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A few notes on the Albany Devils, John Quenneville and Connor Chatham:
1) The A-Devs have advanced to the 2nd round of the AHL playoffs as they topped Utica 6-3 to close out the best of 5 series in four games.
Blake Pietila was the 1st star tallying two goals, two assists in the win while Joseph Blandisi had a goal and an assist. Damon Severson (one assist), Pavel Zacha (one assist) and Reid Boucher (one goal) are some other notables that found the scoresheet.
Up next for the A-Devs is a powerhouse Toronto Marlies team that finished 12 points ahead of 2nd place Albany in the regular season.
While the Marlies are clearly favored, and rightfully so, I think Albany can give them a good run for their money with how well they're playing right now. They're deep, they're scoring like crazy and they also have the best defenseman in the series in Severson.
It should be a long and fun series.
2) John Quenneville continues to tear it up in the WHL playoffs. Through 15 games he leads all players with 12 goals and is 2nd in points with 22.
He's doing this after recording 31 goals and 73 points (both career highs) in 57 games. While they're not out of this world numbers, especially for a former 1st round pick in his draft+2 year, Quenneville is having a good season.
I still don't think he'll be a prolific player at the NHL level but I think he can be an Adam Henrique-esque middle-6 forward. Given where the Devils took him (30th overall) I think they'd be fairly happy with that.
3) It's surely not at the top of the to-do list but Devils GM Ray Shero will soon have to decide whether to give Connor Chatham an entry-level contract or let him walk.
I don't like to write off 20-year-old kids but personally I'd let him go and keep the contract slot open. Sure, it's tough to walk away from a former 3rd round pick before he plays pro but I think that'd be the smart decision here.
As a 20-year-old Chatham recorded 41 points in 64 regular season games with Flint/Windsor and picked up one point in five playoff games. Those numbers would be solid for a 17-year-old draft eligible but they're extremely underwhelming for a 20-year-old, especially one that was drafted. For comparison sake Joseph Blandisi recorded 112 points in 68 games during his overage season in the OHL.
Chatham was never projected to be a top-6 guy but I'm not even confident he has an NHL future as someone playing 8-10 minutes a night.
He simply hasn't shown enough to leave any room for optimism and is not someone I'd give a contract. We'll soon find out if Shero feels the same way.
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