PROSPECT WATCH: Foote Focused on Improvement

A wise hockey man once summed up an unassailable fact about the never-ending prospect wheel.
"Every year we get older but the new players stay the same age."
One of those new, young faces on the Binghamton Devils right now has a familiar ring to it: Nolan Foote.
The 20-year-old rookie pro is notable for a few reasons. First, the 6'4", 200-pound power forward is an enticing prospect and currently is tied as the B-Devils leading-scoring forward with a goal and three assists in five games.
Foote is a big body with tremendous puck skills and shot, good full-stride speed and improving first-steps quickness.

That Foote was acquired in the trade that sent Blake Coleman to the Tampa Bay Lightning last winter makes him an object of even more interest. The Lightning had drafted Foote 27th overall in 2019, two years after it picked his older brother, Cal, 14th overall.
Of course, Nolan and Cal's father is Adam Foote, the two-time Stanley Cup champion who also won an Olympic gold medal and World Cup of Hockey title while playing 1,154 NHL games for Quebec/Colorado and Columbus.
As Devils fans likely know all too well, Foote Sr.'s second Stanley Cup title came in the Avalanche's victory over the Devils 20 years ago this spring. Nolan Foote was born near the end of 2000, so he has no recall of events six months later. But his childhood is full of NHL memories and the lifestyle that comes with it.
"If (Cal and I) got our homework done, we were allowed to go to (mid-week) games," he remembers.
Former Avalanche forward Matt Duchene lived at the Foote household for two years. They remain close, as does John-Michael Liles, the former NHL defenseman.
The Avalanche team of that era was among the most star-studded of any NHL club before or since. Joe Sakic, now Avs GM, and Rob Blake, who holds the same position with the Los Angeles Kings, were two of the biggest names. Patrick Roy, who coached the Avalanche for three seasons and is now back coaching junior hockey in Quebec, was another.
Being around that environment it is hardly surprising that Nolan Foote appears on the cusp of making his NHL debut, like his older brother did earlier this season.
"We've been very fortunate to be around it, around an NHL locker room, to get to go into the locker room after games (but only) if they won," he said.
In an interesting bit of family symmetry, while the Foote boys follow their dad into the NHL, their grandfather, Vernon Foote Jr., was a Toronto cop, like his father before him, who passed away in 2017 at 91.
Foote's childhood love of scoring goals is part of the reason why he preferred playing forward, rather than on the blueline like his father and brother. Though anecdotal, there is evidence that siblings play different positions after facing-off against one another as young boys.
"We talk, FaceTime, probably every day. Not just about hockey, about life," he said.
Life had a few ups-and-downs last season.
Playing for the Western Hockey League's Kelowna Rockets, Foote helped Team WHL to a series-clinching victory over Russia in the annual Canada-Russia showcase series 15 months ago. The final game of that six-game set saw two shootouts: the first won by the Russians, which tied the series on total points. A second shootout followed to determine the series winner.
Foote scored the winning goal.
Seven weeks later, Foote was a leading contributor on Team Canada, scoring three times and picking up two assists in seven games. Canada won gold by defeating Russia, avenging a 6-0 loss in pool play and erasing a 3-1 third-period deficit in the final.
No matter what happens in their pro careers, the Foote boys have something their decorated father lacks: a World Junior gold medal (Cal won two years earlier playing for Canada in Buffalo).
"Just a bunch of good guys, the closest team I've ever been on," remembers Foote, referring to Team Canada that included current Devil Ty Smith and B-Devil Kevin Bahl.
Foote came back to North America and was soon nursing an injury. With the Rockets suffering a raft of other injured regulars and flatlining in the standings, his dad was let go. The team was slated to host the Memorial Cup, which would have given Foote a chance to be one of the relatively few hockey players to have won the World Junior and Memorial Cup crown in the same season (Devils legend Scott Niedermayer was one of the first to do it).
The cancellation of the Canadian Hockey League season and the Memorial Cup in March put an end to the Rockets and Foote's quest.
"A bummer for sure," said Foote.
Foote arrived in Newark three days before Christmas. After quarantine and a good performance in training camp, Foote is well-adjusted in the early going of this otherwise maladjusted season.
"(Devils) management have (told me) to try and keep getting better with every game," he said.