The New Jersey Devils keep chipping away at the edges of the roster, and that work has centered on one clear theme: building more reliable depth.
Last Wednesday, the club re-signed defenseman Topias Vilen to a one-year, two-way contract. He has appeared in only two NHL games so far, but he is already positioned to be a useful call-up option if injuries hit or the Devils need to adjust their lineup.
Vilen spent most of last season with the Utica Comets in the American Hockey League, where he put up 27 points in 61 games. He made his NHL debut late in the 2025-26 season, getting into the lineup against the Ottawa Senators on April 12. In Utica, he has grown into one of the team’s steadiest defensemen and earned the Eric Weinrich Award last season as the Comets’ top blueliner.
The next day, New Jersey added another depth piece by signing forward Colin White to a one-year, two-way deal. White brings 323 NHL games of experience and gives the Devils another veteran option after spending most of the last few seasons in the AHL. Both moves fit into the organization’s effort to strengthen its minor-league pipeline, something general manager Sunny Mehta has emphasized alongside Devils assistant GM and Comets GM Braden Birch.
That kind of depth mattered last season, especially when injuries exposed the fourth line. The Devils are trying to make sure they have better answers waiting this time around.
There is still room for one more low-risk addition before camp, and a professional tryout could be the way to get there. Last September, the Devils brought in Kevin Rooney, Luke Glendening, Georgi Romanov, and Adam Scheel on PTOs. Only Glendening landed a contract, and he ended up playing 52 games before the Philadelphia Flyers claimed him off waivers in March.
A few PTO names stand out for New Jersey this time. Adam Henrique is one of them.
Drafted by the Devils in 2008, he spent parts of his first eight seasons with the organization and would bring immediate help as a fourth-line center with penalty-killing value and faceoff strength. After an unproductive 2025-26 season with the Edmonton Oilers, he could be looking for exactly that kind of reset.
Philipp Kurashev is another option worth watching. He became a UFA last month after the San Jose Sharks declined to issue a qualifying offer.
At his best, he gives a team secondary scoring, and last season he produced seven goals and 20 points in 43 games. If he does not land another NHL deal, he has also been connected to Swiss National League teams HC Fribourg-Gottéron and HC Lugano.
Reilly Smith rounds out the list. With his one-year contract with the Vegas Golden Knights now finished, his next move is uncertain, but his 16 goals and 26 points last season make him a logical target for clubs looking for depth scoring and playoff experience. The Devils have plenty of forwards already, but if they move on from Nick Bjugstad and choose not to play Stefan Noesen, another veteran right wing would make sense.
The other notable Devils development came with Brett Pesce at the fourth annual Shoulder Check Showcase on July 30. Players from around the league gathered at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, for the #HT40 Foundation event, which focuses on mental health, being present for teammates, and making an impact through kindness and compassion. More than 2,500 fans were on hand at Martire Family Arena.
Before the game, Pesce spoke with the media and praised the work Shoulder Check is doing to raise awareness. He also delivered the update Devils fans were waiting for: he is healthy.
Pesce’s first season in New Jersey was interrupted by injuries. He missed time from late October to mid-December with an upper-body injury, then had his recovery set back by finger reconstruction. When he finally began to settle in again late in the year, a sprained MCL in early March ended his season.
Now, though, the 31-year-old defenseman says he is fully ready for 2026-27. None of the injuries affected his offseason training, and he enters the year expected to play an important role on the Devils’ blue line.
In Other News...
Sunny Mehta Faces An Early Devils Test Fans Will Feel Fast
The Devils new front office is already being sized up through the prism that always follows a regime change: how far is it willing to go to turn a good roster into a true contender? Around the league, general managers tend to guard their best prospects closely, but the discussion around Sunny Mehta is less about caution and more about whether hell be bold enough to use that prospect capital to chase established talent.
That is where the speculation gets interesting for Devils fans, because the kind of move being floated would not be a small tweak. It would mean parting with pieces such as Dawson Mercer, Anton Silayev and Alexander Command in the kind of deal that could bring in a player on Dylan Larkins level, if the right opportunity ever materialized. No move is confirmed, and no official talks are being reported, but the early test for Mehta is clear enough: deciding when patience stops and the push for a real run begins. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Prospects Are Getting The International Respect Fans Wanted
The Devils prospect pipeline got a noticeable boost of international recognition this week, with The Athletics projected 2027 World Junior Championship rosters placing three New Jersey youngsters on different national teams. Alexander Command was slotted for Sweden, Matias Vanhanen for Finland and David Rozsival for Czechia, a spread that says as much about the organizations scouting reach as it does about the players themselves. For a franchise that has been working to deepen its future talent base, seeing multiple names surface in a premium event projection is the kind of external validation fans tend to notice.
What makes the list more interesting is that the projections did more than simply include the three Devils prospects, assigning them roles that reflect how evaluators view their styles and where they might fit within each countrys depth chart. It is still a long way from a World Junior roster being final, and plenty can change before 2027, but the early read is encouraging for New Jersey. For a team trying to build sustainably, having prospects viewed as legitimate candidates on the international stage is exactly the sort of attention the fan base has been hoping to see. [Read more 🡒]