New Jersey Devils: 5 Possibilities With 6th-Overall Pick In NHL Draft
By Nick Villano
Anton Lundell
Anton Lundell has been playing in Finland’s Liiga for two seasons now, and has seen some marginal development from one year to the next. His points jumped from 19 points in his rookie season to 28 points this past season.
Anton Lundell has been playing really well compared to other Finnish draft picks. He’s slightly behind Kaapo Kakko and Patrik Laine in production, but is doing better in his draft year than Mikko Rantanen, Aleksander Barkov and Jesperi Kotkaniemi in their draft years.
Lundell has some progressing to do, but he could be really, really good. His underlying numbers have been even better, and he looks like he could be an analytics darling. With the Devils reportedly moving towards analytics-based decision making, Lundell could be a real interesting option at six.
He was on that Finnish team that beat Team USA in the World Junior Classic in 2019. He missed this year’s games with an injury, so that might hurt his value, but the fact his team didn’t come close without him might actually help.
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He’s definitely giving effort on both sides of the puck, but he is likely going to fall because he lacks the skill set of the players ahead of him. He’s not an exceptional skater or shooter. His puck handling leaves a little to be desired. However, Lundell has the effort to keep pucks moving up the ice. It’s a little scary of a pick, because there is some Pavel Zacha feeling here, but if he continues to focus on the improvements he needs to make, he could be the steal of the draft.