New Jersey Prospect Update: Where are they Now? Goaltender Edition

It is often said that goaltenders are voodoo, so what is a goaltending prospect to do when he is stuck behind the voodoo king? Let’s take a trip down memory lane and look at some goaltenders of the Devils past prospect pools and what happened to them.

Ari Ahonen

The Short: Former first rounder, who never played in the NHL, but got free bench tickets a few times to watch Marty up close

The Long: Ari Ahonen leads this list as a former first round (27th) overall pick by the New Jersey Devils in 1999. If you were like me at the time, you may have questioned why the Devils chose a goaltender in the first round in 1999 when Martin Brodeur was still well in his prime starting 70+ games a season. I don’t really have an answer for that other than the next player drafted after Ahonen who played at least 400 games in the NHL was Mike Commodore, also selected by the Devils, in the 2nd round at 42. So, it wasn’t a very deep draft in the late first/early 2nd rounds.

Arohnen played five years for the Albany River Rats, never really putting up stellar numbers, but received at least five call-ups to the New Jersey Devils as an emergency back-up according to this New York Post article by Mark Everson in 2004. The article quotes Ahonen:

“The more time you spend here, the more you want to play,”

Ahonen would get at least one more call-up the following year, but never get into a NHL game. His career would divert to the Liiga, where Ahonen would earn the distinction of being the first goaltender in league history to play for all three teams in the Helsinki area per Wikipedia. Ahonen’s best years would be for KalPa and his best season, 2011-2012, where he put up a 2.13 GAA and .916 SV% during a 23-15-11 run.

Jeff Frazee

The Short: Slightly better than Ahonen, Frazee earned multiple call-ups before finally getting 19 minutes of flawless NHL game action in 2012-2013,

The Long: Drafted by the Devils in the 2nd round (38th overall) of the 2005 NHL entry draft, Frazee had a fruitful AHL career for Lowell and Albany spanning 2007-2013. His GAA was fairly consistently in the 2.60 range with a high of 2.90 one year and his save percentage never dipped below .902 with a high of .920. In other words, Frazee seems to have been a legitimate victim of Brodeur’s dominance in the New Jersey net.

After four plus seasons toiling in the AHL, Frazee would finally get his chance on March 9, 2013 in Carolina. With Brodeur out of the lineup with a pinched nerve, Johan Hedberg had been holding down the fort, but this was not his night. Hedberg got lit up for five goals through two periods, opening the door for Frazee to play some mercy minutes. Frazee stopped all three shots he faced in a flawless third, allowing the Devils to comeback and tighten the knot to 5-3 before an empty net goal by Carolina sealed the team’s fate for the 6-3 loss. For history, Frazee’s only game worn NHL jersey has been preserved by the goaltender museum, Heroes of the Crease and you can view it online here.

After the high of that game, Frazee would never play in the NHL again. He backpacked around Europe at various goaltending gigs for a few seasons, ending his career in Slovenia in 2016-17.

Evan Cormier

The Short: He’s still trying to live the dream.

The Long: Drafted by the Devils in the 4th round in 2005 (105th overall), it is hard to believe that Evan Cormier is still only 26-years-old. Cormier did receive a call-up by the Devils straight from the ECHL in 2019 to backup Mackenzie Blackwood after Louis Dominque went down with an injury, a move that confused the Bergen Record enough to write this article explaining it. Cormier would not see any game action with the Devils that game or any game. Cormier would move on from the Devils franchise to the Manitoba Moose in 2021-22

Cormier backed up Sergei Bobrovsky in a 5-3 loss in March of this year when Anthony Stolartz was out with an undisclosed illness but did not play. The struggle for game action continues on for Evan Cormier.

Gilles Senn

The Short: Played 2 NHL games, even got a start.

The Long: Selected by the Devils in the fifth round of the 2017 NHL entry draft (129th overall), Senn grew up in Switzerland playing for HC Davos. In 2019, Senn detoured to Binghampton, where he would play one full season and another part season during the COVID shutdown. Senn earned his NHL debut on December 20, 2019, relieving Mackenzie Blackwood, and promptly giving up one goal on two shots for the 5-2 loss to Washington. Senn started the next game, his only in the NHL, allowing three goals on 38 shots in a loss to Columbus.

After the COVID-shortened season, Senn returned to HC Davos in his native Switzerland, where he still suits up today.

Your Take

Now it is time to tell us what you think — or remember. Who were your favorite goalie prospects that never quite made an impact or got buried in the Brodeur era? Post your comments below.