New Jersey Devils: 5 Prospects To Watch In 2023-24
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils have been focusing more on prospects than most teams in the NHL. With more of those prospects graduating or expected to graduate in 2023, we have to go deeper to find the prospects worth watching.
The New Jersey Devils still have one of the best prospect pools in the NHL. Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec could be the best defensive prospects in the entire league. The 2023 NHL Draft was a weird one for defenders, but the forwards were some of the best we’ve seen in a decade.
However, it goes way beyond Hughes and Nemec. The Devils have an entire rebuild’s worth of prospects in their pool. There are some top-level players, but there are also those third and fourth-round picks that need more time to cook.
For a lot of those players, this year is very important for their development. There are many reasons why that’s true, but the most important is the Devils need to know who these players are. Some are brand-new draft picks, and others have been in the system for years. Let’s start with one that everyone will have their eyes on from day one.
Chase Stillman – 2021 First-Round Pick
Chase Stillman didn’t grow like many of us thought he would. After the Devils took him much higher than analysts thought they should, Stillman spent the past two years with the Peterborough Petes of the OHL. He had one less point in the same amount of games. He did have a lot more penalty minutes, but that’s not really anything to brag about.
This season, Stillman is going to the AHL. He will spend his season with the Utica Comets. This is where the Devils will see what Stillman is. Is he a player who plays an energy role without points, or does he have more upside than that?
The Devils don’t need him to make the NHL. It would be nice for Tom Fitzgerald to say, “he told you so,” for this pick. He already has that somewhat because his other reach was part of the Timo Meier trade. Shakir Mukhamadullin was a reach, but he was probably the biggest prospect involved in that trade. Let’s see if the same can happen for Stillman.