Even after a 52-win season, the New Jersey Devils still have a top farm system in the NHL. That’ll change soon with the inevitable graduations of Luke Hughes, Šimon Nemec and Alexander Holtz. But even after they become NHLers, there’s still depth in the pipeline thanks to prospects who have made strides in their development over the last year. Let’s look at the organization’s most-improved prospects heading into 2023-24.
Topias Vilén
A fifth-round pick of the Devils in the 2021 draft, Topias Vilén has since emerged as one of the organization’s top 10 prospects. But it didn’t always look like he’d get to that status. The Finnish defenseman’s production remained stagnant between his draft-eligible and draft-plus-1 season in the Liiga — Finland’s top pro league.
After totaling eight points in 35 games during his draft year, Vilén finished with just six points, all assists, in 50 games for Pelicans in the Liiga in 2021-22. But as is the case with prospects, they can always make a significant jump when you don’t expect them to.
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Vilén’s scoring this past season jumped to nine goals and 17 points in 41 games. He also added four goals and nine points in 18 playoff games for Pelicans. And he had a good showing for Team Finland at the 2023 World Junior Championship. He’s a smooth skater with puck-moving ability, and he already has NHL size at 6-foot-1, 194 pounds. He will begin the 2023-24 season in the AHL with the Utica Comets, and it wouldn’t be a shock to see him get NHL games with the Devils at some point this year because it’s clear he’s taken a step forward in his development.
Nolan Foote
Though Nolan Foote’s counting totals didn’t increase much with the Comets last season, it sure looks like he’s trending toward having an NHL role in 2023-24. General manager Tom Fitzgerald has spoken highly of Foote a couple of times this offseason but specifically at his end-of-season presser back in May:
“Nolan Foote, I think he’s the example of proper player development,” Fitzgerald told Catherine Bogart and reporters on May 19. “He’s a kid that scored goals from the outside in Junior, he does have a hell of a shot. I think with our guidance and help through our development team, our coaches down there, Dan MacKinnon, who runs Utica, educating him on what type of player he would look like at the NHL and how he would be successful and try to help him reinvent himself.”
Part of that reinvention is turning Foote into a power forward to try and get him to score more goals from high-danger areas, and it seems to have worked. Even without a significant jump in production, he still paced for 26 goals and 48 points over a full 72-game AHL schedule. He appeared in six games for the Devils, scoring a goal and totaling an expected goals percentage (xG%) in the high 60s. Granted, it was a small sample size, but it shows he may be ready for an NHL gig in 2023-24.
Josh Filmon
Though Josh Filmon has only been in the Devils’ system for one year and change, he’s already taken a jump from his draft year. After totaling 23 goals and 45 points in 67 games as a draft-eligible prospect, he became one of the WHL’s top scorers in 2022-23, potting 47 goals and 75 points in 64 contests.
The strength of Filmon’s game is his shot, as evidenced by his goal-scoring capability. But he also has good hockey IQ and generally seems to make the right read more often than not. He’s got size at 6-foot-2, but he needs to continue adding more strength to his frame. Filmon said at Devils development camp that he’s put on 15 pounds of muscle since the end of the WHL season, bringing him to about 175 pounds.
With the added strength, Filmon should be in for another big year with the Swift Current Broncos in the WHL. Another area that could use some work is his playmaking ability, which could propel him to take another step forward with the Broncos. Otherwise, the Devils seem to have found another potential middle-six option via a late-round pick (166th overall in the 2022 draft).
Graeme Clarke
I’m not sure there’s a prospect whose stock has risen more in the last year than Graeme Clarke’s. A third-round pick in the 2019 draft, Clarke has come a long way since then. Because the OHL suspended its 2020-21 season due to COVID, he got a chance to play in the AHL with the Binghamton Devils and fared quite well.
Clarke totaled 18 points in 31 games during the COVID-shortened year, an impressive rate considering he wouldn’t have been AHL-eligible had there not been a pandemic. His 2021-22 campaign was a bit of a step back, with 24 points in 52 games. But as they say, progress isn’t always a straight line.
Though he was a long shot to make the Devils’ roster last season, Clarke looked like an improved player during the preseason, posting positive results at five-on-five. That carried over into the AHL, where he finished with 27 goals and 64 points in 74 games between the regular season and playoffs.
The Devils have one or two spots open on the wing heading into training camp in a few weeks. Holtz will likely be the front-runner for one of those spots, but Clarke will be in the mix too. Having turned 22 in April, he may be ready to compete for a top-nine spot in the NHL. Even if he doesn’t make the NHL roster out of camp, he’ll likely play in games for the Devils due to injuries, etc. But he’s gone from a fringe NHL prospect to one with top-nine potential in a short time.
Devils’ System Still Has Depth
Even though the Devils’ pipeline will weaken once Hughes, Holtz and Nemec graduate, more prospects are on the way. The players mentioned here are among their risers, and their development curves haven’t ended yet. There’s room for them to keep improving, especially for younger prospects like Vilén and Filmon. And there’ll likely be new additions to a similar article this time a year from now.