The New Jersey Devils go into one of the most important drafts in their history with three 1st-round picks.
This is going to be one of the craziest weeks in New Jersey Devils history. On Tuesday night, they are going into the NHL Draft with three 1st-round picks for the first time in franchise history. They’ve had two picks in the first round three times before. They ended up coming out of those three drafts with Ken Daneyko, Rocky Trottier, Scott Niedermayer, Brian Rolston, Mike Van Ryn, and Scott Gomez. That’s two retired numbers, two extremely good Devils, a good NHL player with a weird end in New Jersey, and one bust. Those are incredible odds.
This isn’t a typical draft. This is one of the most star-studded drafts in NHL history. It’s not even just stacked at the top, there are possible superstars everywhere. Usually, when that happens, there are awesome players to find in the middle rounds. In the 2015 NHL Draft, Sebastian Aho went in the 2nd round. So did Mackenzie Blackwood, Brandon Carlo, Vince Dunn, and Travis Dermott. Anthony Cirelli went in the 3rd round. Ethan Bear went in the 5th round. John Marino went in the 6th. Markus Nutivaara was taken in the 7th round.
This shows that when a draft is stacked at the top, it usually means there’s insane talent throughout. That’s the case this season. There are players that need development, but in the right situation, they could become stars. The Devils are looking for those players.
It still starts with the 1st round, and it especially starts with that seventh-overall pick.
We will use Corey Pronman’s seven-round mock that came out on The Athletic today to see who would be available to the Devils at every pick.
1st round, 7th overall:
Devils select Lucas Raymond, LW, Frölunda HC of the SHL
This one is a no brainer. Lucas Raymond is the third-best player in the entire draft. Yes, that means this has him ahead of Germany’s Tim Stutzle. He’s already just dominating in the SHL early in the season.
Last season, Raymond just wasn’t able to crack big minutes on a very stacked Frolunda team. He was playing less than ten minutes per game and was only able to put up a stat line of four goals and six assists in 33 games. Looking at that on its own, it appears he’s not the right pick at the time. However, it’s pretty clear he’s a lot more than that stat line.
It helps even more to see Raymond spent the offseason gaining weight, building up his strength, and becoming the player many hoped he’d be sooner rather than later. That’s all great, but the biggest thing he did was work on his shot, which according to The Athletic led to more confidence in shooting in general. That’s led to this current scoring streak.
The way Pronman’s board went, Jamie Drysdale went off the board at six and Jake Sanderson went to Ottawa at five. That’s something that will work in the Devils advantage. Taking the defensemen off the board allows Tom Fitzgerald to focus on the best forwards on the board or Yaroslav Askarov. Raymond is too good to even consider passing on. Marco Rossi and Alexander Holtz would also be fun picks here, but Raymond again would be getting a top-four player minimum at seventh overall.