Aug 20: The Devils have officially announced the contract.
Aug 19: The New Jersey Devils have signed one of their 2021 first-round picks as PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that they’ve signed winger Chase Stillman to a three-year, entry-level contract. The deal will carry an AAV of $925K in the NHL and an AHL salary of $80K.
The 18-year-old is the son of long-time NHL forward Cory Stillman who had a 16-year NHL career. Stillman was expected to spend last season with Sudbury of the OHL but those plans were dashed due to the pandemic shutting down the OHL season before it could even get started. Instead, he went to Denmark where he played in eight games with Esbjerg of their junior league and was quite productive, notching nine goals and seven assists (plus 43 penalty minutes). Stillman also represented Canada at the World Under-18’s, collecting a pair of goals and assists in seven games which helped bump him up to the back of the first round after being projected as a second-rounder by most scouting agencies.
Stillman is ineligible to be sent to the AHL next season so his options are New Jersey or the OHL. It’s quite likely that he’ll be returned to Sudbury and if that happens, his contract will slide a year and still have three years on it next summer.