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Devils’ Paul Cotter Suspended Two Games

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April 14: It’s a two-game suspension for Cotter, DoPS announced. He’ll miss New Jersey’s remaining regular season schedule but will be eligible for Game 1 of their first-round series against the Hurricanes.

April 13: Devils center Paul Cotter received a match penalty today against the Islanders and the league has decided that they want to take a closer look at it.  The Department of Player Safety announced (Twitter link) that Cotter will have a hearing on Monday for his illegal check to the head on defenseman Adam Pelech.

The incident (video link) occurred near the six-minute mark of the second period with Cotter being ejected for it.  Meanwhile, Pelech sustained an upper-body injury on the play and did not return.  Following the game, head coach Patrick Roy didn’t have an immediate update on Pelech’s condition but with just two games left in their season, it wouldn’t be surprising if they shut him down.

Cotter has not been suspended in his 217-game NHL career but this is the second time he received a match penalty for an illegal check to the head; the other instance came back in 2023 when he was with Vegas but no supplementary discipline came his way.  New Jersey has two games remaining this season so any suspension longer than that would mean he’d miss the beginning of their opening-round playoff series against Carolina.

Snapshots: Avalanche, Squires, Ziemmer

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The Avalanche announced some heavy roster trimming after playing their final regular season game last night. Forwards Jere Innala, T.J. Tynan, Chris Wagner, and defensemen Wyatt Aamodt and Jack Ahcan were reassigned back to AHL Colorado after being called up recently to allow some lineup staples to rest. All the players listed saw limited action down the stretch, and all five appeared in last night’s win over the Ducks to give Colorado its fourth straight season with over 100 points. The Avs finished with a 49-29-4 record and will face the Stars in the first round as the lower seed. The group of five will now suit up for the Eagles in the Calder Cup Playoffs, with more experienced names like Wagner likely to be among the first added to the Avalanche’s postseason roster if injuries necessitate a recall.

Other minor moves from around the league this morning:

  • The Devils announced today that they’ve reassigned right-wing prospect Cam Squires to AHL Utica after he finished his major junior season with the Cape Breton Eagles of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. Squires, fresh off his 20th birthday, led Cape Breton in scoring with 24-51–75 in 58 games this season and 15th overall in the QMJHL. A 2023 fourth-round pick, he signed his entry-level deal last summer and will kick off his first full professional campaign next season, presumably in Utica.
  • The Kings are also giving one of their prospects a taste of pro hockey to end the season, reassigning right-winger Koehn Ziemmer to AHL Ontario. The 2023 third-rounder is coming off a 37-goal, 71-point campaign in 61 games with the Prince George Cougars of the Western Hockey League, but he’s still failed to break the career-high 89 points he scored in his draft year with the Cougars. With his 20th birthday behind him, as well as four seasons of WHL play, he’s eligible for a full-time assignment to Ontario beginning next season.

Devils Recall Marc McLaughlin

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The Devils announced they’ve recalled forward Marc McLaughlin from AHL Utica. He’ll join the team on their road trip amid an expected suspension for Paul Cotter, who’s facing a hearing with the Department of Player Safety today for an illegal check to the head of Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech.

New Jersey already had a handful of extra forwards on hand for yesterday’s 1-0 loss to the Islanders, not including winger Stefan Noesen, who they scratched for rest. Adding McLaughlin to fold indicates they’re considering resting some other lineup staples at forward for their season-ending back-to-back against the Bruins and Red Wings. The Devils are locked into third place in the Metropolitan Division and a first-round date with the Hurricanes, so there are no seeding changes at risk from the results of their final two games.

McLaughlin played 12 games earlier this season and has 26 career appearances, although none with New Jersey. The Devils acquired him from Boston in exchange for depth defenseman Daniil Misyul at the trade deadline. He has six career goals, including two in 2024-25, but is still looking for his first NHL assist. The 6’0″, 200-lb pivot has averaged a shade under 10 minutes per game in the NHL and has won 24 of his 58 career faceoffs for a 41.4% win rate. The 25-year-old’s possession impacts are usually underwhelming, posting a CF% of 48.4 at even strength in parts of four seasons – 5.6% worse than Boston’s shot attempt share without him on the ice.

A defensive specialist, even in the minors, McLaughlin’s point totals are correspondingly solid but not eye-popping. He’s posted five assists in 14 games with Utica since the trade after starting the year with 5-9–14 in 34 games for the Bruins’ affiliate in Providence. He has 26-37–63 in 183 career AHL games since signing with Boston as an undrafted free agent out of Boston College in 2022.

Since McLaughlin has under 80 games of NHL experience with at least three professional seasons, he’ll be a Group VI unrestricted free agent when his two-way deal expires this summer. A return to New Jersey as a depth piece shouldn’t be ruled out if they like what they see from him in the minors.

Tomas Tatar On EV Zug’s Radar

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In his prime, veteran winger Tomas Tatar was a quality secondary scorer, notching seven seasons of at least 20 goals.  However, his production and role have dropped in recent years and it appears that has caught the eye of at least one international team.

Speaking with the Zuger Zeitung last weekend, EV Zug’s manager Reto Klay acknowledged that Tatar is on a shortlist of players the team intends to target this offseason, one that also includes former NHL winger Dominik Kubalik.  Zug has seven import players to sign for next season so they’ll be casting a wide net to do so; Klay acknowledged that his shortlist currently consists of somewhere between 20 and 30 players.

After his contract with Montreal ended in 2021, Tatar inked a two-year, $9MM contract with New Jersey.  However, his market wasn’t the strongest in 2023 despite a 20-goal, 48-point campaign, resulting in him settling for a one-year, $1.8MM pact.  Then this past summer, he opted to sign quickly, taking $1.5MM to return to the Devils.

Last season, Tatar had just nine goals and 15 assists in 70 games between Colorado and Seattle.  This year, he has just seven tallies and ten helpers in 71 contests while his playing time is down to just 11 minutes a night, a career low.  Given the sharp drop in production, there’s a strong possibility that Tatar could have a weak market this summer, potentially landing in PTO territory.  With that in mind, it’s understandable that Zug (and perhaps other international teams) have him on their radar for next season.

It remains to be seen if Tatar would be open to playing overseas at this point of his career.  Now 34 and with over 900 NHL regular season games under his belt, would he prefer a low-cost NHL contract or even a tryout opportunity to try to extend his career at the top level?  Or, would he be open to heading overseas where he’d take a pay cut but get to play in the top-six role that he’s best suited for?  He still has a few more months to make that determination.

Dougie Hamilton Upgraded To Day-To-Day

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Ray Shero Passes Away

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Wild senior advisor and longtime Penguins and Devils general manager Ray Shero has passed away, Minnesota’s public relations department said Wednesday. He was 62 years old.

Shero, a St. Paul native, got his start as a player at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York after attending the New Hampton School in New Hampshire. He played four seasons for the Saints as a center from 1980 to 1985, scoring 58-77–135 in 125 games while serving as captain in his senior season. While drafted by the Kings midway through his collegiate tenure, he never turned pro.

Eight years later, Shero made the NHL in a front-office role. Hired by the Senators as an assistant general manager for the 1993-94 season, their second in franchise history, that move kicked off a lifetime’s worth of executive work at the game’s highest level. The son of Stanley Cup-winning head coach Fred Shero remained in Ottawa until the expansion Predators plucked him to serve in an AGM role in 1998. Working under David Poile in Nashville, the league’s all-time leader in wins overseen by a GM, he got a chance to lead his own staff nearly a decade later when the Penguins named him GM and executive VP of hockey operations ahead of the 2006-07 season.

His task: take a young core in Pittsburgh led by Sidney Crosby, Marc-André Fleury, and Evgeni Malkin to the next level. He accomplished that feat within just two years, swinging a blockbuster deal for star winger Marián Hossa at the 2008 trade deadline to help guide the Pens to the 2008 Stanley Cup Final. While they fell to the Red Wings, they set themselves up for a rematch the year later and emerged victorious. Three years after taking over a team that posted a 22-46-14 record in the season preceding his hiring, Shero was a Stanley Cup champion.

Shero remained in his post through the 2013-14 season, helping the Penguins extend their championship contention window. He was named the league’s General Manager of the Year in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign after helping Pittsburgh capture a regular season conference title and was also an AGM for the United States at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

While the Pens fired Shero following a first-round elimination in the 2014 playoffs, he emerged a year later with the Devils. They brought him in ahead of the 2015-16 season to replace longtime GM Lou Lamoriello. He immediately began one of the most aggressive retools of the 2010s, signing or trading for names like Taylor Hall, Kyle Palmieri, and P.K. Subban while drafting New Jersey’s current core three forwards in Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, and Jack Hughes. He was replaced by current GM Tom Fitzgerald midway through the 2019-20 campaign.

Shero had served as a senior advisor to Wild GM Bill Guerin, who he picked up from the Islanders at the 2009 deadline to help the Pens to a Cup, since the 2021-22 season. “Whenever we ran into each other at a rink when he was scouting, it was clear he loved what he was doing and I always marveled at his infectious enthusiasm,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. “The entire National Hockey League family mourns his passing and sends our deepest condolences to the Shero family and Ray’s many friends throughout the hockey world.”

All of us at PHR extend our condolences to the Shero family and his numerous friends and colleagues throughout the league.

Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-USPRESSWIRE.

Devils Likely To Sign Arseni Gritsyuk To Entry-Level Deal

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The Devils are expected to land 2019 fifth-round pick Arseni Gritsyuk out of Russia on an entry-level deal for the 2025-26 season, Daria Tuboltseva of Responsible Gambler reports. The 24-year-old winger remains under contract with Kontinental Hockey League club SKA St. Petersburg through May 31, so an official announcement could still be weeks away.

While closer in theory to a free-agent pickup than a prospect arrival, he’s still on the right side of 25 and tracks as an impactful addition to the New Jersey roster next year. The 6’0″, 194-lb right winger has quite the resume in his home country. He had a breakout year with Avangard Omsk in 2021-22, winning the KHL’s Rookie of the Year Award with 16-12–28 in just 39 games. That was enough for him to be included on the country’s roster for the 2022 Winter Olympics, where he posted three points in six games en route to a silver medal.

Gritsyuk transferred to SKA in the 2023 off-season and has spent the last two seasons there. He saved his best for last. If not for an injury that sidelined him for about a third of the year, he would have led St. Petersburg in scoring. He did lead the team with a +22 rating and recorded 17-27–44 in 49 games. His 0.90 points per game ranked 12th in the KHL among qualified skaters. Gritsyuk also added five points in six playoff games as SKA dropped their first-round series to Dynamo Moscow.

His pending departure adds to a mass exodus from one of Russia’s largest clubs. Their leading scorer, 19-year-old Ivan Demidov, has already terminated his contract and is on his way to Montreal to join the Canadiens for the remainder of the season. They’ve also mutually terminated their deal with ex-Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov and are widely expected to lose top defenseman and captain Alexander Nikishin to the Hurricanes, who drafted him 69th overall in 2020 – although whether that deal gets done in time for him to join Carolina this season remains to be seen.

As for New Jersey, they’re likely penciling Gritsyuk into a top-nine right-wing spot for opening night in October. It’s realistic to expect output in the 40-to-50-point range from the smooth-skating winger next season, potentially even higher if he’s given first-unit power play deployment. He should be a crucial cost-effective contributor for the Devils as they enter the 2025 offseason with under $14MM in cap space for next season and star defenseman Luke Hughes in need of a new deal.

Gritsyuk will pause his KHL career after recording 68-84–152 in 216 regular-season games over the past five seasons. He’ll be a restricted free agent next summer and the Devils maintain team control over his signing rights through 2028.

Dougie Hamilton Could Return For Round One

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Heading into the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, the New Jersey Devils will be without their top forward and defenseman. However, it may not be long before the latter returns. Earlier today, Peter Baugh of The Athletic relayed a note from the Devils’ head coach, Sheldon Keefe, indicating Dougie Hamilton could return for Round One.

There’s no question the Devils could use him. Hamilton scored nine goals and 40 points in 63 games for New Jersey this season, with 15 coming on the team’s powerplay. The Devils have slowed down since Hamilton and forward Jack Hughes exited the lineup, while their projected Round One opponent, the Carolina Hurricanes, have managed a 9-4-0 record since the trade deadline, meaning New Jersey will need every advantage available.

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Cody Glass Returns From Injury Today

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  • The Devils will welcome back one of their newest forwards this afternoon against the Rangers. Team reporters Marc Ciampa and Sam Kasan relay that center Cody Glass will return to the lineup after missing the last week and a half due to a lower-body injury.  The 26-year-old was acquired from Pittsburgh at the trade deadline and has been much more impactful since then.  After notching just 15 points in 51 games with his former team, Glass has two goals and four assists through eight games with New Jersey.

Devils Recall Seamus Casey

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The Devils announced they’ve called up top defense prospect Seamus Casey from AHL Utica. No corresponding move was made, nor was one necessary. There aren’t any new injury designations on New Jersey’s blue line, so it’s likely a performance-driven recall.

Casey, 21, was a second-round pick by the Devils in 2022. He signed his entry-level contract last May following two seasons at the University of Michigan and, after a strong training camp last fall, found himself on New Jersey’s opening night roster while Luke Hughes and Brett Pesce were sidelined with season-opening injuries. He only lasted a couple of weeks, returning to the AHL in late October, and has remained with Utica since, aside from a second recall that stretched from Feb. 18 to March 7.

Now in his first professional season, Casey ranks as the No. 3 prospect in the Devils system, per Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. Wheeler also ranks him as the No. 57 prospect in the league, 21st among defensemen and 13th among righties. McKeen’s Hockey ranked him No. 2 in their preseason rankings but didn’t deem Simon Nemec eligible as a prospect, while Wheeler did. Almost universally, Casey ranks behind Nemec and 2024 No. 10 overall pick Anton Silayev among New Jersey defenders who have yet to establish themselves as NHL regulars.

Casey has posted intriguing results in his limited NHL minutes this season. He’s scored four goals and added an assist in 10 games despite averaging under 12 minutes per game, adding a plus-five rating to boot. Head coach Sheldon Keefe’s distrust in him, shown in his earlier recalls, almost certainly stems from his poor possession impacts. Despite receiving 68.3% of his even-strength zone starts in offensive deployment, Casey has only controlled 41.6% of shot attempts.

In the minors, Casey has fared well this season but not quite as well as Nemec. He ranks third among Utica defensemen in scoring with 3-15–18 in 30 games, trailing Nemec (5-18–23 in 34 GP) and Topias Vilén (1-18–19 in 40 GP).

With only six regular-season games left on the Devils’ schedule and third place in the Metropolitan Division a virtual guarantee, it makes sense for them to give one of their top prospects one last NHL audition down the stretch. It’s hard to envision him being in the playoff lineup, especially with news earlier today that fellow righty Dougie Hamilton could be an option to return before or during the first round, but he could theoretically establish himself as a better option for a bottom-pairing puck-mover over Nemec, who holds the role for the time being.

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