The 2015-16 season has been pretty kind to the New Jersey Devils thus far.
The same can be said about some of their prospects, too, as Mackenzie Blackwood has been the OHL's best goaltender in the early going while on Tuesday top prospect Pavel Zacha was just named OHL Player of the Week.
On that and some other Devils tidbits:
1) In junior hockey you often see a steady progression from players on a year-to-year basis - and rightfully so - but it's encouraging to see Pavel Zacha taking a big step forward this season after a somewhat 'meh' first year in the OHL given his status.
Note: Team Pt% is the percentage of goals a player records a point on.
He still hasn't been as prolific offensively as I expected him to be but he's certainly heading in the right direction having recorded nine points in his last four games.
Now he just needs to keep his foot on the gas.
2) Mackenzie Blackwood leads the OHL with a .931 save percentage and a 2.34 goals against average despite facing a little more than 33 shots per game with the Barrie Colts. Those numbers are incredible by OHL standards and even more so when you factor in Barrie basically has three established defensemen on their blue line.
Barring anything unforeseen happening I'd be shocked if Blackwood isn't Canada's starting goaltender at the World Juniors.
3) Mike Cammalleri is quietly putting together a remarkably impressive season.
Through 20 games he has 21 points and his on-ice shooting percentage + save percentage - aka PDO - is 101 (one point lower than last season) so it's not as if he's relying on unsustainably high percentages to inflate his numbers.
Given how well he is playing alongside Adam Henrique and Lee Stempniak I think 25 goals - perhaps even 30 - is a reasonable expectation if he's able to stay healthy.
4) A strange but true stat: Cammalleri has more points (21) than Sidney Crosby (11) and Ryan Getzlaf (9) combined.
Hockey is a weird sport sometimes.
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