New Jersey Devils forward Kyle Palmieri has scored 13 goals in 30 games in his first season with a team that just happens to play its home games 28 miles south of the farm in northern Bergen County where he grew up.
Palmieri scored 43 goals in 198 games — and no more than 14 in any season — in five years with the Anaheim Ducks, who selected him in the first round of the 2009 NHL draft.
Is his sudden scoring touch connected to his homecoming? It depends on whom you ask.
“I don’t think so,” Palmieri, 24, said last week. “It is nice to have friends and family at the games, but when it comes down to it, when you go to the rink, it’s just you and your teammates.”
But Bruce Palmieri, his father and one of his youth coaches, said he was surprised more teams did not try local players.
“Every game he came back here to play with Anaheim, he did well,” Bruce said. “He scored the winning goal against the Rangers, the Devils, the Islanders and the Flyers,” all within two months late in 2013.
Elaine DiPiero, his grandmother, added: “He’s gotten so much more ice time, and he’s playing so well. The more you play, the more confident you feel. He seems so happy.”
Devils general manager Ray Shero did not want to read too much into the hometown narrative.
“That makes for a nice story, but unless you’re a good player, it usually doesn’t end well,” Shero said.
That is why Shero said he traded two draft picks to Anaheim for Palmieri in June: Palmieri was indeed a good forward, but the Ducks had plenty of those. Palmieri averaged only 12 minutes, 26 seconds of ice time while with the Ducks. But he said he was OK with that.
Palmieri said he was not looking to be traded. After the Ducks were eliminated by the Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference finals, he was told that management and coaches were happy with how he had filled his role in Anaheim. “Your first time being traded, it’s a shock, no matter where,” Palmieri said.
After the Devils’ 4-0 loss to the Islanders on Sunday, he is averaging more than 16 minutes of ice time a game with the Devils, who, with Palmieri’s help, have gotten off to a surprisingly strong start under their first-year coach, John Hynes. Five of Palmieri’s goals have come on power plays, including one Tuesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“We were looking hard to find forwards like him,” Shero said. “Anaheim’s good fortune was our good fortune as well.”
Palmieri will say that he probably would not have made it to the NHL without New Jersey in general or, specifically, the family farm near Montvale. This is where Bruce Palmieri built a rink for his son when he was about 7.
Kyle Palmieri, wearing an old pair of skates, had started playing hockey at a friend’s house when he was 5 and, as his father recalled, was pushed around the ice by the older boys.
“He just literally went from having no success whatsoever to saying, ‘I want to do this,’” Bruce Palmieri said.
DiPiero said: “All through the winter, as long as there was ice, he’d never miss a night out there. My bedroom was right next to the back boards, so I’d hear him shoot the puck. His mom told him he had to come in at 11, 11:30 so I could sleep.”
Kyle Palmieri played youth hockey for the Devils-sponsored teams at Codey Arena in West Orange, then for one season at St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City. He was named by the Devils as a high school player of the month in February 2007, posing for a photo with Zach Parise, then a Devils forward.
Then Palmieri went away for eight years. He played for two years in the U.S. National Development Program, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After graduating from Pioneer High School there, he went to Notre Dame for a year, scoring nine goals in 33 games.
Then the Ducks drafted him with the No. 26 overall pick. A year later, he played his first NHL game at age 19, scoring a goal in a victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
But he was one of many talented right-hand-shooting forwards in Anaheim, led by Hart Trophy winner Corey Perry. Palmieri shuffled between the NHL and the American Hockey League for two seasons before playing in 71 games in the 2013-14 season. His grandmother said she stayed up past 1 a.m. watching Ducks home games.
“It was on-the-job training,” Shero said. “He’s getting his graduate degree from us after getting his undergraduate degree in Anaheim.”
Palmieri was on a golf trip with his friends in Ireland when he was traded.
“Pretty much everybody knew before I did,” he said.
He added: “Just that initial shock catches you. But once that wears off, there’s a lot of excitement for a new opportunity.”
Palmieri, who has a girlfriend, found an apartment in Hoboken, two doors down from Devils center Adam Henrique. He bought season tickets for his parents. His grandmother has been to two games, and he was home for Thanksgiving.
“There are times when you feel some things are pulling you in different directions,” Palmieri said of playing so close to home. “You’ve got to nip that in the bud before anything becomes a problem, and I think I have.”
Later he said, “I just try to treat it like I’m playing anywhere else.”
Palmieri has two older sisters, Tahrin and Taylor, and a younger brother, Devon, 20, a forward for the Jersey Hitmen, a junior team that plays in Wayne. Devon Palmieri also got his start on the rink his father built on the family farm.
Part of the farm is now being turned into a shopping center. But Bruce Palmieri said he planned to put up the backyard rink again this year. It is a bona fide New Jersey landmark, after all.
“When you look back on it, having a nice rink in your backyard in New Jersey is something not too many guys get to experience growing up,” Kyle Palmieri said. “It was just so convenient for me to spend a couple hours at the rink. Anything to get me out of doing my homework was an advantage for me.”
About the Author
