Devils’ Prospect Stock Market: Louhivaara, Silayev & More – The Hockey Writers –
With most of their former top prospects having already graduated, the New Jersey Devils‘ farm system may not be what it was a few years back. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; many of those graduates, like Arseny Gritsyuk, are now making a significant impact on the NHL squad.
Related: Devils’ Prospect Orlov on Family Influence, KHL Success, and NHL Future
This is the fourth edition of a monthly series which will take a deeper dive into notable prospect pool storylines. Remember: Just because a player’s stock is ‘up’ does not mean they’re a “better” prospect than someone whose stock is ‘down’, and vice versa.
Stock Up: G Veeti Louhivaara (2024 Round 5, #146 Overall)
Between Mikhail Yegorov and Jakub Malek taking up most of the prospect talk, Finnish netminder Veeti Louhivaara has become somewhat of a forgotten prospect. After unfortunately suffering a scary car accident that left him with a serious surgery-requiring leg injury, he played just 36 games in the next two seasons — most of it with JYP’s U20 team in Finland. Nothing about his numbers in those small samples jumped off the page.
Louhivaara makes the stop, Team White wins 2-1 pic.twitter.com/w3SYAcYPXm
— New Jersey Devils (@THW_Devils) July 2, 2025
But Louhivaara recently made the move to North America, and it’s all been upwards since. In 19 games with the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League (USHL), he’s 11-4-4 with a 2.65 goals against average (GAA) and .910 save percentage (SV%).
At 6-foot-4, 207 pounds, Elite Prospects’ 2024 NHL Draft Guide described him as “a clean skater, with good balance and strong pushes. [He] is also adept at moving from post-to-post, and can stretch all the way across while down in the butterfly with ease.”
He’s set to play for the University of Connecticut (UConn) next season, where he’ll be able to showcase his talents on some much bigger stages.
Stock Down: F Conrad Fondrk (2025 Round 2, #50 Overall)
When the Devils drafted Fondrk in the second round of the 2025 NHL Draft, they viewed him as a first-round talent that fell into their laps. However, if that’s the case, there’s still a lot of work to do in order to reach that ceiling.
When Fondrk was featured in the last “Stock Down” category, he had seven points (3G, 4A) in 16 games with a minus-7 rating for Boston University (BU — NCAA).
Since then, he’s notched just one point — an assist — in nine games and fell to a minus-8. There’s still plenty of time for Fondrk to improve, but these early results are pretty alarming, especially when you consider that there have been concerns surrounding his commitment to important facets of the pro game.
It doesn’t help Fondrk either that BU’s entire team has struggled this season, but until he shows otherwise, his stock continues to plummet pretty hard.
Stock Up: F Samu Salminen (2021 Round 3, #68 Overall)
Finnish forward Samu Salminen has been somewhat of an afterthought as the Devils drafted him all the way back in 2021. But he’s been one of college hockey’s better point producers lately.
He has nine points (4G, 5A) in his last 6 games as an alternate captain for hockey powerhouse University of Denver. Now, there are two ways to look at it. One, he’s one of the older players in college hockey so it should be expected that he raises his game. On the other, he’s in a lesser role being on such a good team compared to what he could probably have elsewhere.
WE HAVE A MICHIGAN GOAL IN CT‼️
Hello Samu Salminen🔥🔥@hockey_east | @NCAAIceHockey pic.twitter.com/UxVdYv0bii
— UConn Men’s Hockey (@UConnMHOC) January 26, 2024
His plus-21 rating is fourth on the team. Elite Prospects’ 2021 NHL Draft Guide said, “Salminen sees plays developing several steps in advance and plans his every step accordingly, whether he has possession or not. He has that goal-scorer’s knack for finding the right place to set up shop, and his one- and two-touch finishing game never fails him. He’s every bit the credible shooting threat without the puck as he is with it.”
He has not yet received a contract from the Devils; they’ll have to sign him by Aug. 15 if they want to keep him in the organization.
Stock Down: D Anton Silayev (2024 Round 1, #10 Overall)
The 6-foot-7 Russian Anton Silayev (drafted 10th overall in 2024) was essentially the Devils’ consensus top prospect for a while, even drawing some comparisons to Victor Hedman. After this season, though, it’s hard to see how that’s still the case. It’s been (beyond) an aggravating season for the defenseman in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL); he has just three points — a goal and two assists — in 57 games (~0.036 P/GP).
He went through a five-game stretch earlier this season where he was averaging just over 8 minutes a night, which caused some to worry that his current KHL situation wasn’t conducive to his success. While that may be true to a considerable extent, he’s still averaged 12:39 TOI for the full season. It’s certainly a small role, but for reference, Silayev notched 23 points in his first 126 KHL games pre-dating this season (~0.183 P/GP).
While his average ice time diminished by ~27%, his point production has dropped over 80% in a year he was supposed to take a sizeable step forward. Don’t give up yet; players of his stature can sometimes take way longer to develop. It’ll be in the Devils’ best interest to get him over to North America as soon as possible.
Regardless, the following five players drafted immediately after Silayev have already made their NHL Debuts. There is no guarantee he’ll ever play an NHL game given the outlook right now.
As the 2025-26 season moves along, be sure to continue following The Hockey Writers as your source for news, updates, and more from around the NHL and the hockey world.
