The New Jersey Devils made a roster move on Monday morning. They sent down rookie defenseman Seamus Casey to Utica as they recalled defenseman Daniil Misyul from the Utica Comets.
But this move should not come as a surprise. Before we get into head coach Sheldon Keefe‘s comments about Casey from Saturday, here is something about his contract that must be focused on. Seamus Casey is waiver-exempt, so that was always going to factor in the decision on whether or not to send him to the AHL and the Utica Comets. So, despite only playing eight games, he is not slide-eligible as a 20-year-old, and the Devils have burnt the first year of his entry-level contract.
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Now to the play on the ice. There were signs that this move was coming despite Casey playing well and scoring goals. Not to mention the debate on who was going to the AHL and who would come out of the lineup once Brett Pesce and Luke Hughes returned, his ice time dropped significantly with each passing game.
After the Devils’ 6-5 overtime loss to the Washington Capitals, Keefe was asked about Casey’s playing time and thought he has been struggling with his game despite, at times, looking impressive as a young defenseman in the NHL.
“Casey has done a really good job here. We’ve talked about it, how impressed I’ve been with him. To me, it looks like the schedules eating him up,” Keefe said. “Not just him by our whole team, and we just played six games in 10 days, and that’s a kid that’s not only not playing in the NHL before he’s played a college hockey schedule. So this is all unheard of.”
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Now, Casey was not the only player who was playing poor defensively. However, assistant coach Ryan McGill, who runs the defense under Sheldon Keefe, felt others were playing better; thus, Casey did not play for stretches during the game. Keefe told the media, “McGill has a feel for the D in the back, and he is trying to make it all work.”
If you look at Seamus Casey’s ice time in his first eight games of the season, the two games he played under ten minutes were both against Washington. He did have a goal against the Capitals in Washington but only played 9:45 on the ice. Against Washington this past Saturday, Casey played 7:35. In the other games, he averaged between 12 and 15 minutes a night.
But it is not just Casey; the entire Devils group looks tired. They played in Europe, then came back and had a tough stretch. But it is magnified for a young guy like Seamus Casey.
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“So I think that kind of for perhaps our whole group shows up, but for a young guy like Seamus, it’s been kind of piling on, and then it kind of happens when his coach loses some confidence in you it’s hard to kind of get going,” Keefe continued. “But we, actually, we had him called up to go out of overtime, we just, we didn’t hang on long enough to get him out there.”
Through eight games with the Devils, Casey had four points (three goals and one assist). He will get more ice time in Utica to work on his game. Remember, Casey was not expected to start the season with the team. With Luke Hughes and Brett Pesce out of the lineup, a spot was open, and he stepped up to fill it.
“He’s filled an incredible role for us and really helped us in the early going with the injuries that we’ve had, to be able to overcome that, to get off to a decent start as a group is a credit to Seamus, the job that he’s done,” Keefe said after practice on Monday.
Again, Sheldon Keefe has always been impressed with Seamus Casey. Casey has shown great ability to skate out of trouble, but with L. Hughes and Pesce are getting close to returning; he can hone his game, add more size in the AHL, and develop the right way. The Devils have a stud prospect in Seamus Casey, and this demotion was not surprising, but it may have been necessary.
