{"id":600150,"date":"2026-06-16T16:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/600150\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T16:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T16:48:24","slug":"new-jersey-devils-prospect-update-the-case-for-samu-salminen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/600150\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey Devils Prospect Update: The Case for Samu Salminen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Devils hold Salminen\u2019s rights until August 15th. Here\u2019s why they should sign the center to an ELC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Drafted by the Devils in the 3rd round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, Samu Salminen is a 6\u20193\u201d center, who played a key role in Denver\u2019s NCAA championship this past season. Though Salminen\u2019s offense never really popped as many hoped it would, Salminen is prized for his hockey sense and two-way play and reached career NCAA highs in goals (11) and points (29) this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Devils lack of center depth is a well-discussed topic with Matyas Melovsky as the most-promising center prospect currently in the AHL, and far from a sure bet at a NHL future. Recent NCAA center drafees had slow D+1 seasons and are still years away from pushing for a spot. Salminen would likely be in a similar position to Melovsky should he be signed, but both centers could challenge one another in Utica and make a push for a bottom six role or call-up position to the NHL should an opportunity arise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.is.fi\/jaakiekko\/art-2000011949792.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">this <\/a>article by Temu Suvinen for the Ilta-Sanomat, Salminen indicates that he wants to continue his career in North America. Salminen will be a free agent in mid-August and will likely wait to see what his options are at that time. However, the Devils still own his rights and should make a case for him. Center depth is never a bad thing, and even if nothing else materializes, a shake up of pivots in Utica is sorely needed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Do you think the Devils should sign Salminen? Why or why not? Post your comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Devils hold Salminen\u2019s rights until August 15th. Here\u2019s why they should sign the center to an ELC.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[201,5,576,151,5185,5184,4,4778],"class_list":["post-600150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-jersey-devils","tag-devils","tag-hockey","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-newjersey","tag-newjerseydevils","tag-nhl","tag-prospects-devils-otherwise"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116760812145035354","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600150","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=600150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}