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Devils 2021 Day One Draft Recap
1st Round (#4 Overall): LD Luke Hughes, US-NTDP
In one of the feel-good stories of the 2021 draft, the Devils drafted the younger brother of future face-of-the-franchise center Jack Hughes. This pick made sense on more than simply a sentimental level, however. The Devils have not had an offensive defenseman with the sheer talent and upside of Luke Hughes since Scott Niedermeyer, and Luke’s talent is so extreme that, if he approaches his talent ceiling, he is the type of player who can singularly transform the pace and acuity of New Jersey’s scoring whenever he is on the ice.
Quite simply, Luke Hughes was the runaway best skater in the entire 2021 draft class. The kid can fly — his skating is elite in every sense, from dynamic edgework to agility to burst to acceleration. Defensively, this enables him to compensate for mistakes, as he can catch fast opposing forwards from behind in just one or two strides. Offensively, it is even more lethal — make the wrong commitment on Luke in transition, and he’s turned you inside-out and blown past you before you know what hit you. This skill is increased offensively by the fact Luke Hughes also possesses outstanding hands — when the skating is combined with the stickhandling, defenders always need to give him more space, lest they be corkscrewed into the ice while Hughes has exploded into open space with the puck on a string.
Once Luke Hughes has the puck in space, he knows what to do with it. He is a near-elite passer and a good, but not great, shooter. However, his speed allows him to hold onto the puck longer than most players while allowing him the liberty of skating deeper into the offensive zone than most defenders. Luke Hughes is truly a weapon offensively, which has garnered him comparisons to older brother Quinn Hughes. Though Luke might be a touch shy of Quinn offensively, he alleviates this with the bonus of being five inches taller, at 6’3. This increased wingspan and body strength will eliminate one of Quinn’s weaknesses, which is a propensity to be knocked off the puck by big and physical opponents.
Luke Hughes is not, however, a player without warts. His overall defensive play is problematic, and needs a great deal of work in terms of positioning and efficiency. He often seems impatient in the defensive zone, almost antsy as if he just wants to go try to score already. This propensity will lead him to make questionable decisions without the puck, and similarly his riverboat gambler style on the breakout and rush can often lead to high-danger turnovers and scoring chances against. Though I am not one to believe the myth that poor defenders can be “taught defense” as if some magical switch can be flipped to make them shut-down stalwarts, I do believe that — fueled by his elite combination of size and speed and tempered through experience and coaching — Luke Hughes can become an average to above-average defender. But again, this would be more than adequate to make the draft pick worthwhile, as Luke Hughes also has a rare offensive upside as a 60+ point LD whose combination of speed and skill pushes back the entire opposition when he is in transition; a player who can turn a “bang it up the boards” routine play in the offensive zone into two moves, a burst and a clean break at the opposing netminder.
Ultimately, we also need to keep in mind that Luke Hughes has a September birthday and just missed the 2022 draft by a matter of days. He also missed the end of his draft-eligible campaign due to a nasty ankle injury. So, this is a player with a lot of development ahead of him, and not a player to be rushed to the NHL. He is enrolled at the University of Michigan, where he will certainly play in 2021-22, and probably also in 2022-23. But this is also a player with an almost unfathomable upside, potentially as good a combination of size and speed as any defenseman in the Eastern Conference. Luke immediately becomes the most talented defenseman in the Devils organization, and the most talented since Scott Niedermeyer left for Anaheim in the early 2000s. As such, we need to give this pick high grades.
1st Round (#29) RW Chase Stillman, Sudbury OHL
Bafflingly, this pick was criticized heavily in much of the hockey media. Not bafflingly, much of the criticism was written by people who have watched very little of Chase Stillman, and have little idea of what type of player he truly is and is truly capable of becoming.
Stillman broke into the OHL with the Sudbury Wolves in 2019-20 and immediately impressed as one of the top 4 or 5 rookie forwards in the entire league. Another NHL legacy — he is the son of Cory Stillman — Chase is not a pure scorer, but rather an old-school, blood-and-guts power forward. Though this designation had him being sorely undersold by some draft “experts”, the fact is that Stillman’s scoring totals were outstanding for a 16/17 year old OHL rookie, and he has a penchant for banging home goals in tough areas around the crease. He’s also a better than average passer and puck-handler who has a lethal shot which he gets off quickly, efficiently and with some serious jazz behind it. Though no one is going to confuse him with a McDavid or MacKinnon offensively, this is a kid with 25-goal upside who crashes creases with reckless abandon, wins in the corners, and stands up for teammates.
Physical, scoring forwards are at a premium in today’s NHL. There are only so many Tkachuks and Gallaghers to go around. Stillman is not just a sandpaper guy or instigator, but he is an intimidating physical force. This kid absolutely plasters opposing players of all shapes and sizes with extreme prejudice and ferocity. With no OHL season due to the pandemic, he played in Denmark where he absolutely overmatched players his own age and mowed through the league with physicality the likes they had never experienced in the Danish juniors. At the U-18 tournament he was a one man wrecking crew, seemingly winning every corner and crease battle while absolutely flattening players as large as 6’5 Simon Edvinsson (#6 overall to Detroit).
Stillman’s compete level is absolutely unquestioned. Quite simply, he works his tail off every shift, and is a high-event player who can beat you in a litany of ways. If you’re a defenseman facing off against him, you spend half of every shift looking over your shoulder, and the other half peeling yourself off the ice and wondering what hit you. Don’t worry, we’ll tell you — it was Chase Stillman.
Stillman’s hard work ethic extends both on and off the ice. His skating was decidedly average in his rookie OHL campaign, so he obviously worked his tail off and improved this aspect of his game greatly. Now, it’s safe to say he is a good skater, bordering on very good. I say this often, but high compete hockey players have higher development curves. They exceed expectations with such regularity that it’s the expectations which should be brought into question. So, as one of the two or three highest compete players in the 2021 draft, one has to wonder why so many draft prognosticators still undersold him and then criticized the pick. It’s not as if the 2021 draft class was 2003 — not as if the Devils passed on guys like Pastrnak or Point to draft him. Were there players with a some more offense to their games than Stillman available at #29? Sure — but we’re talking players with incrementally more offense — Rosen was gone, Svechkov was gone, Coronato was gone, Samoskevich was gone. Players with inferior offensive ability to Chase like Johnston and Olausson were taken before Stillman. So, the controversy was surprising to me — especially when you factor in that Stillman represented the best combination of scoring and physicality remaining in the draft (give or take Chibrikov — #50 to Winnipeg).
Ultimately, the Devils lack physical forwards for their top 9 forwards. This is a team which was already soft up front and then lost Nathan Bastian when Seattle made a shrewd pick of the young winger. The Devils have a couple of kids with jam on the way from the prospect pool to the big show with Dawson Mercer and Nolan Foote, but neither add the in-your-face bone-crushing style of a Chase Stillman. This is not just a need for the increasingly rare violence of the old-time NHL, but quite simply (and obviously) the Devils have been awful — for many seasons — at scoring second and third-chance goals in net-front skirmishes.
Chase Stillman is a player who can win these battles down low, and he has a very nice pair of mitts around the net. He’s listed in the 6’1/6’2 range and is reportedly still growing; by the time he hits the NHL he should be in the range of a 6’2/200 power forward who can skate, offers nice puck skills, can score, and creates havoc for the opposition whenever he is on the ice.
I grade this pick very highly, and can say with no small amount of conviction that Chase Stillman will be an integrally positive force in the Devils return to contention in the ensuing half-decade.
1st Round (#4 Overall): LD Luke Hughes, US-NTDP
In one of the feel-good stories of the 2021 draft, the Devils drafted the younger brother of future face-of-the-franchise center Jack Hughes. This pick made sense on more than simply a sentimental level, however. The Devils have not had an offensive defenseman with the sheer talent and upside of Luke Hughes since Scott Niedermeyer, and Luke’s talent is so extreme that, if he approaches his talent ceiling, he is the type of player who can singularly transform the pace and acuity of New Jersey’s scoring whenever he is on the ice.
Quite simply, Luke Hughes was the runaway best skater in the entire 2021 draft class. The kid can fly — his skating is elite in every sense, from dynamic edgework to agility to burst to acceleration. Defensively, this enables him to compensate for mistakes, as he can catch fast opposing forwards from behind in just one or two strides. Offensively, it is even more lethal — make the wrong commitment on Luke in transition, and he’s turned you inside-out and blown past you before you know what hit you. This skill is increased offensively by the fact Luke Hughes also possesses outstanding hands — when the skating is combined with the stickhandling, defenders always need to give him more space, lest they be corkscrewed into the ice while Hughes has exploded into open space with the puck on a string.
Once Luke Hughes has the puck in space, he knows what to do with it. He is a near-elite passer and a good, but not great, shooter. However, his speed allows him to hold onto the puck longer than most players while allowing him the liberty of skating deeper into the offensive zone than most defenders. Luke Hughes is truly a weapon offensively, which has garnered him comparisons to older brother Quinn Hughes. Though Luke might be a touch shy of Quinn offensively, he alleviates this with the bonus of being five inches taller, at 6’3. This increased wingspan and body strength will eliminate one of Quinn’s weaknesses, which is a propensity to be knocked off the puck by big and physical opponents.
Luke Hughes is not, however, a player without warts. His overall defensive play is problematic, and needs a great deal of work in terms of positioning and efficiency. He often seems impatient in the defensive zone, almost antsy as if he just wants to go try to score already. This propensity will lead him to make questionable decisions without the puck, and similarly his riverboat gambler style on the breakout and rush can often lead to high-danger turnovers and scoring chances against. Though I am not one to believe the myth that poor defenders can be “taught defense” as if some magical switch can be flipped to make them shut-down stalwarts, I do believe that — fueled by his elite combination of size and speed and tempered through experience and coaching — Luke Hughes can become an average to above-average defender. But again, this would be more than adequate to make the draft pick worthwhile, as Luke Hughes also has a rare offensive upside as a 60+ point LD whose combination of speed and skill pushes back the entire opposition when he is in transition; a player who can turn a “bang it up the boards” routine play in the offensive zone into two moves, a burst and a clean break at the opposing netminder.
Ultimately, we also need to keep in mind that Luke Hughes has a September birthday and just missed the 2022 draft by a matter of days. He also missed the end of his draft-eligible campaign due to a nasty ankle injury. So, this is a player with a lot of development ahead of him, and not a player to be rushed to the NHL. He is enrolled at the University of Michigan, where he will certainly play in 2021-22, and probably also in 2022-23. But this is also a player with an almost unfathomable upside, potentially as good a combination of size and speed as any defenseman in the Eastern Conference. Luke immediately becomes the most talented defenseman in the Devils organization, and the most talented since Scott Niedermeyer left for Anaheim in the early 2000s. As such, we need to give this pick high grades.
1st Round (#29) RW Chase Stillman, Sudbury OHL
Bafflingly, this pick was criticized heavily in much of the hockey media. Not bafflingly, much of the criticism was written by people who have watched very little of Chase Stillman, and have little idea of what type of player he truly is and is truly capable of becoming.
Stillman broke into the OHL with the Sudbury Wolves in 2019-20 and immediately impressed as one of the top 4 or 5 rookie forwards in the entire league. Another NHL legacy — he is the son of Cory Stillman — Chase is not a pure scorer, but rather an old-school, blood-and-guts power forward. Though this designation had him being sorely undersold by some draft “experts”, the fact is that Stillman’s scoring totals were outstanding for a 16/17 year old OHL rookie, and he has a penchant for banging home goals in tough areas around the crease. He’s also a better than average passer and puck-handler who has a lethal shot which he gets off quickly, efficiently and with some serious jazz behind it. Though no one is going to confuse him with a McDavid or MacKinnon offensively, this is a kid with 25-goal upside who crashes creases with reckless abandon, wins in the corners, and stands up for teammates.
Physical, scoring forwards are at a premium in today’s NHL. There are only so many Tkachuks and Gallaghers to go around. Stillman is not just a sandpaper guy or instigator, but he is an intimidating physical force. This kid absolutely plasters opposing players of all shapes and sizes with extreme prejudice and ferocity. With no OHL season due to the pandemic, he played in Denmark where he absolutely overmatched players his own age and mowed through the league with physicality the likes they had never experienced in the Danish juniors. At the U-18 tournament he was a one man wrecking crew, seemingly winning every corner and crease battle while absolutely flattening players as large as 6’5 Simon Edvinsson (#6 overall to Detroit).
Stillman’s compete level is absolutely unquestioned. Quite simply, he works his tail off every shift, and is a high-event player who can beat you in a litany of ways. If you’re a defenseman facing off against him, you spend half of every shift looking over your shoulder, and the other half peeling yourself off the ice and wondering what hit you. Don’t worry, we’ll tell you — it was Chase Stillman.
Stillman’s hard work ethic extends both on and off the ice. His skating was decidedly average in his rookie OHL campaign, so he obviously worked his tail off and improved this aspect of his game greatly. Now, it’s safe to say he is a good skater, bordering on very good. I say this often, but high compete hockey players have higher development curves. They exceed expectations with such regularity that it’s the expectations which should be brought into question. So, as one of the two or three highest compete players in the 2021 draft, one has to wonder why so many draft prognosticators still undersold him and then criticized the pick. It’s not as if the 2021 draft class was 2003 — not as if the Devils passed on guys like Pastrnak or Point to draft him. Were there players with a some more offense to their games than Stillman available at #29? Sure — but we’re talking players with incrementally more offense — Rosen was gone, Svechkov was gone, Coronato was gone, Samoskevich was gone. Players with inferior offensive ability to Chase like Johnston and Olausson were taken before Stillman. So, the controversy was surprising to me — especially when you factor in that Stillman represented the best combination of scoring and physicality remaining in the draft (give or take Chibrikov — #50 to Winnipeg).
Ultimately, the Devils lack physical forwards for their top 9 forwards. This is a team which was already soft up front and then lost Nathan Bastian when Seattle made a shrewd pick of the young winger. The Devils have a couple of kids with jam on the way from the prospect pool to the big show with Dawson Mercer and Nolan Foote, but neither add the in-your-face bone-crushing style of a Chase Stillman. This is not just a need for the increasingly rare violence of the old-time NHL, but quite simply (and obviously) the Devils have been awful — for many seasons — at scoring second and third-chance goals in net-front skirmishes.
Chase Stillman is a player who can win these battles down low, and he has a very nice pair of mitts around the net. He’s listed in the 6’1/6’2 range and is reportedly still growing; by the time he hits the NHL he should be in the range of a 6’2/200 power forward who can skate, offers nice puck skills, can score, and creates havoc for the opposition whenever he is on the ice.
I grade this pick very highly, and can say with no small amount of conviction that Chase Stillman will be an integrally positive force in the Devils return to contention in the ensuing half-decade.
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