What I Loved, Liked and Wasn't High on With The Devils' New Prospects

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Dawson Mercer #19 (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images) /

The highly anticipated and most important draft in recent memory for the New Jersey Devils has finally come full circle. There was much debate who the Devils would select with the seventh-overall pick, if the team would utilize all three selections, or if they would draft goalie Yaroslav Askarov in the 1st round.

It turns out that they used all three draft picks and utilized eight of the nine picks; trading a 7th rounder to the Arizona Coyotes for a future 7th-round pick. The Devils did draft a Russian-born player in the 1st round, just not the player many people thought it would be. While it is fun to speculate how the Devils did in the draft, we will not know for years how to fully assess this draft class. For all intensive purposes, let’s have a little fun and briefly discuss who we loved, liked and wasn’t a big fan of.

Players We Loved

Dawson Mercer

Dawson Mercer is the type of player that Devils fans will fall in love with. This kid has every single intangible that you could ask for, stuff that you don’t see in a box score or highlight. He has an incredibly high hockey IQ, is good with and without the puck, will stick up for teammates, and dish out hits. Oh, and he is an insanely gifted scorer and two way hockey player. He will be a staple on the power play and penalty kill. This kid could do it all, and in no time will be a fan favorite. The Devils hit a home run with the number 18 pick in the draft.

Nicolas ‘Nico’ Daws

We know there’s only one Nico on the Devils right now, but if Nicolas Daws stops pucks at a high level, then there could be room for another. Besides Makenzie Blackwood, the Devils are lacking a high-level goaltender in their prospect pool. It is way too soon to declare Daws the ‘Robin’ to Blackwood’s ‘Batman,’ but this kid has the size at 6’4, athleticism, and moxy to become a good goaltender with the proper development.

He was the OHL goalie of the year sporting a league best .924 save percentage. He is also a very good puck-handler, something that Devils fans know a lot about. He has a very good glove hand and rebound control with his athleticism. I am really excited to see what the future has in store for Daws.

Jaromir Pytlick

The Devils have made it clear that they want to get physical, two-way grinders to compliment the speed and skill that they have in their organization. Much like Mercer, Pytlick is a very good two way hockey player that delivers much needed size and strength. He is extremely tough to defend when he has possession of the puck, gets in the dirty areas and is not afraid to back-check or use his body to to win puck battles along the boards. He has a deceptively good shot and offensive instincts. Like any other player who is 6’2 at 18 years old, he needs to bulk up and improve his skating. If he does, he could be a solid contributor as a middle-six forward and penalty killer. He provides great value as the 99th overall pick in the draft.

Players We Like

Alexander Holtz

This is a ‘like’ for Holtz and not a ‘love’ simply because of who the Devils bypassed at #7. There were two players who stood out for me whom the Devils could have selected in Marco Rossi and to a lesser degree Cole Perfetti, yet the Devils went with the more pressing need of a high-scoring right winger in Alexander Holtz.

The Devils are going all in supporting Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes by providing them with every opportunity to succeed, and Holtz will help in that regards. He possess one of the best shots in the entire draft and has 40-goal upside. He is Patrik Laine-esque without having to acquire Laine himself. He is a think first, pure sniper. Envisioning him on a line with Hischier or Hughes and blasting one timers from those guys should get Devils fans fired up.

He could be the most electric goal scorer the Devils have had since Ilya Kovalchuk. He must work on his skating and two-way game before he makes it in the NHL. By all intensive purposes, Holtz has a good work ethic and compete level, so those could be improved upon with good coaching. The Devils broke hockey’s cardinal rule by drafting for need above going best player available, however getting a player of Holtz’s caliber is a nice consolation prize.

Ethan Edwards

At pick #120, Ethan Edwards is a great type of defenseman to gamble on. He is on the smallish size, but what he lacks in size he makes it up with his skating and stick-handling ability. He could lead a rush through the neutral zone, makes good outlet passes and makes efficient decisions when he has the puck on his stick.

He is very polished positionally and forces turnovers, and with his speed helps in the transition game. Edwards must get bigger and work on his shot if he is to become the player that we want him to be. He is an incoming freshman at the University of Michigan, so much of his game could be improved upon there. He is a prospect to keep an eye on.

What Was That?!?

Shakir Mukhamadullin

Okay, this was a bit of a head scratcher with the 20th overall selection in the draft. We could all *assume* that the Devils were honing in on defenseman Braden Schneider until the Ragers scooped him up by aggressively trading up to get him right before the Devils. Instead the Devils drafted defenseman Shakir Mukhadamullun. We will never know one way or another who Fitzgerald was targeting with the pick, and it really doesn’t even matter at this point. The issue I have, like many other people is that the Devils bypassed another forward (Jacob Perreault, , Connor Zary, Noel Gunler) to reach for a position of need. The Devils could get away with that approach at number 7 if it lands them a 30+ goal scorer in Holtz, but not at this juncture of the draft. It is alright to draft another forward and continue to improve an area of strength. If you develop enough quality forwards, you take that strength and flip it to improve other areas of the team. It is just proper asset management and I think they dropped the ball here. In a perfect world, the Devils would have traded down 10-12 picks, acquired more assets and still gotten Mukhamadullin. Hind-site is 20/20, and with the uniqueness of the draft set-up maybe it was more difficult to find a trade partner, and who knows if Mukhamadullin would have been there. All it would have taken was another general manager who liked him just as much as Fitzgerald.

Mukhamadullin has impressed thus far in the KHL, and he does have the skill-set to become a viable NHL defenseman. He has great size, skating ability and a cannon of a shot ala former Devils defenseman Sheldon Souray. He is a bit of a late bloomer, and maybe that is why it caught many people by surprise. If the Devils were ahead of the curve, that could benefit them in the long run. Mukhamadullin is a project, and until the project is complete this is a pick that is going to be second and triple guessed for a long time. This is a swing for the fences pick, and with three first rounders it’s a gamble they could afford to take. Hopefully this is a home run pick.

Artem Shlaine and Ben Baumgartner

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I wish that I had some savvy insight and some conventional wisdom on these two players. It is really hard to love or hate these picks because we really don’t know what we’re getting this late into the draft. You read into great detail on these players and you have to wonder if they’ll ever get the chance to scratch the surface with the skill sets that they possess. For every Jesper Bratt you find in the 6th round you have 20 guys who never pan out this late in the draft. Artem Shlaine (pick 130) and Ben Baumgartner (161) fit in the mold of speed and skill that the Devils value. It never hurts to have too much skill in the organization, so it’ll be interesting to see how these players develop.

I am also quite surprised that the 18th or 20th pick was not traded for immediate help. That was one asset I believed would be put in play to a cap strapped team for a controllable young asset with an impressive NHL resume to his name. That type of trade is still plausible, but in all likelihood it will involve a roster player, prospect or 2021 draft capital (the Devils would need to put a condition on the 2021 1st, as it will still likely be a top 10 pick). Tom Fitzgerald has a type of player that he covets, so I’m glad that he didn’t trade away a 1st round pick for the sake of doing it. But I really was of the belief that it would get moved for a player who could fit in with the young core that they do have.

Overall I believe that the draft was worth the long, tedious wait that the Devils fans had to endure. They filled some organizational needs at the skill positions and defense, particularly on the left side. Their center depth after Hischier and Hughes and right defense still leave a lot to be desired. They still lack that prominent, franchise changing defenseman. Thanfully, the 2021 draft appears loaded for defenseman. It is nearly impossible to acquire all of your needs in one draft, however the Devils’ future is much brighter than it was when they last played a game in March. The 2020 draft has a chance to be something special.

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