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2023 Devils Prospect Camp / Boqvist / Team Canada Investigation |
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Good afternoon Devils fans. Starting Monday, the Devils began their Prospects Development camp for the week. While the roster didn’t include big names from the system like Alexander Holtz, Graeme Clarke, or Nolan Foote, this group did have a decent mix of recent draftees, veteran prospects, and tryouts who are seeking a place in the hockey journey. Last article, we went over the entire camp roster with stats. Monday and Tuesday were focused mostly on skill assessment and development along with team workouts. Last night’s outing provided the audience of Black and Red members a preview of what could be down the line as players scrimmaged in 3v3 setups. Team Stevens took the 3v3 tournament prize. This team included:
G - Cole Brady
F - Lenni Hameenaho, Ondrej Psenicka, Cole Brown, Xavier Parent, Artem Shlaine
D - Chase Cheslock, Brendan Fitzgerald
Hameenaho had a pretty penalty shot where he deked out on Jakub Malek. (https://twitter.com/amandacstein/status/1679256560814505984?s=20)
Today, the prospect team headed to the Military Academy at West Point for workouts and team building activities. They will wrap up their prospect camp tomorrow with a full scrimmage in the morning.
While the youth system has their time to shine, we did have some news with a former senior squad Devil. RW Jesper Boqvist signed a 1 year, $775K contract with the Boston Bruins this week. It will expire next season with Boqvist as an RFA. He joins a Bruins team that also includes former Devils Pavel Zacha, AJ Greer, and defensive prospect/AHLer Reilly Walsh. I wish Boqvist all the best in his next destination in the NHL. I saw improvements from him over the past season and would have enjoyed bringing him back on an affordable contract. However, the mindset to let him walk is understandable, given our depth of offense on the youth level and the acquisition of Tyler Toffoli, which may push a 2nd liner to Boqvist's old spot or afford a prospect spot to be open for Foote/Holtz/Clarke.
Unfortunately, as we wrap up this brief article, we need to discuss the ongoing investigation into the allegations against the 2018 Team Canada World Junior roster. In case you are unfamiliar, according to the CBC, two separate claimants accused certain members of the team of sexual assault and the organization of failing to investigate and hold individuals accountable. While one lawsuit was settled out of court, another allegation led Team Canada to open an internal investigation last September. This week, the results of the investigation and the NHL’s decisions on how to reprimand the alleged players are rumored to become public. The 2018 roster includes many current NHLers. One player on the Devils roster who was part of this roster is C Michael Mcleod. Per an article by Ryan Novozinsky on NJ.com in September 2022, Mcleod was quoted as saying:
“I am aware of the situation in 2018 and the investigation and I’ve been cooperative through the entire investigation and process…But since it’s still ongoing, I’m unable to comment any further.”
The NHL and NHLPA have also been carrying on their respective investigations into the allegations. The results and possible punishments from the NHL inquiry may possibly come out very soon as well.
What are your thoughts on prospect camp so far? How will Boqvist fit into Boston’s system? What course of action do you think the NHL will take regarding the 2018 Team Canada allegations investigation?
Raise Hell,
-Josh Biringer
New Jersey Devils Blogger • 
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