Sunday, July 16, 2017

Top Prospect Signings (Jul 16)



From the sounds of development camp this week, the New Jersey Devils are pleased with how well the 1st overall pick, forward Nico Hischier, has fit in with the young guys and once camp had concluded, he had put pen to paper on his new entry-level deal.  The deal will give the young Swiss player the max salary and CapFriendly is reporting that his bonuses, if hit, could see him paid upwards of $11.3 million for the entire three seasons.

Hischier has spent the last 12 months turning heads and gaining more and more momentum towards his NHL career and the Devils are looking to capitalize on that in their rebuild process.  Adding the top pick in the draft to a new-look offense, which now includes Marcus Johansson, as well as Taylor Hall, Travis Zajac and Kyle Palmieri... things are starting to look up, slowly.

The Golden Knights were not to be outdone again this summer, as they announced that they locked up all three of their 2017 1st round picks on Saturday, all of which received the max salary and bonuses that reflected where they were selected in the draft process.  The 6th overall pick, forward Cody Glass, the 13th overall pick, forward Nick Suzuki and the 15th overall pick, defenseman Erik Brannstrom, all signed on the dotted line.

Vegas arguably went for skill over size in their first entry draft, back in June, as Glass is the tallest of the three at 6'2", but all three are touted as being very talented individuals and it will be very interesting to see where and how they will fit in to the Vegas system, which has yet to be established.  You can certainly make a valid point, that all three of these kids have a legitimate shot at making the team this year, since there are very few assured slots taken.

By my count now, that's 12 2017 draft picks now signed to deals, nine of which are 1st round picks and only three of those picks are in the top 10, two of those signing yesterday.

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