His improvements are evident to veteran defenseman Brendan Smith who has mentored the Devils defensive core, sharing lessons he's learned from his 13 years of professional hockey.
"I think he's grown a lot," Brendan Smith shared about Bahl. "I think the biggest part for him is confidence and that's something that gets instilled by work ethic and continuing to do it and getting more familiar with it. As he does that, the better he's going to get. Confidence is also instilled through teammates and coaches. I think we've gotten better with that, I think that's an area surrounding him that can still get better. He's a great kid, he wants to get better. He's got a lot intangible things that people don't have. He's 6-foot-6, he's got a long reach, he skates well. I think just as he learns the NHL game more, he's just going to get better. Obviously he's playing a lot more now. For him, he's gotta keep at it and keep working and I think the sky's the limit for him."
Ruff agrees that a big improvement is Bahl's confidence this season, his third year working with the Devils blue liner.
"I think confidence," Ruff said about Bahl's biggest improvements. "Just that ability to know that standing there he can get the job done and taking pride in the small areas that he can dominate with the build he's got, with the reach he's got, the use of his stick. He's got really good feet to handle the puck under duress. I think we're seeing more and more of that.
"I think he knows he can do it now," Ruff continued. "I think some of that is a talk with yourself that you're getting the opportunity, I know the play that's there I got to make the play. And when we see that, you get to play more."
Bahl feels his confidence is a direct correlation to his playing time. He's played 35 games this season, the most of his career, and has played the last six straight contests. Last season, he had only suited up for 17 games.
"I think just playing games, that's the biggest thing for me," Bahl said on his growing confidence. "As much as you can practice, you can't really gain that game experience or those plays so there's a certain point where I thought I got to compete, I got to try to stay in the lineup here so I can just get my play up and get where I want to be."
As he's already made big improvements with his game throughout the 2022-23 season, the Devils defenseman is looking to bring more physicality to his game as the playoffs are around the corner.
"I think when my timing comes back, I'm going to really start being more physical. It's one thing I can definitely improve on," Bahl shared on the next level of his development. "Going into playoffs, it's one thing I want to work on in these last couple games, is just improving my physicality but for me it's all timing. People see me and they jump out of the way so I got to get my timing in and when that comes, it's going to be a good thing."
