New Jersey Devils: Recent History Of Seventh Overall Pick

1. The New Jersey Devils have the seventh overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft after the results of the lottery. That pick has had some great history.

The New Jersey Devils are going to make the seventh overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. The Draft Lottery placed one of the losers of the “play in” series as the team with the first overall pick so they fell down one spot. Well, the seventh overall pick is one that has been good to some teams that have had it in the recent past. It isn’t a 100 percent success rate but the Devils have good odds of making it count this year.

Some notable names that have come to the NHL as the seventh pick in recent years which should really excite the team. Some notable names include:

• Joffrey Lupul – 2002
• Ryan Suter – 2003
• Kyle Okposo – 2006
• Jakub Voracek – 2007
• Nazem Kadri – 2009
• Jeff Skinner – 2010
• Mark Scheifele – 2011
• Mathew Dumba – 2012
• Ivan Provorov – 2015
• Quinn Hughes – 2018

As you can see, there are some elite players in recent NHL history that have been taken with that pick in the draft. Those teams did their homework and were lucky enough to draft difference-makers with the pick. The Devils need to be able to do the same with their version of the pick in 2020. On that list, there are elite scorers and defenders as well as players who can do both.

When you look at someone like Scheifele, you see a player that is capable of leading the league in points. He might be the most underrated point producer in the National Hockey League. Looking at him there makes looking at some of the projected scorers in this draft a lot easier. There are plenty of potential “Scheifele-like” point producers available.

Another notable player on that list is Jack Hughes’ brother Quinn. He fell to seventh overall which is looking like a big mistake for a lot of the teams that drafted ahead of him. He is in the conversation for the 2020 Calder Trophy right now because he was so good in 2019-20. A player like Quinn might be available there for the Devils, but they need to do their homework enough to recognize who that player is.

This seventh-overall pick is one that has produced many great players for different teams across the NHL since the year 2000. With how deep this 2020 draft is projected to be, it is really possible that the Devils are able to benefit from this selection that they are going to make.