Stillman’s goal is to make the NHL himself. He took a significant step this past season with his first taste of professional hockey playing for the Utica Comets. In addition to following his family’s advice, Stillman worked with Comets head coach Kevin Dineen to develop his game at this next level.
“I worked with Kevin Dineen a lot,” Stillman shared about last season. “I love him as a head coach and liked him a lot as a player. He’s an old school and hard nosed guy who has scored a lot of goals.
“My dad knew who Kevin Dineen was, he played a long time,” Stillman continued. “One of the biggest things he said to me coming into Utica was if you play the way you’re supposed to play, he’s going to respect you. That was the biggest thing I can take away from that is that Dineen’s a hard working guy. He fought for every inch that he got in the NHL and that’s something that I’m going to have to do too. If I can just mimic my game a little bit towards him, I think he kind of sees that a little bit. He’s worked with me with some of the stuff we can do after practice and before. It’s fun to kind of model my game after somebody so closely.”
The growth from this mentorship and Stillman’s hard work showed this season. Stillman felt he grew with his skating as he ‘found his stride.’ The 2021 First Round pick felt more confident, something he gained from being flexible as a center or wing throughout the year.
“I played a little bit in the middle last year,” Stillman explained. “I think that’s kind of when I started finding my stride because you got a little bit more puck touches throughout the game. You’re always in the mix because you’re always supporting the puck so I think my confidence grew a little bit that way.
“I see myself in both positions,” Stillman continued. “I like to be a Swiss Army knife and wherever I need to go I can go. I wouldn’t like to limit myself. I’ve definitely played more wing throughout my career but played all minor hockey at center so I enjoy all of it, I’m just a forward for sure.”
Even with progress, there’s still plenty of things the young forward is focused on improving during the off-season.
“For me a lot of it is three feet inside the blue lines or even the red line,” Stillman explained. “Your first puck touches when you’re receiving a hard pass cross ice. I’ve been playing wing so make sure that everything’s clean that way. It’s just doing everything fast out of corners and taking it right to the net. Sometimes it’s waiting to make a better play and sometimes it’s just take it right away.
“I think it was a pretty good rookie season I think for me in the AHL,” Stillman also shared. “Numbers wise and stuff it was fine for the type of player I am. I think obviously there’s a little bit more to my ceiling that I can hit and a lot of that comes with confidence, opportunity. I finished my first year up, I get another full summer in the gym to get bigger and stronger and work on the things that I’ve been told to do last year and I’m really looking forward to getting started again.”
