Good morning Devils fans. Hope your weekend is going well. This week, the Devils wrapped up their development camp with a full team scrimmage. In case you want to watch it, here’s the link:
16:40 - (White 1 - Red 0) Xavier Parent, assisted by Tim Rego -Solid shot as Parent pushed into central pressure and shot through multiple defenders
-18:50 - (White 1 - Red 1) Cam Recchi, assisted by Luke Grainger -Grainger chased the puck down behind the net, popped a backward pass to Recchi who was waiting near the faceoff circle for a one-timer
-22:47 - (White 2 - Red 1) Cole Brown, assisted by Jaromir Pytlik -Pytlick rushed to the right side and slid the puck around the defender for a quick finish by Brown
-32:10 - (White 2 - Red 2) Cam Squires, assisted by Filip Engaras -Engaras forced a turnover by Psenicka in the corner and set up Squires, who pretty involved in the forecheck before the goal
-32:37 - (White 3 - Red 2) Brendan Fitzgerald, assisted by Cole Brown -After a quick partial line change, Brown fed it to Fitzgerald at the point who pushed in with patience and snapped a shot between the circles
-1:04:00 - (White 3 - Red 3) Samu Salminen, assisted by Josh Filmon and Petr Hauser -Hauser was fed the puck in the defensive zone, sent it up to a speeding Filmon on the wing who then dropped it Salminen for a one-timer
-1:10:40 - (White 4 - Red 3) Cole Brown, assisted by Filip Engaras and Santeri Hatakka -Hatakka brought it into the zone, dished off to Engaras who passes cross-ice to Brown to finish with a solid shot
Overall, I thought both teams were pretty evenly matched. The 2nd period goaltending of Malek vs. Brennan was a bit tighter compared to the 1st period of Poulter vs. Brady. I saw some pretty good puck movement in the neutral zone entries. Defensemen Chase Cheslock, Seamus Casey, and Luke Rowe did a solid job of puck and space management, drawing in attackers to open up space for puck distribution. Down the road, I can definitely see some of these players trying to crack a spot in the roster, maybe in depth roles.
Meanwhile, within the senior squad, the Devils announced the signing of C Chris Tierney. The 29-year-old journeyman has played nine seasons for San Jose, Ottawa, Florida, and Montreal. He is a bottom-6 forward whose production at a full season pace can range between the mid 20s and the upper 40s in terms of points. The contract is pretty affordable at 1 year, $775K hit. What role he will play on the team this year may be determined more with off ice factors. As stated in my previous article, the Team Canada investigations may affect some NHL players. One of those players could be Michael Mcleod. If it is determined that Mcleod was involved in anything regarding the investigation, that could jeopardize his standing with the team. That would open up a slot for Tierney to step in. It is important to remember that very few people know the details of the investigation and we shouldn’t automatically see this Tierney signings as something damning towards Mcleod. We need to let the investigation and evidence play out before making any rash judgements.
What are your thoughts about the development camp scrimmage and the Tierney signing?
Raise Hell,
-Josh Biringer