The New Jersey Devils kicked things off on Thursday. Now, it is the Utica Comets, the team’s AHL affiliate, turn to begin their season. Utica’s opener is Friday night in Providence, their home opener is Saturday, October 10.

The Comets are coming off a third-straight season of missing the playoffs. Utica finished the 2025-26 season with a 30-31-6-5 record, but did end on a positive note. After finding themselves 18 points back of a playoff spot at one point, Utica missed the playoffs by just one point. Hopefully, that positive momentum can carry over to begin the 2026-27 season.

The Devils poured a decent bit of resources into Utica this offseason. New Devils general manager Sunny Mehta brought in former Panthers ex-director of hockey operations, Braden Birch, in to be Utica’s general manager. Meanwhile, Ryan Parent, who took over for former head coach Kevin Dineen during the 2024-25 season, returns for a second full season as the team’s head coach.

All of Utica’s 72 regular-season games will be streamed via FloHockey, but a subscription will be needed. We will have season-long coverage of the team via weekly update reports and updates throughout the year across our social media pages.

The Roster

The Comets formerly announced their roster Thursday afternoon. The roster consists of 16 forwards, nine defensemen, and two goaltenders. The group has a lot of good young talent and some strong veteran presence to balance it out.

• Forwards: Ben Steeves, Cam Squires, Jack Malone, Jeremy Wilmer, Josh Filmon, Shane Lachance, Matyas Melovsky, Justin Pearson, Ryan Schmelzer, Riley Tufte, Marc McLaughlin, Lenni Hämeenaho, Colin White, Zach Gallant, Gabe Klassen, Xavier Parent
• Defensemen: Eamon Powell, Etienne Morin, Vladislav Kolyachonok, Topias Vilén, Dmitry Osipov, Anton Silaev, Mikael Diotte, D.J. King, Ethan Edwards
• Goalies: David Rittich, Jakub Málek

In finalizing their roster, Utica sent the following players to Adirondack and the ECHL: F Tristan Ashbrook, F Christophe Tellier, D Jeremy Hanzel, D Charlie Leddy, G Jeremy Brodeur, G Seth Eisele. Additionally, potential AHL options such as Amadeus Lombardi, Stefan Noesen, and Jesper Boqvist made the NHL team. Lastly, defenseman Seamus Casey was injured in preseason, but will likely join Utica when healthy.

The Comets did receive forward Lenni Hämeenaho, defenseman Anton Silaev, and veteran goaltender David Rittich from the Devils. Each, especially Rittich, theoretically had a chance to make the big club. The Comets also received a late reinforcement as defenseman Dim

A unique part of the AHL is their rules regarding roster construction. At least 12 of the 18 dressed skaters (excluding goaltenders) must be “development players.” Those are any individuals who have played 260 or fewer professional regular season games. On the flip side of that, teams can dress five veteran players, those are individuals who exceed the 260-game threshold. Teams also get one “veteran-exempt” player, an individual who has played 320 or fewer games.

The Comets currently have three veterans and two veteran-exempt players on their roster. Those are listed below:

• Veteran: Colin White (489), Ryan Schmelzer (475), Riley Tufte (423)
• Veteran-Exempt: Dmitry Osipov (280), Vladislav Kolyachonok (271)

Note, career games that count toward the veteran status thresholds are in parentheses.

Long story short, Utica currently has no issues with the AHL’s roster construction rules.

Forwards

As mentioned, the Comets have 16 forwards on their opening night roster. Several of them are returning from last year’s team but there are also some new faces. Ryan Schmelzer, Xavier Parent, Lenni Hämeenaho, Matyas Melovsky, Shane Lachance, Marc McLaughlin, Jack Malone, Cam Squires, and Josh Filmon are all back.

The more veteran of the group are of course, the team’s captain for the sixth-straight year. Schmelzer had a career-worst 27 points in 66 games last year with only four goals. But, the 33-year-old center brings a strong veteran presence. Parent and McLaughlin are the two other returning veteran players of the bunch. McLaughlin, 27, was limited to only 23 games due to a preseason injury last season, but had 14 points (tied for the second-highest of his career). He has skated in 208 AHL games. Parent, now 25 years old, led Utica in scoring with 39 points (20 goals) in 63 games. He now has 126 points across 209 AHL games.

Hämeenaho, Melovsky, and Lachance are the younger, more valued prospects of the group. Hämeenaho played in 33 NHL games this past season, posting eight points. This came after skating in 37 AHL games, where he had 26 points (all 26 came over his final 28 games). Melovsky, a 2024 sixth-round pick, had 26 points (13 over his last 16 games) across 55 games in his first full professional season in 2025-26. The 22-year-old is surely a breakout candidate. Lastly, Lachance had expectations of potentially making a NHL roster in 2025-26, but instead skated in 62 AHL games (25 points) in his first full professional season after joining the organization from Boston University.

The last group of returnees features Malone, Squires, and Filmon. Malone, 25, is the most experienced of the bunch as he has played in 103 AHL games (22 points). He skated in 45 games for Utica last year and posted nine points. Squires, a 2023 fourth-round pick, and Filmon, a 2022 sixth-round pick, both split time between the AHL and ECHL levels last year. Squires had 16 points in 47 AHL games and Filmon had six points in 31 AHL games.

The new faces the Comets are welcoming up front are Ben Steeves, Jeremy Wilmer, Justin Pearson, Riley Tufte, Colin White, Zach Gallant, and Gabe Klassen. Tufte and White are the veterans of the group. Tufte, 28, had an impressive 56 points in 64 games for Providence last year. His 32 goals were a fourth in the league. He should be a massive boost to the Comets’ lineup. White, meanwhile, brings a load of NHL experience (323 games). He had 48 points (21 goals, 27 assists) in 46 games for the AHL affiliate of the San Jose Sharks last year. He was one of 19 AHL skaters who played in at least 40 games last year to average a point-per-game or more in 2025-26.

Steeves, 24, was acquired in the Jacob Markström trade. He had a very nice AHL season for Charlotte last year, posting 45 points and 100 penalty minutes across 72 games. This year will be his third full professional season following a college career at Minnesota-Duluth. Klassen, 23, is also entering his third professional season. He had a very nice breakout campaign with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in 2025-26 posting 36 points in 59 games. The 5-foot-10 forward spent most of 2024-25 in the ECHL with Wheeling.

Pearson and Gallant are also older presences but don’t have as much experience under their belt as others their age. Pearson, 28, has played in 196 AHL games (66 points). He had 25 points in 56 games for Cleveland last year, the best point-per-game output of his career. Gallant, 27, has played in 129 AHL games (28 points) and 12 ECHL games throughout his career. He skated in 39 games for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last season, posting only five points and 68 penalty minutes. He is a former third-round pick back in 2017.

Wilmer is playing professional hockey for the first time after having an extremely successful college career. spanning four seasons between Quinnipiac and Boston University. The 23-year-old had 13 points in 15 games in his injury-shortened final college season in 2025-26. He was a point-per-game player in 2024-25, posting 41 points in 38 games. The undrafted free agent had 70 points in 84 career college games.

Defensemen

The blue line features a plethora of new faces. Eamon Powell, Étienne Morin, Vladislav Kolyachonok, and D.J. King are all new faces to join the organization. Meanwhile, Anton Silaev is entering his first season in North America.

Kolyachonok and King bring the most experience, though different types. Kolyachonok, 25, has played in 87 NHL games and 184 AHL games. In 2025-26, he played 11 for the Dallas Stars, two for the Boston Bruins, and 34 for the Texas Stars, the AHL affiliate of Dallas. King, 26, has played in 210 ECHL games (34 points) and only 26 AHL games. He played in 46 games for the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL in 2025-26 and only 18 AHL games (Hershey and Iowa).

Powell and Morin are both younger with less professional experience. Powell, 24, was limited to only 27 professional games last year in his first full season as a professional. He played in 23 AHL games for Charlotte and four ECHL games with Savannah. He was the captain of Boston College from 2023-2025. Morin, acquired in the Simon Nemec trade, was a second-round pick in 2023. The 21-year-old had seven points in 42 AHL games in his first full professional season last year. He had 58 points in 62 QMJHL games his final year of junior hockey in 2024-25.

Silaev, the last new face, was the Devils’ 10th-overall pick in 2024. The 20-year-old has played in 187 career professional games in Russia’s top league, the KHL. The 6-foot-7 defenseman has sky-high expectations in his first North American season.

The returnees consist of Topias Vilén, Dmitry Osipov, Mikael Diotte, and Ethan Edwards. Osipov, the veteran in the group, was acquired from Hershey during the 2024-25 season. The 29-year-old has skated in 88 games for the Comets since then totaling 106 penalty minutes. Vilén isn’t too far behind him. The 23-year-old has skated in 173 AHL games for the Comets over the last three seasons. He has posted at least 24 points in each year.

Edwards, 24, was the team’s fourth-round pick in 2020. The former Michigan Wolverine played in 69 games for Utica in 2025-26, his first full professional season. He scored a team-high 10 goals from the blue line. Lastly, Diotte, 23, skated in a career-high 53 AHL games in 2025-26. The former Drummondville Voltigeurs defenseman won the QMJHL’s defensive defenseman of the year his last junior season in 2023-24.

Goaltenders

The Comets are starting the 2026-27 season with two goaltenders. One veteran, David Rittich, and one prospect in Jakub Málek.

Rittich, 34, has not played in the AHL since 2023-24. He played 16 games for the Ontario Reign where he posted a 0.901 save percentage. Rittich played in 30 games for the New York Islanders last year (0.894 save percentage) and 34 for the Los Angeles Kings in 2024-25 (0.887 save percentage). Rittich will likely factor into the NHL club’s plans at some point, but, after passing through waivers he reprises the veteran presence in the AHL locker room for now.

Málek, 24, spent a full season in North America for the first time in 2025-26. He started the season in Utica before struggling and subsequently being sent down to the ECHL for a short time. Overall, he posted a 0.895 save percentage across 31 AHL games. That mark improved to a 0.902 figure over his last 26 games following the recall to Utica.

Preseason Prospect Rankings

Just a couple of weeks ago, we released our preseason organizational prospect ranking. Below is where every one of the Comets’ roster who was eligible for ranking was ranked.

• Forwards: Lenni Hämeenaho (No. 5), Matyas Melovsky (No. 11), Ben Steeves (No. 13), Shane Lachance (No. 15), Cam Squires (No. 23), Josh Filmon (No. 34)
• Defensemen: Anton Silaev (No. 2), Topias Vilén (No. 18), Ethan Edwards (No. 20), Mikael Diotte (No. 28)
• Goalies: Jakub Málek (No. 10)

Final Thoughts

There are much higher expectations than usual for the Comets. The Devils’ organization has pushed a number of resources to the team, something that seemingly has not been the case in years past. The team also features a number of exciting prospects, eight of which ranked inside the organization’s top-20 and six inside the top-15.

We will have updates all season long on our social media pages on the team. We will also once again be continuing our “Utica Weekly” series which will recap the team’s performances each week of the season.