Maltsev Loaned to SKA St. Petersburg of KHL

First off, I apologize for the lack of content recently. I have had some Microsoft Word problems and have been letting the Playoffs run their course before getting back into things.

And speaking of the Playoffs, congratulations to former Devil Blake Coleman, who not only won the Stanley Cup last night with a 2-0 Tampa Bay Lightning win over the Dallas Stars in game six of the Final, but also tallied that second goal for Tampa in their Cup clincher. When it became obvious that Tampa was going to win, I was rooting for Dallas to get on the board with one so that Coleman’s goal would go down as the Cup-clincher. That was not to be, but congrats to him and the Lightning on their redemption championship following last year’s implosion at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Former Devils goaltender Scott Wedgewood was also a part of the winners, as the third goalie on the roster. Not sure if his name will get on the Cup, but as Devils Insiders pointed out on Twitter, it was good to see him get to skate the Cup last night in Edmonton anyway.

Now on to the business at hand. Devils forward prospect Mikhail Maltsev has been loaned to SKA St. Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League according to a press release put out by the Devils today.

He will be recalled prior to the beginning of NHL training camp for the 2020-21 season in November.

According to the press release, Maltsev spent last season with the Binghamton Devils of the American Hockey League where he notched 11 goals, 10 assists for a total of 21 points over 49 games played.

Like all of the other loaning out of prospects in recent months, this is merely a way for Maltsev to get some reps while the NHL is in its unconventional offseason.

As mentioned, he will be brought back to North America prior to training camp, but will be playing in his native Russia for the time-being.

Westcott Clarifies Devils’ Draft Picks

With the Qualifying Round largely done, we know that the Islanders, Coyotes, Canadiens, Blackhawks and Canucks will be moving on to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Only the Maple Leafs-Blue Jackets play-in series remains to be finalized as well as the seeding for most of the teams that already qualified for the playoffs.

Because of that, there was some hashing out of just where the Devils’ Draft picks, acquired in trades with conditions, would be.

Enter Chris Westcott, who posted to the “Inside the Devils Blog” today to clarify where the Devils stand.

Westcott said that the Devils have three first-round picks in 2020. These include their own, Arizona’s first-round pick (the Coyotes defeated the Predators to advance to play the Avalanche in the first round of what will be just Taylor Hall’s second trip to the playoffs) as a part of the Taylor Hall trade and Vancouver’s first-round pick via Tampa Bay (the Blake Coleman deal). The Canucks ousted the Wild to move on.

Now, of course, Westcott does mention that if Hall re-signs with Arizona or the Yotes somehow upset Colorado in the first-round of the playoffs, the Devils would get “a 2021 second-rounder instead of a third. But if both of these things transpire, the Devils would receive a first-round pick in 2021” from the Coyotes.

He also talks about the Sami Vatanen deal where, if Vatanen plays in 70-percent of the Hurricanes’ playoff games, New Jersey “will get a 2020 third instead of a fourth-round pick.”

Westcott said that if the Draft were today, the Devils would have the seventh (their pick), eighteenth and twentieth picks in the first-round. The Arizona and Vancouver picks will likely change as the playoffs move on and teams get “reseeded” in the Draft order.

Westcott says that, essentially, we, as Devils fans, should be rooting for Vatanen and Arizona.

If Vatanen can stay healthy, that pick condition should be met no problem. The Hurricanes probably like what they see and see Vatanen as a good weapon, especially on the power play.

The Taylor Hall thing is where it gets less likely that we get what we want. Hall wants stability above all else. Sure, if the Yotes get him his first ever playoff series win, he would be more apt to re-sign there. The problem is the GM situation. John Chayka is gone, leaving them with an interim general manager for the time being. It is even more chaotic than the Devils towards the end of Hall’s tenure here.

But we will see how things pan out. Right now, the Devils have three first-rounders in a good draft. This is time to move forward and think of the team’s future.