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Graeme Clarke Signs Entry Level Deal

Two days late on this one, the Devils announced it on March 6, but the team has signed forward Graeme Clarke.

The 19-year-old third round (80th overall) selection in the 2019 Draft by the Devils signed a three-year, entry-level contract that starts for the 2021-22 season according to the Devils’ Public Relations press release. He was the Devils’ fourth selection in that Draft.

He is currently with the Binghamton Devils where the presser mentions he has played in four games already. He played earlier this season for HC Nove Zamky of Slovakia. Prior to that, he played three seasons with the Ottawa 67’s of the Ontario League.

The presser notes that from the 2017-18 season through 2019-20, “the right-shooting winger had 46 goals and 30 assists for 74 points in 134 career OHL games. In his last season, he averaged over one point per game, with nine goals and eight assists for 17 points in 16 games.”

In 23 OHL playoff games over his career, he had seven goals and seven assists (an even 14 points).

The press release notes that, with the 67’s, he played with two other Devils prospects: Kevin Bahl and Nikita Okhotiuk.

He has appeared in September 2019 with the Devils in the Buffalo Prospects Challenge where he had a goal and an assist over three games.

He s a 6-foot, 175-pounder who also represented Canada (he is a native of Ottawa) at the Under-18 team at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in 2019. That team won a gold medal at that tournament.

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Clarke, Mercer Invited to Team Canada Selection Camp

Today Amanda Stein, on the “Inside the Devils Blog,” reported that two Devils forward prospects have been named to Canada’s World Junior Selection Camp.

Graeme Clarke, taken in the third-round, 80th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft and Dawson Mercer, taken 18th overall in the first-round in this year’s Draft, will attend the National Junior Selection Camp in Red Deer, Alberta. The camp, Stein reports, runs from November 16 to December 13, 2020.

Clarke and Dawson were two of 42 players selected for the camp.

Stein mentions that Clarke’s season with the Ottawa 67’s of the Ontario Hockey League has yet to get off the ground due to COVID-19. The OHL has not started their season due to the pandemic.

Mercer, on the other hand, plays for the Chicoutimi Sagueneens of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The QMJHL’s season has started and Mercer, in four games has four goals and two assists. With those six points, he is currently second in scoring on the Sags right now, enjoying a point-per-game pace.

One other thing to note is that Stein mentioned that 67’s coach Andre Tourigny is also the coach of the Team Canada, the defending champs at the World Juniors. Canada struck gold last year and will hope to do the same this year on home ice when the tournament begins on Christmas Day in Edmonton, Alberta.

In other Devils-related news, the “Devils Army Blog” noted on Twitter that prospect Yegor Sharangovich, loaned to Dinamo Minsk of the KHL, has 10 goals over the last 19 games with Minsk. This includes two goals against Dinamo Riga last week as Minsk beat Riga 3-0. Hopefully the former fifth-round pick can keep this pace up when he returns to North America in the coming months.

In coaching/scouting news, Devils Insiders report on Twitter that, “according to the team website, Peter Horachek has been re-assigned from AC to his prior role as a Pro Scout.” Horachek served last season as an assistant under Alain Nasreddine but will return to his role in the scouting department. It is good to see that the Devils did not fully cut ties with him.

Devils Insiders also note that Brian Strait will serve as a Pro Scout too. They said that “he did some scouting work for” the Devils last year while out with injuries playing for the Binghamton Devils of the AHL. It is possible that Strait quietly retired and will now work full-time as a scout for the organization. Otherwise, he is still out with injuries and will continue to serve in this role until he plays for Binghamton again.