NEWARK, N.J.- The Devils will add another NHL debut to the annals of the 2020-21 season. Defenseman Kevin Bahl will be playing in his first-career NHL game Thursday night when the Devils host the Philadelphia Flyers at Prudential Center.
Bahl, 20, is listed as 6-foot-6, 230 pounds. The towering defender has played this season, his first as a pro, with Binghamton of the American Hockey League.
"Big body, great reach, is a good skater. He uses that reach well," Devils head coach Lindy Ruff said. "He's gotten stronger as the year's gone on playing the games with Binghamton.
"Defensively when you're playing against a guy like that, just his reach and range is something that a smaller man doesn't have."
Bahl, who was originally a second-round pick (55th overall) of the 2018 NHL Draft by Arizona, scored his first pro goal with Binghamton on April 16 at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Bahl may be a big, tough player, but he has some offensive skill as well.
"A big man, that can skate, that can move the puck," Ruff said. "That first pass always looks pretty good."
INJURY UPDATES
Bahl's insertion into the lineup is a necessary due to the team's injuries on the blue line.
P.K. Subban is in his final day of COVID-19 protocol quarantine, meaning he could return to the lineup Saturday. Jonas Siegenthaler is also quarantining due to a COVID-19 diagnosis, but has a few more days until he could return.
But Matt Tennyson was added to the injury list with a "little bit of an injury that will keep him out for a couple of days," per Ruff.
The status of forward Andreas Johnsson (lower-body) is unknown.
ROOKIE ADJUSTMENTS
Bahl will become the seventh Devils rookie to make his NHL debut this season, joining: Ty Smith, Mikhail Maltsev, Yegor Sharangovich, Tyce Thompson, Marian Studenic and Nolan Foote.
With all the young additions, Ruff admitted the team has made slight adjustments to its style of play.
"We've made some adjustments to how we need to play with the youth that we have to try to help our defense," Ruff said. "We have changed some of the gapping up, some of the more man-on-man structure entering the zone. Basically, saying maybe we'll give up this outside shot versus challenge it and have more numbers back, which helps our defense."
GOALIE LOAD
There are seven games remaining in the season, and don't be surprised is Mackenzie Blackwood plays in most, if not all, of them.
"Really would like to get him the vast majority," Ruff said.
The only back-to-back games that remain on the schedule are against Boston next Monday-Tuesday. Considering that Blackwood, who usually shoulders a heavy workload, missed five days last week with an upper-body injury, don't be surprised if he plays all seven down the stretch.
"We've talked a lot about it," Ruff admitted. "If you look at the previous week where Mackenzie was out for the whole week with the injury suffered from the hit. He missed five days. Didn't play. Had a couple days off."
And Blackwood appeared in back-to-back games for New Jersey last Saturday-Sunday.
"The schedule looks like every other day," Ruff said. "We had a day off Monday. So, we'd like to give him the bulk of the work and see where we're at in back-to-back games."
