The New Jersey Devils announced that they’ve signed forward Colin White to a one-year, two-way contract for the 2026-27 season. White will earn a $900K salary in the NHL and $400K in the AHL.
White, 29, is a former first-round pick of the Ottawa Senators. He spent a few of his post-draft seasons in the NCAA with Boston College until finally signing his entry-level contract with the Senators toward the end of the 2016-17 campaign.
It wasn’t until the last season of his entry-level contract that White became a full-time player in Ottawa. He had an impressive season, scoring 14 goals and 41 points in 71 games, averaging 16:12 of ice time per game. The Senators were so impressed with White’s season that they signed him to a six-year, $28.5MM extension the following summer.
Unfortunately, it would quickly become one of the worst contracts in franchise history.
Granted, White dealt with multiple injuries in the first few years of the contract, but he wasn’t all that great when healthy. Throughout the next three years, the former 21st overall pick of the 2015 NHL Draft registered 20 goals and 51 points in 130 games with a -29 rating, averaging 15:17 of ice time per game. Ottawa bought out the remaining three years of his contract after the 2021-22 campaign.
Since then, White has largely bounced around, playing in parts of seasons with the Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Montreal Canadiens, and, most recently, with the San Jose Sharks. He has primarily taken on an AHL-only role, playing the entire last season with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda, where he scored 21 goals and 48 points in 46 games, finishing with a +1 rating.
He’ll likely have the same role with the Devils, playing most of the year with the AHL’s Utica Comets. However, if New Jersey runs into the same injury trouble they have in the past few years, White may be one of the first call-ups the team makes.