Adam Henrique: From Prospect to Full Time New Jersey Devil

by Matt Evans SNC on Nov 10, 2011 1:27 PM EST in Devils Issues, Views & Analysis

Every year fans hope to see the Devils' home grown talent reach their potential in the NHL. As fans, we wait while our favorite youngsters develop and mature in hopes that one day they may be the next Mario Lemieux or Scott Stevens. Some of us may even buy a Niclas Bergfors jersey prematurely, (I may be guilty). Coming out of training camp all the hub-bub was on rookie defensman Adam Larsson. Larsson is having a great season so far, but there is another rookie capturing Devil's fans praise.

All this buzz is surrounding center Adam Henrique. Henrique didn't quite make the team out of training camp; although the Devils were without a number one center due to Travis Zajac's injury. All eyes were on Jacob Josefson to fill that void. In October Josefson went down with an untimely injury and Henrique got called up to fill the gaping hole at center.

Through ten games, Henrique has shown that he is ready to fulfill his potential and play in the NHL. I'll take a look at Henrique's amateur background and how he is faring at the NHL level this season.

Henrique played four seasons with the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL, racking up 228 points in 238 games. Henrique averaged almost a point a game in the regular season for the Spitfires and went plus 77 in his OHL career. Clearly Henrique was showing some offensive prowess in the OHL by compiling 111 goals. He scored 70 even strength goals, 37 power play goals, 4 shorthanded goals and 7 game winning goals.

What really sticks out to me is how consistent Henrique is even under pressure, Henrique played 44 OHL playoff games and scored 30 goals and added 17 assists. If that wasn't pressure enough, Henrique also played 10 Memorial Cup games, tallying 8 goals and 9 assists. Of course, Henrique was playing with Taylor Hall, who is a pretty darn good player at the NHL level so far. Henrique shows throughout his OHL career that he can put points on the board; but, does his offensive ability transfer to the AHL? Let's take a look.

Henrique was drafted by the Devils in the 3^rd round (82^nd overall) of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. He finished up his career in the OHL and played the 2010 - 2011 season with the Albany Devils of the AHL. Henrique managed to put up 25 goals and 25 assists in 73 games. His goals broke down to 16 at even strength, 8 on the man advantage, 1 shorthanded and 5 game winners. For a first year AHLer, this was a great season and shows that Henrique will be ready for action in the big league in the next year or two. Henrique was called up to the New Jersey Devils in the 10-11 season for one game. He managed 3 shots on goal and 13 minutes of ice time, nothing too flashy.

Adam Henrique
Season	GP	G	A	Pts	+/-	PIM	Corsi
2011-2012	10	4	3	7	1	0	-6.19

This season Henrique has made the most of his chance with the Devils. Henrique has broken out with 4 goals and 3 assists in 10 games. Right when the Devils needed a player to step up and perform at the NHL level, Henrique did just that and has shown that the Devils can still draft and develop talent. Henrique has also been disciplined, taking zero penalty minutes and sporting a +1. As we all know, the Devils organization puts emphasis on discipline, so Henrique is definitely making a good impression on Lou and company.

The reason Henrique has been making fans swoon over him is that he has two clutch game winning goals. He beat Ondrej Pavelec with a backhander in the second period and beat him again with a beautiful shot on a breakaway in overtime to lead the Devils to a win. He then followed that performance by a wraparound goal on Cam Ward late in the third period of Tuesday's game vs. the Carolina Hurricane.

Henrique has been averaging 15 minutes of ice time per game and has a corsi of about - 6. This may not be the strongest corsi, but nothing to worry about. Henrique is doing well on faceoffs, overall he is 54/104 (51.9%) and in the offensive zone he is 18/36 (50%). He really excels in the defensive zone where he is 20/32 (62.5%). Henrique could help bolster the already impressive penalty kill with his speed and faceoff talents. On the PK he is 5/5 in the defensive zone and gets about a minute and a half per game on the PK.

Another impressive number for Henrique's resume is that he is +5 in scoring chances while on the ice. The scoring chances are without the Winnipeg and Carolina games, so I assume the number will be even better given Henrique is playing on the top line and creating plenty of scoring chances. We can also see that Henrique had 9 scoring chances with 7 of them making it on net. So Henrique is creating plenty of scoring chances and has cashed in on 4 of them. Not to be casted aside, he also has 6 chance assists. Therefore we can see that Henrique and his line mates may have negative corsis, but they are taking better shots than their opponents.

Looking at all these statistics I like to believe that Henrique is here to stay. However, I believe there are two key questions left to ask:

1. Can Henrique keep this up through the 82 game season? He has done it through 10 games, will he fizzle out by the all-star break?

2. Which line will he center once Zajac and Josefson come back from their injuries? I feel a lot of line changes coming on in 3-4 months once we have Zajac, Henrique, and Josefson down the center.

Most of these stats were compiled from behindthenet , hockey-reference , and of course a big thanks to C.J. for compiling the scoring chances.

How do you feel as a fan? Is Henrique really here to stay or do you believe he got a few lucky bounces at opportune times? Is there any facet of Henrique's game that concerns or excites you? If so voice your opinion below. Thanks for reading!

Poll

Has Adam Henrique impressed the Devils enough to earn a roster spot?

Yes

435 votes

No

4 votes

Time Will Tell

73 votes

512 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Bergfors Jersey

I remember how happy I was when I got my Niclas Bergfors jersey, only to find out a week later that he was traded for Kovy.

by Devs 95-00-03 on Nov 10, 2011 1:51 PM EST reply actions

I’m still happy I’ve got mine. I’m in Wisconsin so no one really knows anything about the Devils.

by Matt Evans SNC on Nov 10, 2011 4:58 PM EST up reply actions

I wouldn’t go that far. I bet the University of Wisconsin (Madison) has thousands of people from NJ.

by Alan Wright on Nov 14, 2011 11:50 PM EST up reply actions

Or many hundreds anyway.

by Alan Wright on Nov 14, 2011 11:50 PM EST up reply actions

Voted “yes,” but was leaning toward “time will tell”.

There’s no denying his contributions, but it’s early yet. He’s certainly earned a chance to show whether or not he can keep contributing. The NHL is full of players with promising beginnings that ended up going nowhere and while I don’t think Henrique will be one of them, I’m not ready to write his name in the lineup in pen just yet.

by elesias on Nov 10, 2011 1:57 PM EST reply actions

Same here. He’s no doubt off to a great start, and I’m loving it, but we need to temper our expectations before they become too large for him to live up to (let’s call it Clarkson Syndrome perhaps?).

And on a side note, I was telling my brother-in-law last night about the “Hen-rique” chant debacle (he’s a Rags fan). He thought it was nonsense that people thought it was somehow mocking Lundqvist. Yeah, it’s nice that my brother-in-law is a rational Rags fan who can get past the rivalry and just talk hockey.

by Marty 4 Prez on Nov 10, 2011 2:03 PM EST up reply actions

Future Line Combinations

We have a lot of unanswered questions and the lines are going to depend on a lot of different factors. Ideally, I believe these would be our lines once everyone’s healthy for the playoffs:

Parise-Zajac-Kovalchuk
Sykora-Elias-Zubrus
Tedenby-Henrique-Clarkson
Carter-Josefsson-Boulton

This makes a lot of assumptions. Firstly, that Kovalchuk can be successful at Right Wing. Secondly, that Parise-Zajac can recapture their chemistry. Thirdly, the Elias line will continue to dominate opponents for the rest of the season. Thirdly, the chemistry between Teddy, Henrique and Clarky continues to build and Teddy learns to play two-ways.

When Zajac returns the odd man out is going to be Rod Pelley. I don’t think that’s really a question. Boulton replaces Janssen easily or they take turns, who knows. That spot is pretty open to whoever proves they deserve it. It’s really more a spot for someone to lose than earn at this point. The problem becomes who to move when Josefsson returns. If he returned today (and Zajac and Boulton were back) I’d have to say Nick Palmieri. Pamieri was brought up early because of injuries last season and its possible his development was rushed. He hasn’t been the same this year.

Come Say Hello! Section 231 - Row 2 - Seat 20

by Alamoth on Nov 10, 2011 2:43 PM EST reply actions

This looks pretty good. But I can see a Boulton/Palmieri revolving door on that 4th line, mostly because I think Nick is simply more talented. Also, I think even after Zajac’s return I would swap him out for Henrique and let Travis get his legs back centering the slower RW Clarkson on the third line.

by rtrstevec on Nov 10, 2011 4:00 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

I’ve been saying Henrique was that diamond in the rough and a steal for a 3rd round pick all this time. I think with him we can make 3 top lines.

I think Kovalchuk and Parise just doesn’t mesh. Why not put people that work well together on the same lines?

My lines:

Parise- Henrique-Clarkson
Kovalchuk-Zajac-Palmeri
Sykora-Elias-Zubrus
Tedenby-Josefson-Carter

by MoonDragn on Nov 17, 2011 1:47 PM EST up reply actions

10 games played…Time will time indeed

"It's magic, it's tragic, it's a loss, it's a win"

by Elektrostal_Kid on Nov 10, 2011 3:15 PM EST reply actions

excited

I remember seeing this kid play in juniors, and he looked really good then. Then we drafted him in the 3rd round and I was wondering how he fell down that far. IT is because he was overshadowed by players like taylor hall, ryan ellis, jordan eberle. Scouts were so focused on watching those guys, that they didn’t really notice how talented henrique actually was… They just thought he was a product of the players he played with. Then last year he had a fantastic year for the albany devils, proving his numbers were no fluke. I’m really excited to see how he plays in the future.

by jsk793 on Nov 10, 2011 3:40 PM EST reply actions

This kid has “it”. Whatever it is that seperates a player like a Bergfors from this kid he has it. You see talent there but theres that ability to show up in the right spots at the right time and you just don’t coach that or develop that. Hes shown that at this level his “it” is here. Theres no doubting his pedigree with the juniour and WJC championships and the talent isn’t mindblowing but hes got goalscorers hands and the talent is good enough to go with his instincts. Next to AL hes the most exciting prospect the Devs have and its only a matter of when, not if ,that he’ll be a fixture as a top six player

by 68devils on Nov 10, 2011 3:53 PM EST reply actions

I own a #32 Palmieri. I wish I waited a month or two…….

I love seeing jerseys like Bergfors around the arena. It makes me feel like I’m not the only crazy one out there.

I just got a Volchenkov the night of the Leafs game, and came really close to making it Henrique, but decided I wanted another d-man. (I got to wear my Martin once before he left.)

na-na-na-na HEY! You SUCK!!

by mogilny89 on Nov 10, 2011 6:16 PM EST reply actions

Please make a Pelley once since it seems your luck that the player of the jersey you wear doesn’t stay a devil long.
All pray for A-Train to survive now

by AlphaSigDevil48 on Nov 10, 2011 10:21 PM EST up reply actions

I’m hit or miss. And don’t count Palmieri out just yet.

na-na-na-na HEY! You SUCK!!

by mogilny89 on Nov 11, 2011 3:32 PM EST up reply actions

He competes all the time and plays at both ends of the rink. He does what he needs to be successful and is successful.

Hell on Ice/In Lou We Trust/Twitter
You have life insurance? Don't they know you're in the DANGAHZONE?

by Kevin Sellathamby on Nov 10, 2011 7:14 PM EST reply actions

I believe that he has what it takes to become a fixture in our top 6 for a long time to come. He has shown that he has what it takes, and the best is yet to come.

by NJGuy on Nov 10, 2011 7:37 PM EST reply actions

Remember

Bergfors, early in the season (during the Kovy trade year), had a few solid games and scored some goals before eventually being traded.
Let’s hope it works out.

by David Fine on Nov 10, 2011 10:59 PM EST reply actions