The New Jersey Devils took a chance with drafting Nicolas Daws in the third round.
The New Jersey Devils have Mackenzie Blackwood ready to take the next step as a starting goalie. A lot of people wanted them to draft Yaroslav Askarov with their seventh-overall pick and deal with having two good goalies later, but they opted not to do that. Instead, they addressed their weak goalie pipeline in the 3rd round. They took the third best goalie in the draft when they selected Nicolas Daws with the 84th-overall pick.
Askarov went to the Nashville Predators early in that 1st round and Drew Commesso went to the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2nd round. You can absolutely say that Daws is right behind them in terms of draft-eligible prospects. New Jersey has plenty of time to try and develop him before they move him to the pros.
Daws plays for the Guelph Storm of the OHL where he has been sensational. In 2019-20, he went 23-8-6 with five shutouts. He had a 2.48 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage. Those are phenomenal numbers for him in his third year of OHL hockey. It will be interesting to see where the next step of his career will take place.
You also might remember him for playing in the 2020 World Junior Classic for team Canada where he and his team won the gold. He had current New Jersey Devils prospects Ty Smith, Kevin Bahl, and Nolan Foote on the team with him so there might even be some familiarity.
The scouts believe that he plays a “pro-style” game. He is very calm and poised when he is in the net. One thing that sticks out is that they believe that he is the best puck handling goaltender available in the draft. New Jersey Devils fans know a thing or two about puck handling goalies as the greatest of all time at that played for them for multiple decades.
It would be nice to see him make it to the NHL someday. He has played in some pretty big games so far in his young career. The Devils are probably going to add some other goaltending help from the outside to help them with their current situation but they need to keep the goalie depth strong organizationally and it starts with Daws.