TAKEAWAYS

• Seamus Casey has been preparing all summer for his first official training camp
• In just his few skates with the NHL players, he’s been impressed by the ‘different level’ everyone is dialed into
• He shares his hopes for his first professional season
• Casey talks about the mental aspect of starting a season in the NHL or AHL

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This time, things feel a little different for Seamus Casey.

He’s very familiar with his Prudential Center surroundings; he’s been to three July development camps, and he knows the staff, where to find things, and how to get around. But when Casey first stepped out on the ice earlier this week to skate alongside a collection of the Devils NHL roster players, Casey said it was just unmatched.

“It’s a different level,” Casey quipped. “Out there, I don’t think anyone missed a single pass. That’s not to knock any level I’ve been at before, but now it’s like, these are NHL players and just seeing how seriously they take everything, and it’s just another level.”

Casey, who left Michigan at the end of last season to turn pro, will participate in his first official New Jersey Devils training camp. It starts with this week’s rookie camp, and once those five days are completed, the main camp will open – as will his eyes.

“I want to learn how to be a pro as quickly as I can,” he shared. “You hear stories about guys figuring it out fast and other guys who don’t figure it out as fast. I want to make sure I’m building the right habits and learning quickly. So I’m just trying to take everything in, sit back and observe a lot.”

Asked what he’s observed so far that he wants to lock away in his arsenal?

“It’s simple stuff,” he shared. “I was in the gym earlier and (Tomas) Tatar… just the way he was working out. Everyone works so hard and stuff, watching other guys and the way they treat their bodies, it’s a different level.”

Before rookie camp opened, Casey arrived early in New Jersey, where he took part in a couple of ‘Captain Skates.’ In these, players from the NHL roster and those attending training camp already in the city skate together without coaches or staff. Sometimes, they’re on the ice for an hour, sometimes a bit more, and while Casey has skated in the summers with several NHL players, this experience felt different.

“It was just so cool,” Casey said of those captain skates. “For those guys, it’s just a run-of-the-mill skate. I’ve been on the ice with a lot of pro guys before, but this was the first time I was like ‘Oh, alright, this is pretty cool. I watch those guys on TV like every night.’”

So, how did he do his first time out?

“I think I made a couple of plays, tried not to turn the puck over too much,” he laughed.

In just the few days of skates that Casey has had so far, he’s already been able to take in so much, he says. His eyes are open, he’s always listening, and he’s realizing what it will take to achieve the next step of making the NHL.

“You’re trying to slowly establish yourself as a guy that’s hopefully going to be around,” he said. “Wherever I end up, with the guys that are here at camp, some of them are going to be down in Utica (of the AHL) if I’m down there.”

The Devils blue line is a busy one Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Siegenthaler are returnees, the newcomers Brenden Dillon, Brett Pesce, and Jonathan Kovacevic, and the all-world young talent in Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec, it’s going to be a tough lineup to crack. Of course, Casey is going into training camp with the hopes and drive to make the main NHL roster out of camp, but he’s also not unrealistic. He understands the odds.

“I don’t know what the stats are, but probably like 9.5 out of 10 play in the American League (first); no one is too good for that league, you know what I mean? Everyone goes through there,” he said. “That’s a great path for me too. Hopefully, I make the team and just play in the NHL. That’s my dream, but when you don’t make something, you should always look in the mirror and think, how can I get better and get back there as soon as I can.”

Clearly Casey has always taken things step by step, and this one, attending his first training camp, is yet another in a long list that has already gotten him to this point.

And this step? This is a big one.

And he takes it very seriously. He’s on his mission to make it and stick with the pros.

“I’m an employee now,” Casey smirked and said with conviction. “I’m still doing what I love, and it’s the most fun I’ve ever had, but I’ve got to go in and – not to say that isn’t something you do in college or junior – but you cannot come in and have an off-day. That’s the way it is. I think it’s just learning that. It’s a learning curve. These guys don’t come in and have off days.

“You get fired when you have an off day.”