Prospect Deep Dive: Seamus Casey
Getting into the nitty gritty surrounding highly-touted defense prospect Seamus Casey.
Since getting drafted 46th overall in the 2022 NHL Draft, Seamus Casey has been touted as a steal. For good reason, too — he possesses qualities teams yearn for (outside of his size), especially from a blue liner. With the likes of Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar — offensively minded, roving blue liners who aren’t particularly big — taking over the league, as well as Lane Hutson’s rise, there’s certainly been a growing sense around the fanbase that he’s going to be a staple in the Devils’ blue line for a long while.
I’m of the opinion that he should probably be traded, though, but not for his skill or toolkit. I’ll get more into that later, but the point stands that he is chock-full of finesse and has the makings of a player who can and will contribute at the NHL level. With all this in mind, let’s deep-dive into what makes Casey such a good prospect:
Casey’s Toolkit
22 Games Played | 3 G | 12 A | 15 TP | 8 PIM | 49 SOG | 6.1 SH%
The production has always been there, and that’s generally the best indicator of NHL success. He was a monster at the University of Michigan, logging the third-most points of any defenseman in the NCAA (45) last season behind Zeev Buium and Lane Hutson. He’s had a subtlely strong season with Utica this year, with 15 points in 22 games while playing on a weak team. He’s gotten off to a slow start since returning from a nearly two-month absence from injury, logging just one goal and zero assists in five games since making it back. Still, there’s a lot to like.
Skating
This is where Casey shines, in my opinion. He’s not the fleetest of foot but can still beat defenders one-on-one with an above-average top speed, but he is a demon at maneuvering the blue line with edgework that is rarely seen from the position.
I can list the number of players who can move in the offensive zone with the puck on their stick as well as Casey does on one hand. He’s a true rover on the blue line, changing directions at will and turning sharply to maintain possession of the puck and throw defenders off his trail:
Beyond that, his shiftiness by proxy of his phenomenal edgework is remarkable. He’s able to slink in between defenders easily and can occasionally beat crowds of sticks simply by rotating his body to put it in between his stick and the defenders’ stick(s). This makes him prone to the rare coast-to-coast opportunity like this:
You can see the difficulty defenders have at reaching Casey with a poke check simply because he is so strong on his edges, changing the orientation of his body to get in the way of their sticks so as to maintain possession. This also makes him a thereat to attack from the blue line while his team is in the middle of a cycle, which he will use when given enough time and space (which teams should clamp on to, but sometimes don’t for whatever reason).
Shooting
He isn’t going to impress anyone with a slap shot — he’s too small to generate as much power as one would like to see from the point — but Casey has a blisteringly accurate wrister that he likes to use to beat screened goalies. He has an accurate and zippy release that works from distance. Again, this is where he becomes a threat to score when given time and space on the blue line — most of that opportunity will come on the man advantage after NHL teams figure that out by playing against him more.
He has a ton of confidence in this part of his game, too, leading to opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t have been there with a more conservatively-shooting defenseman. Most of the NHL’s top-goal-scoring defensemen use wrist shots as their primary way of potting goals, and most of them use it in this fashion. Casey’s wrister isn’t quite as dangerous as say, Makar’s, but he’ll score double-digit goals every season from the blue line.
Playmaking & Hockey Sense
Most of Casey’s playmaking abilities come from the defenders he is able to draw in while walking along the blue line. He is a solid distributor in the O-zone, finding the pass options that he creates from his maneuvers. When he is pressured, he uses his edgework to put that defender on his knees which subsequently forces another player to put pressure on Casey. This allows him to dole a pass out to his now-open teammate and get the opposing team to scramble.
There is a little to be desired in stretch passes, where I haven’t really seen Casey put up much. From a transitional standpoint, he would much rather have the puck on his stick than perform a tight-space stretch pass to a breakout forward. In some cases, it’s a boon to have such a mobile defenseman who can join the rush like that, but it would be in his favor to get a bit more polished on finding forwards on the breakout for more high-danger opportunities.
On the positioning front, there is little to complain about on either side. He roves in the offensive zone, so he is quasi-positionless there but always maintains possession of the puck when he does so and has the recovery speed to adjust if things go awry. Defensively, he puts himself solidly in passing lanes and is unafraid of getting in the way of shots as well. He can occasionally get too aggressive while defending odd-man rushes but that is something that can be coached out of him when the competition gets tougher in the big leagues.
Stickhandling
Again, Casey truly shines here. He possesses the rapid hands one would expect from a player at 5’9, but he also has a wide array of dekes and dangles he can draw from to beat defenders one-on-one.
The clip above is an excellent example of what he’s able to do when things are firing on all cylinders. Beyond his shiftiness to throw the first guy off his trail, he uses a couple of dekes in succession to get around the defender along the boards. Casey then uses those lightning-quick lateral hands to get the goalie to bite before putting the puck in the back of the now-empty net. In this sense, too, he profiles a lot more like a forward than a defenseman.
This bleeds into his defensive mindset, too, where he understands that his best play defensively is often to use his stick. He isn’t going to best anyone physically, so this makes complete sense. He has an active stick while skating backward against forwards on the rush, and can break up cross-ice passes when positioned correctly because of his ability to react and get his stick out there pronto. Combined with his explosive skating and recovery abilities, he can break up high-danger chances like this:
Size & Strength
This is where Casey’s game hits a bit of a snag. I know, I specifically mentioned Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar as defensemen who are on the smaller end of the spectrum but are among the league’s best, but the reality is that the game is just a lot harder for defensemen, in particular, to be small. There are 79 NHL defensemen listed at under 6’ tall, but only one other (Lane Hutson) is listed at 162 pounds or less.
Q. Hughes and Makar are unicorns of the game. Hutson is a defensive liability. The truth is, as good as he is with his stick at breaking up plays, he’s going to get bullied off the puck in board battles and physical play. Unless he miraculously grows an inch or two and puts on 25 pounds, this will probably always be the case.
Overall Synopsis
His skill set, to me, screams “center.” The likelihood of that actually happening is slim to none, but I genuinely think he would have an easier time in the NHL if he converted to forward (and specifically center). It isn’t unheard of — Red Kelly made the switch from defense to forward way back in the early 1960s and found great success — but it’s certainly a far cry.
Between his edgework, explosiveness, stickhandling abilities, and hockey sense, though, it might be of benefit to him, though, especially if he wants to stay in the Devils pipeline. As I noted, he loves the puck on his stick in transition, and he would immediately have a big-time NHL impact in that way. He would be able to use his shiftiness more as a forward, and he wouldn’t be subject to getting bullied in the D-zone nearly as much as he would as a defenseman. Hell, he played a game at center in an exhibition game against the NTDP in his time with UMich, where he scored twice, had an assist, and went 64% in the dot. Again, it was a meaningless exhibition game against a much weaker opponent, but the point stands that he might have more success there.
Without converting to center, though, he still profiles as a point-producing defenseman. He’s likely going to be slotted in on a team’s third pair, just to give him softer defensive minutes because of his size, but he can certainly run a power play and have success in the right system. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s able to score 50-plus points while playing in those sheltered minutes, either.
Is Casey Better Used as a Player or Trade Chip?
With a blue line that is already as crowded as it is, the honest truth is that Casey is better used as a trade chip for a top-six caliber winger. Dougie Hamilton and Brett Pesce are going nowhere, Johnathan Kovacevic has made a case for an extension, and Simon Nemec is a better prospect with more upside and is already NHL-ready. Someone is going to have to go in a trade, and it’s probably going to be Casey.
I’m not necessarily saying the Devils have to get rid of him, but it’s not like he’d be able to play on his off-side either considering the Devils’ lineup on the left side (Luke Hughes, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Brendan Dillon with Anton Silayev in the pipeline). If he can be the centerpiece of a trade for an impact, goal-scoring, top-six caliber winger (Jared McCann, Rickard Rakell, Alex Tuch), I think it’s a move that the Devils need to make.
Seamus Casey will certainly be an NHLer — in my estimation, he’ll turn full-time next season. The questions revolving around his size, strength, and defensive aptitude get neutralized by his abilities to skate, maneuver the blue line, and produce offense. He’s certainly made a name for himself among prospects in the NHL, but the question is whether or not that NHL time will come from the Devils.