New Jersey Devils: Get Over Where We Drafted Pavel Zacha And Michael McLeod

Devils fans should ignore where Pavel Zacha and Michael McLeod were drafted once and for all.

The New Jersey Devils made bad picks in the 1st round of the 2015 and 2016 NHL Draft. Nobody is denying that fact anymore. They could have taken Mikko Rantanen, Zach Werenski, Timo Meier, Mathew Barzal, Kyle Connor, Thomas Chabot (breathes), Ivan Provorov, Brock Boeser, or Jake DeBrusk in 2015. Instead, they ended up with Pavel Zacha. The same goes for 2016, where instead of players like Charlie McAvoy, Jake Bean, or Jakob Chychrun on defense, they have Michael McLeod.

Listen, this isn’t an ideal situation. It’s really bad, and the Devils could be a contender with Barzal and McAvoy or even with Provorov and Chychrun. The defense is a mess, and the Devils focused on building the center position instead of the backend. It’s clearly Ray Shero’s biggest mistake. He never fixed this team’s defense. One might complain about riding Cory Schneider too long, but the defense was the position Shero never truly fixed.

The Devils eventually got two number-one overall picks, which they used to take centers Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes. Those two are the future of this franchise. They also take all of the pressure off of McLeod and Zacha. Still, despite the fact that McLeod and Zacha have zero chance of playing center on the top two lines, there are fans that are still upset they never lived up to their draft billing. It stinks the Devils took them there, but it’s time to get over it.

Zacha is a very good NHL player. When we say this, we’re not talking about offensively, but his two-way game is one of the best on the team. Zacha is statistically one of the better penalty-killing forwards in the NHL. He provides really good value to the roster. At 5v5, it’s not so pretty. His CorsiFor% last season was a paltry 42.95%. He only eight goals over 65 games, which sent him back to his rookie and sophomore season numbers.

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Zacha is in the second year of a three-year, $6.75 million contract. At this point, he needs to live up to his $2.25 million contract. That is the value to the Devils five years outside of his draft. The Devils got Mackenzie Blackwood in the 2nd round of that draft, so it’s not a total loss. Just hope Zacha improves dramatically offensively this season. If he can even become a 45-50-point scorer, it would make him insanely more valuable as a bottom-six player.

As far as McLeod, that one is a little more complicated. McLeod is in the final year of his entry-level contract. He hasn’t been even close to an NHL player in his first two professional years. He was given two extended NHL looks, and he still hasn’t scored a goal yet. To have zero goals and just five points over 33 games is truly pathetic.

However, his value to the Devils now is as someone who can make the roster as a fourth-line center or wing with scoring upside. He doesn’t need to score 20 goals ever in his career. However, if he can put together Miles Wood‘s 2017-18 season every year, then it’s a major win for the Devils.

The Devils have Hischier and Hughes. They will be really good centers for this franchise. That erases the fact the Devils made bad picks at center four and five years ago. However, Hischier is clearly a good pick and Hughes hopefully turns that way as well. That changes how we should look at Zacha and McLeod. Our expectations of them shouldn’t be tied to where they are drafted, but to the opportunities they have to impact this team this season and in the future.