2019-20 Season Preview: Binghamton Devils
BINGHAMTON, New York -- The Binghamton Devils begin their 2019-20 season Saturday, Oct. 5 when they host the Utica Comets at Floyd Maines Arena at 7 p.m.
The Devils seemingly have nowhere to go but up this year after a tough 2018-19 season. Binghamton finished as the worst team in the Eastern Conference with 63 points.
Coach Mark Dennehy will look to get the Devils back to the playoff bubble in his second season behind the bench. Rebuilds are nothing new for Dennehy as he helped establish Merrimack College as a viable Division I college hockey team in his 13 seasons as coach.
Binghamton brings back a majority of the same squad from a year ago, but also boast a few newcomers.
The Devils will look to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in its three-year existence as an AHL franchise in Binghamton.
The Roster
Forwards
Michael McLeod, Ben Street, Brett Seney, Brandon Baddock, Joey Anderson, Egor Sharangovich, Blake Speers, Fabian Zetterlund, Chris Conner, Mikhail Maltsev, Ludvig Larsson, Ryan Schmelzer, Marian Studenic, Brandon Gignac, Nathan Bastian
Brandon Gignac (36 points) returns as Binghamton’s top-scorer following Blake Pietila (46 points) and John Quenneville’s (39 points) departures.
Nathan Bastian brings his 18 goals from a year ago back as the Devils’ highest returning goal scorer, while Michael McLeod hopes to round out his scoring touch after dishing out a team-high 27 assists last season.
Ben Street and Chris Conner arrive after starring elsewhere in the AHL in 2018-19. Street put up 26 points in 32 games for the San Diego Gulls while splitting time with with Anaheim Ducks. Conner comes over from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, where he suited up for the past four years and brings his 51 points from a season ago with him.
Fabian Zetterlund and Mikhail Maltsev are the two rookies up from for the Devils.
Binghamton will need more from Brett Seney, Joey Anderson, Ryan Schmelzer and Egor Sharangovich if it wants to improve in the goal scoring department. The Devils scored 201 goals last year, second fewest in the Eastern Conference.
Defensemen
Michael Paliotta, Colton White, Matt Tennyson, Josh Jacobs, Andrew Campbell, Jeremy Groleau, Dakota Mermis, Julian Melchiori
Binghamton saw quite a bit of turnover on the blueline as five new defensemen join the Devils this season.
Colton White, Josh Jacobs and Jeremy Groleau serve as the only returning players on the backend. White finished with the second-most points among defensemen last year with 30.
Michael Paliotta, Matt Tennyson, Andrew Campbell, Dakota Mermis and Julian Melchiori add experience and a lot of it. All five guys have combined for 31 seasons in pro hockey.
Goalies
Evan Cormier, Gilles Senn
The Devils had a cast of characters in goal last season as eight different players were called upon for duty.
Evan Cormier appeared in 15 games and posted a 2.96 goals-against average and a .902 save percentage. Either him or Swiss import Gilles Senn will start on Saturday.
Having a steady goalie presence in net will go a long way in helping Binghamton improve its record.
Devils' Season-Opening Storylines
Rookies
The Devils only have three rookies to start the season in Mikhail Maltsev, Fabian Zetterlund and Gilles Senn.
Maltsev was a fourth-round draft pick in 2016 and makes is way over to North America following parts of two years in the KHL. At 6-foot-3 and 198 pounds, Maltsev should be able to hold his own, it’s just a matter of how quickly he can adjust to a smaller ice surface.
Zetterlund arrives after spending his entire junior career in Sweden. A third-round pick in 2017, Zetterlund is a speedster who should open things up offensively. The winger had four points in 16 games a year ago for Farjestad BK.
Senn, the 129th overall pick by the New Jersey Devils in 2017, played for HC Davos in Switzerland’s National League for the past four seasons. Senn’s best year came in 2016-17 when the 23-year-old recorded a 2.64 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage in 34 games played.
Special Teams
The power play and penalty-kill didn’t do the Devils any favors in 2018-19. The man-advantage produced 17.7 percent of the time while the PK finished with a 78.5 percent success rate.
The amount of veteran defensemen acquired this offseason should help the penalty-kill as it surrendered 71 goals, making up 25 percent of the total goals Binghamton allowed all last year. The Devils gave up a league-high 278 goals.
Another season with Dennehy’s power play system should yield better results. Bastian, White and Schmelzer scored 13 goals on the man-advantage all together.
NHL Help?
New Jersey arguably had the best offseason of any team in the NHL as it drafted Jack Hughes first overall, signed KHL stud Nikita Gusev, signed burly winger Wayne Simmonds in free agency and traded for P.K. Subban.
With all the influx of talent, guys on the NHL roster could see jobs once thought to be secure taken from some of the newcomers, forcing New Jersey general manager Ray Shero to send some players down to Binghamton.
Of course, there’s always the chance for injury rehab assignments but those players won’t stick around long enough to have an impact for Binghamton long-term.
