Ranking Every New Jersey Devils 1st-Round Draft Pick Part 1: The Busts
By Mike Luci
No. 31: John Quenneville
Center
30th Overall, 2014
New Jersey wasn’t supposed to pick in round one of the 2014 NHL Draft. It was slated to be the year they would surrender their first-round draft choice as part of the NHL’s sanctions against them for their role in the 2010 Ilya Kovalchuk contract dilemma. The Devil’s new owners appealed to the league and were given the 30th overall pick. After getting drafted by New Jersey, John Quenneville played two more seasons with the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings. He continued to post impressive numbers and helped them make back-to-back WHL Championship runs (winning in 2016), along with a 2016 Memorial Cup appearance.
Quenneville was one of Albany and Binghamton’s best forwards over the three seasons he played for New Jersey’s AHL affiliates. In 138 games, he had 46 goals and 119 points, in addition to three goals and four points in as many playoff matches. Quenneville may have more or less been a victim of unfortunate circumstances. The Devils took centers with their first-round picks in four of the next five drafts, many of whom are current fixtures on the roster.
Switching to the wing was the only realistic way he could find a place on the Devils roster, a transition that never came to fruition. He only had two goals and five points in 33 games with New Jersey, before getting traded to the Chicago Blackhawks for John Hayden. Although Quenneville is the first active player on this list, he’s appeared in just nine NHL games since leaving New Jersey, having spent most 19-20 and all of this past season in the AHL.