New Jersey Devils: Don’t Expect Good Ruling On Arizona Pick

The New Jersey Devils probably won’t get a favorable ruling with the Arizona pick.

There are a lot of rumors swirling around New Jersey Devils Twitter about the status of the Arizona Coyotes’ 1st-round pick that belongs to the New Jersey Devils. The pick belongs to the Devils as long as the Arizona Coyotes don’t win the lottery. A placeholder team currently holds the spot for the number-one overall pick, so one of the eight teams eliminated from the play-in round is going to get that selection. There are people who believe the Devils should still retain the pick even if Arizona wins the lottery despite it being top-three protected.

The argument is that Arizona would only have a three percent chance at the pick had the season end normally, but if they lost the play-in round it will be a 12.5 percent chance. That really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, however, as when the Coyotes made the trade for Taylor Hall they were in first place in the Pacific Division. At the time of the trade, nobody knew where Arizona would finish or their odds at winning the lottery.

The wording of the deal is that the 1st-round pick is top-three protected which seems pretty cut and dry. For that reason, Devils fans probably shouldn’t get their hopes up. Alexis Lafreniere is not coming to the Devils in this scenario. It is a shame that the season went the way that it did, but there is nothing we can do about it now.

The Coyotes aren’t even a lock to be defeated by the Nashville Predators either. They are already up 1-0 in the play-in series, so the Devils might be selecting with their pick even later than we thought which isn’t great. The Devils just need to make sure that they make the right selection no matter where they pick is so that they can finally start winning some games. We probably shouldn’t count on the league to help them in any way.