- Devils re-sign defenseman Topias Vilen to a one-year, two-way deal worth $850K in the NHL
- Vilen was New Jersey’s last restricted free agent after a career-high 27-point AHL season
- Read below for how his two-game NHL debut went and where he fits on the Devils blue line
Topias Vilen is staying in New Jersey.
The Devils re-signed the 23-year-old defenseman Wednesday on a one-year, two-way contract, and with that they cleared their last restricted free agent off the board. The deal pays $850,000 at the NHL level and $150,000 in the AHL, per James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now.
Nothing about this one is complicated. Vilen has spent three years in Utica getting a little better each season, and the Devils handed him another year to keep pushing.
Last season was his best yet. He put up a career-high 27 points in 61 games with the Comets, and since 2023 he leads Utica’s blue line in both scoring and games played at 80 points in 173 appearances.
On a points-per-game basis over that stretch, he sits right behind Simon Nemec, Seamus Casey and Calen Addison. That is solid company for a fifth-round pick.
The call finally came in April. Vilen made his NHL debut on April 12 against Ottawa, logged 12:28 and finished plus-1 with a blocked shot in a 4-3 overtime win.
He got into two games total and averaged around 15 minutes. No points in either one, but he went straight back to Utica and put up three in his final two AHL games, so the promotion clearly did not rattle him.
New Jersey drafted him in the fifth round in 2021 after he came up through Finland’s junior programs and debuted in Liiga as a teenager. Five years later he is still knocking on the door.
Signing him wraps up a summer of housekeeping for the Devils, who also sorted out a crease that now has three goalies in it.
Camp opens in September and Vilen shows up as a guy who has already played NHL games. That is a different starting point than the last three Septembers gave him.
