One under-the-radar prospect who could play games for each Metropolitan Division team in 2024-25

Mike Gould
Mike Gould
One under-the-radar prospect who could play games for each Metropolitan Division team in 2024-25
Credit: Frank Becerra Jr. / The Journal News / USA TODAY NETWORK

It’s time for another edition of everybody’s favorite summer series here at Daily Faceoff. We’re looking at one relatively unheralded prospect from each team, someone who has flown under the radar but has the chance to make an impact in the NHL as soon as the upcoming 2024-25 season.

We’ve already taken a look at the 16 Western Conference teams, talking about prospects like Jeremie Poirier, Max Wanner, and Jack Thompson in our Pacific Division roundup before covering the likes of Ethan Del Mastro, Ryan Ufko, and Parker Ford in our Central Division piece. Now, it’s time to dig into one player from each of the eight Metropolitan Division teams.

As a reminder, to qualify for this list, a player must have appeared in fewer than five NHL games in his career through the end of the 2023-24 season — and for our purposes, all first-round picks are ineligible, since they hardly qualify as “under-the-radar” prospects.

Carolina Hurricanes: Anttoni Honka, D

Now that the Hurricanes and Chicago Wolves have seemingly patched up their relationship after a disastrous year apart, prospects like Anttoni Honka will be able to return to North America to continue their development. Honka enjoyed a strong AHL rookie season with the Wolves in 2022-23 before being assigned to the Finnish Liiga last season; now, as he enters the final year of his entry-level contract, the 5’10” right-handed defenseman will have plenty of competition in Chicago as he looks to earn his first cup of coffee in the NHL.

Honka has a strong track record as a highly skilled offensive defenseman. He’s not the biggest or strongest player in a Carolina system that also includes the likes of Alex Nikishin, Dominik Badinka, and Scott Morrow, but Honka has more than enough offensive ability to quarterback a power play and proved himself capable of producing at the AHL level two seasons ago. The Wolves have lots of bodies on their blue line, but Honka could play a top-pairing role for them if the situation arises.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Luca Del Bel Belluz, C

It took practically no time for Del Bel Belluz to score his first NHL goal with the Blue Jackets late last season. The 20-year-old forward scored on his very first NHL shot against Hurricanes goaltender Spencer Martin just 3:37 into the first period of a 6-3 Columbus win over Carolina back on April 16. Del Bel Belluz logged just 19 seconds of ice time over two shifts before tickling the twine for the first time in his NHL career.

The Woodbridge, Ontario-born Del Bel Belluz enjoyed a strong start to his professional career with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters in 2023-24, scoring nine goals and 31 points in 58 games, but it’ll be tough for the 2022 second-round pick to find much of the spotlight in Columbus as long as Adam Fantilli, Cayden Lindstrom, and Kent Johnson are around. Even so, the 6’1″ forward could find his way back into the show if he keeps scoring like he did in the OHL with the Mississauga Steelheads and Sarnia Sting.

New Jersey Devils: Dylan Wendt, RW

Over his first two seasons at Western Michigan University, Dylan Wendt collected just 25 points in 73 games. As a junior in 2023-24, Wendt racked up 23 goals in 38 contests. The Grand Haven, Michigan product parlayed that dramatic improvement into an NHL deal with the Devils at the end of the year, and there’s a chance he could challenge for NHL reps as soon as this coming season.

The 6’1″ Wendt is a prototypical late bloomer who went from barely moving the needle during his draft year with the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers to finishing behind Boston Bruins goalie prospect Brandon Bussi on Western Michigan’s scoring leaderboard as a freshman. He very nearly matched his entire USHL goal-scoring output in his final season with the Broncos. Now, Wendt is part of a relatively thin Devils system and will only have to outmuscle the likes of Chase Stillman and Josh Filmon to earn call-up consideration in 2024-25. If the injury bug bites, all three of those players could play games with the Devils this year.

New York Islanders: Alex Jefferies, LW

Despite making very few high draft picks under the purview of general manager Lou Lamoriello, the Islanders have nevertheless amassed a solid little stockpile of young wingers. One of the best of that bunch is 2020 fourth-round pick Alex Jefferies, who made a relatively seamless transition to the pro ranks late last season after wrapping up a strong NCAA career at Merrimack College.

The 22-year-old Jefferies is a 6′ winger who put up 41 goals and 97 points in 105 games over his four seasons at Merrimack before signing his entry-level NHL deal with the Islanders in April. The Framingham, Massachusetts product collected four goals and seven points in 12 AHL games with the Bridgeport Islanders to conclude the 2023-24 season and could supplant the KHL-bound Ruslan Iskhakov as the farm club’s top offensive threat to start his first full professional campaign. With time, Jefferies could pick up some of the slack on the big club as the Islanders’ veteran wingers start to decline.

New York Rangers: Brett Berard, LW

This list boasts more than its fair share of diminutive wingers, and the 5’9″, 163-pound Brett Berard is no exception. Most players with Berard’s production — especially with a late birthday — are drafted higher than the fifth round, but that’s exactly where the Rangers snagged the East Greenwich, Rhode Island product back in 2020 after he finished third in scoring in the U.S. National Team Development Program (behind only Thomas Bordeleau and Matty Beniers).

Berard enjoyed three strong seasons at Providence College before establishing himself as a full-time AHLer with the Hartford Wolf Pack at age 21 in 2023-24, leading the team with 25 goals and finishing one point behind first-round prospect Brennan Othmann for third on the Wolf Pack leaderboard. He also tied veterans Riley Nash and Jake Leschyshyn for the team playoff scoring lead with six points in 10 games. Berard may be behind Othmann on the Rangers’ depth chart, but he has too much skill to overlook for very long. If the stars align, he could be the heir apparent to Mats Zuccarello on Broadway.

Philadelphia Flyers: Massimo Rizzo, C

It was more than a little surprising to see the Hurricanes trade Massimo Rizzo and a fifth-round pick to Philadelphia last summer for the low price of David Kase, who hasn’t played an NHL game since 2020-21. As Kase turned 27 in January, the Hurricanes no longer control his rights; meanwhile, the Flyers very much still have Rizzo, who was one of the leading scorers on this past year’s National Championship-winning Denver Pioneers team.

It’s difficult to imagine what the Hurricanes were thinking when they traded Rizzo and a pick for a player they didn’t sign, but their loss is the Flyers’ gain. After being drafted by the Hurricanes in the seventh round back in 2019, Rizzo made his NCAA debut at Denver in the 2021-22 season and collected a whopping 126 points (39 goals, 87 assists) in 107 games over three seasons. The Burnaby, B.C. product is a little undersized (5’11”, 180 pounds) but has more than enough skill to find his way into the NHL with a bit of fair fortune.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Joel Blomqvist, G

It’ll be easier said than done for Joel Blomqvist to steal a spot in the NHL this year when the two goaltenders ahead of him are making $7.875 million for the next two seasons, but nothing is impossible. After all, Blomqvist is coming off an excellent season with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in which he put up a 25-12-6 record, a .921 save percentage, and one shutout in 45 AHL games.

In recognition of his excellent play, Blomqvist was named to Team Atlantic for the 2024 AHL All-Star Classic and was later voted to the AHL All-Rookie Team and the AHL Second All-Star Team at the end of the 2023-24 season. Despite standing just 6’2″, the 2020 second-round pick has long put up eye-popping numbers — he managed a .940 save percentage over 20 games in the Liiga two years ago! — and, at 22 years of age, is right on the cusp of forcing his way into the NHL. It’d be easier for Blomqvist to earn a spot if the Penguins hadn’t re-signed Alex Nedeljkovic to a two-year deal, but the possibility remains that he forces Kyle Dubas to make room for him.

Washington Capitals: Pierrick Dubé, RW

The NHL is chock full of players who speak French, but very few of them are actually from France. Pierre-Édouard Bellemare, Alex Texier, Antoine Roussel, and Cristobal Huet have been the rare exceptions to that rule over the years, and Pierrick Dubé added himself to that list by playing in his first three NHL games with the Capitals last season. Like Bellemare and Roussel, Dubé is also an undrafted player.

Dubé is a small, stocky winger who has won two championships in the last three years: a QMJHL title with the Shawinigan Cataractes in 2022, and the Calder Cup with the Hershey Bears in 2024. He’s developed a reputation over that time as someone who shows up in a big way during the playoffs, scoring 21 goals in 25 games over his final two QMJHL playoff runs and adding seven in 17 games with Hershey this past spring. The 5’9″ Dubé hails from Lyon, France and has scored at every level. With Washington in desperate need of players on cheap contracts to solve their salary cap woes, Dubé could end up being just what they need in a depth role.

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