{"id":427750,"date":"2026-01-25T18:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T18:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/427750\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T18:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T18:45:14","slug":"rookies-unexpected-impact-hameenaho-projection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/427750\/","title":{"rendered":"Rookies Unexpected Impact; H\u00e4meenaho Projection"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Jersey Devils<\/a> are winners in five of their last six games and are being heavily driven by Cody Glass\u2019 line. Glass is flanked by standout rookie Arseny Gritsyk<\/a> and impact call-up Lenni H\u00e4meenaho<\/a>, who is also a rookie. <\/p>\n

NJ.com\u2019s Ryan Novozinsky joined Devils Rink Report<\/a> to break down H\u00e4meenaho\u2019s strong NHL arrival and how the Finnish winger\u2014alongside Gritsyuk\u2014is giving New Jersey surprising forward upside from the pipeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most noticeable thing about him is his positioning, right? He\u2019s always in the right spots,\u201d Novozinsky said. \u201cI mean, he got the first shot on goal a couple of games ago. It was a slick feed from Dougie Hamilton, but he\u2019s just on the right side, near the right face-off circle, and just wide open, and he wires it through. Obviously he didn\u2019t score, but it was an impressive shot. He has a more impressive release than I thought, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gritsyuk\u2019s acclimation to the NHL is less surprising. He was a five-year impact KHL pro hockey player. H\u00e4meenaho, however, spent fewer years playing pro hockey, playing three seasons in Liiga and half a season in the American Hockey League. Novozinsky highlighted how quickly both rookies have looked comfortable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s just looked like he\u2019s belonged. It\u2019s been two promising starts for two guys in Lenni Hameenaho and Arseny Gritsyuk. Obviously, Gritsyuk has a bigger sample size here, but two things that you can hang your hat on are, \u2018Oh, we do have some forward prospects here in the pipeline.\u2019 You didn\u2019t think you had that maybe going into the season. You were blindly hoping for a decent Gritsyuk season or for Hameenaho to at least scratch the surface of a second-round pick\u2019s ceiling, and he looks like he\u2019s fit in well so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nichols echoed the praise for Gritsyuk\u2019s breakout.<\/p>\n

\u201cTouching on Gritsyuk quick. I mean, I think many people, if they would have said that he had nine goals and 20 points by the end of the season, that\u2019d be a good first year for him. He\u2019s got that now with 30 games to go. Gritsyuk has been as advertised and more, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

On H\u00e4meenaho\u2019s style and fit, Nichols drew a comparison.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you know, with Hameenaho, you\u2019re right. I get a hint of when I was watching him\u2026 He reminds me of a young Tyler Toffoli.\u201d<\/p>\n

H\u00e4meenaho scored his first NHL goal against the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night, opening the scoring in a 5-4 victory.<\/p>\n

Gritsyuk, Glass, and H\u00e4meenaho have been deployed as New Jersey\u2019s third line in terms of minutes. However, each project to be middle-six players. On H\u00e4meenaho\u2019s future, he doesn\u2019t project as a top-line player, but he can work alongside the Devils\u2019 captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, I agree that he is not somebody for Jack Hughes. I do think that maybe at some point he\u2019s a middle six guy, right? I believe he will be somewhere in the bottom nine, so not a top-line player. But could he be a solution on the second line if they need somebody to play there? I don\u2019t see any reason why he wouldn\u2019t play well on a Nico Hischier-driven line with Timo Meier, for instance. Let\u2019s say they end up moving Dawson Mercer. I think Hameenaho is cut from the same cloth in terms of defensive responsibility and will [eventually] be able to play up with Nico Hischier. But overall, I think he will be some sort of career third-liner. I think he\u2019s someone who can play well if needed up in the lineup, but is really going to thrive in that bottom six, preferably on the third line. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s a career fourth liner.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Analysis transcribed from the latest Devils Rink Report show on YouTube.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tJames is the New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on Sportsnaut and the PHWAs New … More about James Nichols<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Jersey Devils are winners in five of their last six games and are being heavily driven…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[25554,201,3723,5,6030,576,151,5185,5184,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-427750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-arseny-gritsyuk","9":"tag-devils","10":"tag-devils-news","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-lenni-hameenaho","13":"tag-new-jersey","14":"tag-new-jersey-devils","15":"tag-newjersey","16":"tag-newjerseydevils","17":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115957225282661354","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}