Kevin Dineen on Start to Utica's Season | PROSPECT WATCH

With much hay already in the barn in Newark the hard work continues down on the farm.
The Uitca Comets, the Devils top affiliate, are plugging away with a 6-6-2-1 record with the calendar about to flip to December, the traditional demarcation point for the season to pick up pace in terms of game frequency and intensity.
"Right now, we are our record, a .500 hockey club," said head coach, Kevin Dineen, the long-time NHLer who has since had a long run coaching in both the American Hockey League and the NHL.
"We have to do a lot of things before we can think about getting into a playoff (position)."
The AHL is a fluid league. Without injury issues or too many callups so far, Dineen's lineup game-to-game has been more stable but there were significant holes to fill from last season's veteran club.
Leading scorer Chase De Leo signed with the Anaheim Ducks, Fabian Zetterlund made the big club out of training club, and A.J. Greer has found a home with the Boston Bruins.
hat represents three of the Comets leading scorers from their first season in Utica. Leading prospects Alexander Holtz and Kevin Bahl are riding the AHL-NHL shuttle right now, a situation that likely will remain so long as the big club keeps rolling.
"I'm looking for some wood to touch right now," said Dineen, of his stable lineup.

Dineen's top two goalies - Akira Schmid and Nico Daws - have both been called up, but, fingers crossed, won't be flushed into NHL action to the extent they were in 2021-22.
The two netminders, defensemen Simon Nemec, Nikita Okhotyiuk and Reilly Walsh, along with forwards Nolan Foote and Tyce Thompson are likely the top prospects closest to NHL action, recognizing that predicting promotion is a mug's game, especially with the Devils so hot right now.
Wingers Graeme Clarke and Brian Halonen have also had good seasons so far.
Andreas Johnsson and Brian Pinho up front, and defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon, who was recently called up but didn't play, are the Comets top performers among older players, led by returning captain Ryan Schmelzer.
Taking a wider view, Utica will soon play a vital role in another basket of prospects that help the Devils have one of the best groups of up-and-comers in the NHL.
The vital work of developing its future never stops for the NHL's hottest team.
Luke Hughes is the most obvious example. When the University of Michigan defenseman decides to turn pro, he will likely get at least a taste of NHL action. If it is decided that's what's best for Jack's younger brother, he'll stay in Newark. But it's also not out of the question he could spend some time under Dineen's watch in a Comets jersey.
It's a more common path than most fans realize.
Nemec is just 18 and not yet a half-season into his first in North America. Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald told the assembled media gathering at the 2022 NHL Draft in Montreal that was the plan for the second-overall pick and that's exactly what's taking place.
Nemec has a goal and four assists so far in 16 games.
"There are a lot of different ways and pathways," said Dineen, while rhyming through examples of players who have used the AHL to become NHL regulars.
"Look at A.J. Greer (now in Boston)…sometimes it takes four or five years."
The path also has detours or starts elsewhere.
Shakir Mukhamadullin, taken 13 picks after Holtz was drafted seventh overall the same year, is playing in Russia after a short stay in last year's Calder Cup playoffs. When the Russian defenseman decides to make a permanent move to North America, a longer stretch in Utica could beckon, where Dineen says he acquitted himself well last spring.
Chase Stillman, that year's second first-rounder after Luke Hughes, is in his final year of junior hockey in Canada and will require time on the farm.
There are other examples of players taken later in the draft but it's all part of a less-talked-about reality in developing NHLers: the path is more akin to Major League Baseball than it is in football and basketball, where draft picks tend to make the roster right away if they do at all.
"This year, Simon Nemec and Brian Halonen are both (AHL) rookies," said Dineen, hesitating as if to emphasize a point he was about to make, "one is 18 (Nemec) the other is 24."
Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier, both taken first overall are exceptions. Dawson Mercer made the team unexpectedly last fall and has apparently bypassed the AHL as well, just like Jesper Bratt did earlier.
But there are many more subtle examples of the traditional AHL development path helping the Devils right now. Zetterlund and Jesper Boqvist have both played well in their first full NHL seasons with the big club. The Swedish forwards were taken 27 picks apart in the second- and third-round in 2017.
A year earlier, Michael McLeod and Nathan Bastian were taken in the first and second rounds after playing together for the Mississauga Steelheads. Yegor Sharangovich was two years in Binghamton, with McLeod and Bastian, before earning his spot.
A cynic would suggest that role players are interchangeable and can be obtained through trade or free agency. That's a fair argument but when you develop your own assets, it means trades and free agents can be pursued more from a position of strength rather than immediate need. Moreover, good young players who are farther down the internal prospect chart are attractive to other NHL clubs, who scout the AHL just as intensely as they do the amateur ranks.
"The Draft is important because other teams don't like to give up good players," said Mark Dennehy, now the Devils chief scout but was previously the head coach of the Devils affiliate when it played in Binghamton.
The current AHL head coach spoke more directly:
"We are in the business of maximizing a player's potential," said Dineen, adding that even if former Comets players end up playing in the NHL for other organizations, it's still a sign of a job well done.