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.

Janne Kuokkanen Loaned Out to Finnish Club

Janne Kuokkanen, the forward prospect the Devils acquired in the Sami Vatanen deal from the Carolina Hurricanes will be loaned out to Oulun Karpat Oy of Liiga in Finland. Liiga is Finland’s top hockey league and Kuokkanen is from Oulu, the city that Karpat is located in.

Kuokkanen played one game for the Devils this past season following the trade from Carolina. He played the bulk of the 2019-20 season in the American Hockey League, for the Charlotte Checkers (former AHL affiliate of Carolina – now with the Florida Panthers) and the Binghamton Devils.

He totaled 48 points in 56 American League games this past season according to Amanda Stein on the “Inside the Devils Blog” where the news was reported.

Six of those 48 AHL points were with Binghamton (three goals and three assists) while 42 points came in his 52 games with Charlotte. He appeared in only four games for Binghamton.

Stein reports that “Kuokkanen will be immediately able to play for Karpat while waiting for the start of the 2020-21 NHL Training Camp, at which point he will be able to return to New Jersey.”