Ken Appleby

June 2019 – Appleby did not get a qualifying offer from the Jets which means he becomes an unrestricted free agent.  Jokke Nevalainen

February 2019 – Appleby has signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Jets.  Jokke Nevalainen

July 2018 – The New Jersey Devils didn’t tender a qualifying offer to Appleby, making him an unrestricted free agent. The 23-year-old goalie still has potential to become an NHL goalie but it won’t happen in New Jersey.  Jokke Nevalainen

June 2018 – The New Jersey Devils find themselves in an interesting position in net going into the summer. Cory Schneider, the clubs typical number one, is now 32 and is having offseason surgery on his hip which could keep him out until early next season. Then you have Keith Kinkaid who was the hero for the Devils down the stretch, but is entering the last season of his contract and has high trade value. So, the Devils have to decide if they are holding on to Kinkaid with plenty of teams looking for goalie help this summer, while also monitoring the health of Schneider. The benefactor of all of this could be Ken Appleby if the Devils don’t sign one of the small handful of decent backups available in free agency. Appleby did well in very limited duty with the Devils in 2017-18 and was the better of the two goalies on a poor Binghamton team. Schneider’s health or a Kinkaid trade could see him in backup duty with the Devils, especially as they continue to get regular starts for their number one goalie prospect Mackenzie Blackwood in the AHL. In your deeper leagues where goalies are at a premium Appleby is someone to keep an eye on. Kelly Bowler

June 2017 – Mackenzie Blackwood’s hot finish meant less play for Appleby who worked in just six A-Devil games, yielding two goals on ten shots in 33 postseason minutes, after late February. The rust showed with a goals against over four and save percentage of .861 over the campaign’s final month. After a strong start, his culminating stats (17-14-3, 2.63, .903) don’t look great, but his early season play will earn the 22-year-old a strong look in camp. Kevin Wickersham

March 2017 – Appleby has been recalled from AHL Albany to the New Jersey Devils. This will be his first regular season appearance on an NHL roster, following a solid campaign thus far with the Devils’ top affiliate in which his record is 16-11-0 with a 2.44 goals against average and .909 save percentage. Kevin Wickersham

February 2017 – Appleby continues to maintain a firm hold on the primary goaltending spot for Albany in his rookie AHL season. Tied for eighth in the league in GAA (2.26) and 17^th in SV% (.912), Appleby’s stats have slipped a bit lately after giving up five and six goals against Rochester and Binghamton respectively in late January/early February contests. That being said, he has still has exceeded expectations with a 14-9-0 record since his early-season ECHL promotion from Adirondack. With Scott Wedgewood out for the year and Mackenzie Blackwood still developing, Appleby may be next line for the New Jersey reserve goalie spot. With Keith Kinkaid the subject of several trade rumors, a post-trade deadline trip to the big club is not out of the question. Kevin Wickersham

November 2016 – The Ken Appleby story is a good one. After going undrafted for three straight years, the 2015 Memorial Cup champion Oshawa Generals’ goalie came to last year’s Devils’ developmental camp in the hopes of impressing. He left with a contract and assignment to the ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder, where he worked closely with Devils’ developmental goaltending coach Scott Clemmensen. He also participated in St. Louis’ developmental camp that summer at the request of Martin Brodeur. After a solid regular season (17-9-2, 2.24 GAA, .924 SV%) and playoff (7-4-1, 2.31 GAA, .920 SV%) performances with the Thunder, as well as an eight-game cup of coffee with Albany (3-3-2, 2.59 GAA, .904 SV%), Appleby was again in net for the Thunder at the outset of this campaign. Following an early-season injury to Albany’s first-string netminder Scott Wedgewood, Appleby assumed lead goaltending duties for Albany, and for the time being seems to have passed the highly regarded Mackenzie Blackwood on the organizational depth chart. Through his first two games with Albany this year, he is 2-0-0 with an impressive 1.44 goals against average and .942 save percentage.

Appleby seems to have developed significantly since 2015, skating much more fluidly and authoritatively in the crease, helping him to strategically position his large frame well to make saves easier and react to rebounds quicker. Kevin Wickersham