New Jersey Devils First Round Offensive Draft Targets
With the draft under three weeks away its time to look at some potential targets in the 1st round for the New Jersey Devils. The potential of a pre-draft trade still remains and the possibility of trading back seems likely. However, we’ll talk about targets around 17 and targets if the Devils do trade back.
Before we get into this, let’s talk about why I chose to highlight these three players by looking at a tweet from Kevin Papetti whose draft rankings can be found here.
I went all the way back to the 2007 draft to look at the players who were drafted in the second half of the first round (16-30).
— Kevin Papetti (@KPapetti) May 2, 2018
The group on the left did not get drafted from the CHL. The group of the right did (I left out Canadian Jr. A players) pic.twitter.com/diLIILyPAD
This is just a brief breakdown of my interpretation of this tweet and how I’ve applied this logic to my preferred draft picks. When you compare prospects tiers 2-4 are relatively similar regardless of where they played prior to the draft. However, you have a far greater chance of adding a Tier 1 player if you draft outside of the CHL in the 2nd half of the 1st round.
So, with that out of the way let’s take a look at some really interesting forward prospects the Devils can target in the 2nd half of the 1st round in attempt to hit a home run.
Vitali Kravtsov C/W Russia
Kravtsov is one of the few players I believe the Devils should actually take if he falls to 17. At the same time he’s been projected to fall out of the 1st round in certain mock drafts. These projections are likely because teams are still fearful when drafting Russians out of the KHL, but Kravtsov is only under contract in the KHL for one more year. The reality is, spending a year playing full time in the KHL is better for his development.
Draft this man pic.twitter.com/kyfOkjbOAw
— Tyler Kelley (@DocKelley41) June 5, 2018
He’s 6’2” 180 pounds and can play all three forward positions, but has primarily played RW. The Devils have solid LW depth currently with Taylor Hall, Marcus Johansson, Miles Wood, John Quenneville, Blake Coleman, Jesper Bratt, and Jesper Boqvist.
Whoever the Devils draft at 17 will likely take at least a year to develop. If Kravtsov comes over after a year in the KHL, he’ll likely be ready to step directly into a top 6 role.
Kravtsov wasn’t great in the KHL regular season, posting just seven points. However, he had 6 goals and 5 assists in 16 playoff games as his team Traktor Chelyabinsk made the conference finals. He’s a high end forward that could fill the Devils need for a shooter in the top six down the line.
Martin Kaut RW Czech Republic
Kaut is strictly a RW who spent last year playing in the Czech professional league. He’s 6’1” 174 pounds and unlike Kravtsov the Devils could bring him over next year and either have him spend a year in the CHL or assign him to the AHL.
Like Kravtsov, he’s probably only a year away and there is the possibility the Devils would even encourage him to keep playing in the Czech league.
In 38 games last year, Kaut had nine goals and seven assists, but his performance in the World Juniors Classic was eye catching. Although it’s a small sample, posting two goals and five assists in seven games is great for a player in their draft year in the WJC. Kaut even spent some time playing for the Czech Republic’s men’s team where he had one goal and five assists in four games.
Kaut may not have as high end of a shot as Kravtsov, but he’s consistently shown the ability to finish in the net front area no matter what team he’s on or league he’s playing in.
Dominik Bokk RW Germany
Bokk is similarly sized to both Kravtsov and Kaut at 6’1” 175 pounds. His biggest issue is that he’s nowhere near as polished of a prospect as many of the players you’ll see go in the 1st round, but his skill level is through the roof.
Bokk will probably need 2-3 years before he’s ready to make the jump to the NHL, but that’s ok. Anytime you can potentially add elite talent in the second half of the first round you do.
He spent last year mostly with the Vaxjo Lakers U20 team where he had 41 points in 35 games and posted 5 points in 5 games with team Germany U20. He should spend next year in the SHL with Vaxjo which the Devils should encourage.
It may take Bokk a few years before he’s ready to jump into the top six at the NHL level, but his talent level will be worth the wait.
There are plenty of good prospects in this draft that I’ll be happy if the Devils select but these three are at the top of my list at 17.