and two assists in his first six games while showing fantastic chemistry with Arseny Gritsyuk and Cody Glass, but ultimately tapered off over the remainder of the year, producing just four points in his last 27 games. Still, he took a big jump (his moving down in the ranking from last year is simply a product of more talent in the pipeline than anything he didn’t develop himself).
Typically, skaters who have below-average skating ability can only ever increase their chops to average, and that is the case with Hämeenaho. As great as it is that he has shown tangible improvements since being drafted in this facet of the game, he still certainly lacks a top gear and some acceleration. His top speed of 21.03 mph in the NHL last season was over one full mile per hour lower than the NHL average, and he was pacing for just about half of the NHL average for speed bursts of 20-22 mph. He just doesn’t have that gear in his game, and that’s perfectly fine for the type of player he is.
Hämeenaho’s edgework is fine, though — it’s absolutely the best part of his skating game. He shifts weight fairly well, being able to turn quickly and elude some pressure using agility.
Hämeenaho’s skating chops don’t matter as much because he’s such a cerebral player, particularly off-puck.
While in possession, though, he certainly isn’t a slouch. He has solid vision of the ice and understands how to get the puck to his teammates even if there are defensemen in the way. He became more of a proponent of rifling off cross-ice passes as the season went on, being more and more confident in his tape-to-tape facilitation abilities. He has creative ideas with the puck, all with the goal of putting his teammates in the best area of the ice possible for a high-danger look.
Hämeenaho’s smarts will always be best off-puck, though, in my opinion. He has a penchant for being in the right spot at the right time all the time. He has superior timing on his activations into gaps of open ice, with perfect instincts that allow him to receive the puck in high-danger areas of the ice consistently. This holds true no matter where the puck is on the ice — in the defensive zone, he always seems to be a magnet for turned-over pucks; in the neutral zone, though he prefers to be the one facilitating to a streaking teammate, he always seems to be in the right spot to execute a give-and-go; and in the offensive zone, he always seems to be in the right spot for a high-danger pass or rebound opportunity.
I won’t call Hämeenaho an expert stickhandler, but he does possess some surprising chops in this facet of the game — particularly while on the move — considering how clunky a skater he looks. Sure, he can toe drag and use simple moves, but I’m impressed by his ability to occasionally pull out the unlikely move to get around a defender or two. In fact, we saw him execute such a move on what was inarguably his prettiest assist during his time with New Jersey:
A little-known fact about Hämeenaho is that he’s always been a bit of a volume shooter. Given that he’s typically in the right spot at the right time to take a shot from within the offensive zone, I wouldn’t necessarily call this a shock. We saw that even at the NHL level — he was fourth among Devils forwards in shots per hour and fifth in shot attempts per hour. Seeing that type of confidence in a rookie is abnormal.
Hämeenaho’s mechanics are solid, too. His wrister, though predictable in terms of his release, is zippy and accurate, and as such he can find twine from a distance. His one-timer is electric, driving a ton of power through his hips and dropping down to one knee to get as much juice on it as he physically can.
Hämeenaho has always been a two-way player, and that didn’t change at the AHL and NHL levels. He takes away time and space from the opposition with strong positional instincts and, as mentioned above, seems to always be in the right spot at the right time to pounce on a loose puck. His stick is active, though a tad undisciplined at times. He’ll likely be deployed on the penalty kill at some point in his NHL career.
I wouldn’t call Hämeenaho physical in the conventional sense by any means. He doesn’t throw many hits, and never in open ice, but he handles contact well and is strong on the puck. Along the boards, though he prefers to be the F2 who positionally out-brains the opposition into turning the puck over exactly where he is, he can be a plus in battles every now and then. He will occasionally establish the body with a quick shoulder or reverse check when getting to a loose puck.
Hämeenaho played 33 games in the NHL in his very first year on North American ice, which is something he should be proud of. As he gets more acclimated to the pace and skill of being stateside, he’ll adjust his game to best serve getting to the big leagues. I do think he’s likely to start the 2026-27 campaign in Utica, though, given the amount of depth Sunny Mehta has added to the organization. He could likely use the development time, too — being a top player on an AHL lineup will allow him to further improve upon his offensive habits. I would guess that he plays NHL minutes at some point in 2026-27 and is a full-time player in 2027-28.
2nd Round, 2026 (44th Overall) — 15 Games Played | 0 Goals | 10 Assists | 10 Total Points | Tolpar Ufa (MHL) | 18 Years Old | 6’5 & 187 Pounds
I was ecstatic when the Devils selected Nikita Shcherbakov in the second round of the 2026 NHL Entry Draft. Leading up to the draft, he was always considered more of a first-round caliber talent, and the fact that he slid to the Devils at 44 was a bit of a miracle. The consensus on the 18-year-old was that he’s more of a defensive defenseman than anything, but I think there’s more than meets the eye in that regard.
Shcherbakov, like another exorbitantly tall defenseman that will appear a bit higher in this ranking, is a very smooth skater. His strides are fluid and powerful, getting large distances in just a couple of steps — this allows him to take risks that others wouldn’t fathom of doing (though I do think he’s a bit more conservative than that as a player) without the repercussions of not being able to recover. I think his best skating attribute, though, is his weight-shifting and four-way mobility. Shcherbakov can change directions on a whim, perfectly following whatever angle of attack or sudden movements a downhill rusher decides to take. He closes gaps instantaneously in any direction, oftentimes directing a rush attacker to the boards where he is able to seal them off and regain possession of the puck. None of that is possible without the level of four-way mobility he has.
Shcherbakov is underratedly savvy with and without the puck on his stick from an offensive perspective. He sees the ice well enough and does what he can to get the puck into the interior of the offensive zone, though I’m not necessarily impressed with what he can do from within a cyclical setting — his passes are low-risk, low-reward for the most part. Most of his work in this facet of the game comes through the neutral zone, where he is a surprising facilitator of give-and-goes and quick-touch passes. He will activate into the rush in order to dole out a high-danger pass before retreating back to sound defensive positioning along the blue line.
It’s not often that defensemen with these frames and defensive chops have the ability to execute stretch passes, either, but Shcherbakov can and does.
He also handles pressure well, almost encouraging forecheckers to come after him while he has the puck before punishing them with an outlet pass into open space. It’s this skill that is his most projectable offensive tool — too often is puck-moving conflated with playmaking and stretch passes; being able to retrieve the puck and get it to a teammate who is moving up the ice, even if it isn’t a flashy play, is a severely underrated measure of one’s puck-moving chops.
Shcherbakov is a big, rangey defenseman, and he often looks like it while the puck is on his stick. That said, though, he does try to execute some moves and, on occasion, is able to get past defenders with simple lateral dekes at full speed.
Shcherbakov’s shooting mechanics themselves aren’t really much to write home about. His wrister is unthreatening for the most part, and his one-timer lacks the power one would expect from a player of his stature. Where he does separate himself from a few defensemen, though, is in his vision and accuracy. He knows how to place a puck for a tip-in or deflection opportunity. That’s where most of his points came from in the MHL this past season, and that’s where I would expect most of his points to come from at the NHL level if he makes it.
As Shcherbakov gets thicker — he will need to gain at least 25 pounds — he will inherently be getting more power on his shots. I’d be surprised if his slap shots from the point weren’t a strength down the line.
As touched on in his skating discussion, Shcherbakov is an excellent defender, particularly against the rush. He has versatility there — by being able to orient himself perfectly to the play while simultaneously closing his gap on the puck carrier, he can prevent a rush attacker from coming at him head-on, peeling off towards the interior of the ice, and trying to go around the outside. Watching him defend in the neutral zone is a pleasure.
From against the cycle, Shcherbakov’s positioning is good-not-great, but he again separates himself from the pack in terms of his ability to get to loose pucks, gain possession, absorb pressure, and execute a breakout pass. When given space to work with, he’ll skate the puck out himself. When given pressure, he knows where his teammates are and is able to get the puck to them consistently.
For his size, Shcherbakov is somewhat passive unless it comes to suffocating a player on the rush. There, he does do a good job of forcing opponents into the wall. Outside of that, though, he doesn’t do much in terms of playing physically. In board battles, he doesn’t engage with his body as much as I’d like to see, absorbing contact but not doling it out proactively or using cross checks and slashes to his advantage. Shcherbakov does a decent job of rolling off of pressure when it’s applied, but for a big player like him, he needs to be more assertive.
Shcherbakov has an extremely projectable skillset as a neutral zone defender and puck retriever. His mobility is superb, even independent of his size, and he can move the puck surprisingly well under pressure to boot. Those traits should ultimately end up resulting in a pretty substantial NHL role. The question, at this point, is “How much will Shcherbakov actually develop in the KHL?” and it’s a valid one considering the stagnation that Anton Silayev underwent in the same league with a similar skillset. His best bet may ultimately be to hop over to North America as soon as he is able to, which would be after the 2026-27 season.
2nd Round, 2024 (49th Overall) — 35 Games Played | .904 SV% | 2.73 GAA | 16-15-2 Record | 2 Shutouts | Boston University (NCAA) | 20 Years Old | 6’5 & 181 Pounds
Since being drafted in the second round of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft and matriculating to Boston University, Mikhail Yegorov has proven to be one of the top goaltending prospects in the entire NHL. I’d be lying if I said it was a perfect season for the 20-year-old, though — BU as a whole was a complete mess for most of the campaign, and Yegorov wasn’t immune to that. Despite that, he produced as strong a season as he possibly could have, keeping the Terriers in games that they had no business being in, covering for a myriad of defensive breakdowns during the year, and genuinely building on a strong foundation of raw tools while (generally) keeping a level head.
For a bigger goalie, Yegorov’s athleticism certainly stands out. He scarcely needs to bring out a desperation save by virtue of his typically excellent positioning, but he has the reflexes, reaction time, and mental fortitude to stay with the play and flail around in net if need be. He’s extremely flexible, explosive in his movements, and has a quick-snap blocker and glove that never really keep him out of a play. I’m always impressed by how quickly he drops down into the butterfly, too. He also has impeccable limb independence, being able to contort his body in awkward ways while one half of his body is fighting against the other, directionally speaking.
Yegorov’s explosiveness is also controlled, for the most part. His lateral movement is quick, and he can cover the vast majority of the bottom of the net at any given point by proxy of his wide butterfly. He digs his heels in and pushes off with immense strength, mostly being able to stop where he needs to (but sometimes pushing too far, which is usually when you will see him have to pull out one of those miraculous saves. Yegorov’s edges are also excellent and he can micro-shuffle to stay square to the shooter no matter how he moves or toe drags.
Positioning is and always has been the name of the game for Yegorov. He stays square to shooters at all times (a byproduct of great skating ability) and has excellent anticipation instincts. He knows where everyone on the ice is at all times and can predict the likeliest play, placing himself accordingly. He has always let his frame do the majority of the work for him, and only solidified that habit in 2025-26, understanding that he doesn’t necessarily have to move all that much in order to put his body in the right spot. He’s poised, calm, and patient, and for good reason.
I think the “weakest” part of Yegorov’s game is his puck tracking abilities, but by no means is it below average. He fights through screens and is able to follow quick passes and tic-tac-toe plays. His aforementioned anticipation only adds to his strength here, predicting where the puck will be at any given moment and being able to quickly find it if he loses it for a split second by virtue of predicting correctly. He also tracks shots to his glove quite well, caring not if a shooter tries to deceive him with a toe drag or angle change on a release.
As I said in last year’s pipeline breakdown, this comparison is not in any way me saying Yegorov will be as good as Connor Hellebuyck, simply that they are similar from a stylistic perspective.
Yegorov will be spending one more season in the NCAA before presumably signing his Entry-Level Contract (ELC). I’m interested to see what he has in store for 2026-27, with a revamped BU roster in front of him and another off-season of development. There are no doubts in my mind that he will be an NHL starting goaltender, but I can’t rate him as a “certainty” to get to the league because goalie development and predictions are almost always a crapshoot.
Yegorov’s clips are from this YouTube video and BU on Twitter/X. All other clips from this piece were recorded from my own viewings of these prospects and were edited by me.
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