Over the weekend, the New Jersey Devils participated in the Prospects Challenge that took place in Buffalo, New York. It was hosted by the Buffalo Sabres. New Jersey went 2-1-0 with a 9-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators, a 5-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres, and a 6-4 loss to the Boston Bruins.
The Devils started 2-0-0 and had a chance to go perfect against the Bruins on Monday. They even held a 4-3 lead in the third period but allowed three goals to have that setback.
Despite the one loss and not going perfect, there were some very impressive performances by certain New Jersey Devils prospects.
The New Jersey Devils have had some great young players show off what they can do
Chase Stillman stole the show by scoring four goals throughout the challenge. Although drafting him 29th overall in the 2021 NHL Draft was criticized heavily, he has been coming around lately.
He controlled pace, showed off some really good wheels, and was hard to play against in all three zones. His ability to make plays for others was as apparent as his ability to score himself. The leadership and grinder mentality was on full display as well which was a part of the scouting report early on. Now, he's living up to it.
Seamus Casey was incredible once again. He is very dynamic in the offensive zone and can create big plays using his skills. He can skate as well as anybody on the prospect roster and it showed.
When he was at Michigan with Luke Hughes, he showed his skills in a depth role. Once Luke was gone, he stepped into that role as the top offensive defenseman on the team. It feels like this will be able to translate to the NHL someday.
Other players from the event to be excited about are Xavier Parent, Cam Squires, Topias Vilen, and Igor Mburanumwe. All of these guys had different moments where they were able to impact the game and help the Devils win.
It was promising to see them perform this well for a few reasons. For one, it is always good to have good prospects in the pipeline.
It is also good because the team is already trying to compete for the Stanley Cup at the NHL level. Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Dawson Mercer, Luke Hughes, and Simon Nemec are all in the NHL and graduated from prospect status.
The fact that there are this many good young players not even in the NHL yet is good news for their future. There are also good players to be excited about who hasn't even made it to the Prospect Challenge yet which makes this even more exciting.
There have been some mistakes along the way but the Devils have been doing a really good job of collecting all of this talent. Now, it is on them to get some deep playoff runs out of it and maybe even a Stanley Cup or two.
As evident by this weekend's games, more good players are likely to be on the way to help what they've already built in the NHL.