New Jersey Devils: Full Seven-Round Mock Draft
The New Jersey Devils are looking to make a huge splash when they make seven picks on Friday night. Their picks are a little all over the place, which puts them in strange positions in some rounds. They obviously just traded away the New York Islanders’ 2nd-round pick in the Ryan Graves trade, and they are missing their current 2nd-round pick after trading it two years ago in the Nikita Gusev trade. The Devils haven’t had their own 2nd-round pick in three years.
They are also missing their own 5th-round pick (sent to Columbus in the Ryan Murray deal) and 7th-round pick (lost to the Lightning in the Louis Domingue deal). They do have the Sabres 5th-round pick (Wayne Simmonds trade deadline deal last season) and the Arizona Coyotes pick in the 7th-round (draft-day trade from last year). Of course, the Devils also have the 1st-round pick from the New York Islanders that they got in the Kyle Palmieri-Travis Zajac trade.
Now that we’re caught up on which picks the Devils have, who will they take with their seven picks? There is no way to know who is going where, so to give you fans a chance to follow along, we used Corey Pronman’s seven-round mock draft as a guide of who might be available.
Round 1, Pick 4
Luke Hughes, Defenseman, U.S. National Team Development Program
Yeah, this is obvious, but the Devils hold probably the most obvious pick in the entire NHL Draft. Even the number one pick isn’t as obvious as the Devils taking Luke Hughes. Obviously, Jack Hughes holds a piece of this point, but it goes way beyond that. Hughes plays a position of serious need for the Devils. Despite putting plenty of draft capital into the defensive end over the past few years, they are missing that top-line player outside of Ty Smith. The reality is they need to spend big to get another huge piece on the blue line. Graves is a fine piece, but he shouldn’t be on a team’s top line. Hughes has the upside to one day lead a team in minutes.
Hughes is very young. He’s one of the youngest players in this class, making the cutoff by just six days. That gives him time to grow. His skating and edgework are already phenomenal. He can outrun some players at the NHL level right now.
The big issue Devils fans had with Jack Hughes was his size. Kaapo Kakko was the much bigger player and had the body of an NHL player. Luke Hughes is more “Kakko” than he is “Jack”. He stands at 6’2 and is billed at 176 lbs. If he goes on the Jack Hughes eating program and adds muscle as he did last offseason.
Obviously, in Pronman’s draft, Brandt Clarke and William Eklund are both available at four. Those are the two that would give us pause, but not very long. We love Clarke, and if he’s the pick the Devils are still in a good position. Simon Edvinsson is another player to watch. However, Hughes is only getting better, he’s about to go to a really good college program in Michigan, and he might be playing with his brother sooner than we think.
Round 1, Pick 29
Logan Stankoven, Right Wing, Kamloops Blazers
Alright, we’ll start with the elephant in the room with Logan Stankoven. He is a small forward, and they have historically fallen way below their value in the NHL Draft. Brayden Point, Alex DeBrincat, and even going back to Brian Gionta, players with 1st-round talent fall to the 3rd and 4th rounds. Logan Stankoven will be one of those players where GMs show they are learning their lesson. Stankoven has literally everything a GM wants in a forward outside of size.
Stankoven can play all over the ice, and his unlimited motor gets him to where the puck is with a quickness that’s hard to describe. He is always moving. This is the type of player that would be a great fit with the Devils current prospect pool and young NHL players. The Devils need players who can get possession back, and Stankoven does that. They need players that can get into the dirty areas to get the puck back to Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Pavel Zacha. Stankoven can do that.
Beyond “doing the right thing”, Stankoven is electric on the ice. His numbers speak for themselves. The WHL only gave him six games this season. He scored seven goals and recorded 10 points in those six games. On a normal 60-game WHL season, that equates to 100 points. He was just as good at the U18s for Team Canada. He had eight points in seven games including four goals. He also had a +14 in seven games. +/- doesn’t matter unless it’s an outlier, and averaging a +2 per game is definitely an outlier.
There are other interesting players available here. Two of our other writers love Sasha Pastujov, who would be another U.S. player taken in the 1st round. Pronman actually has Shai Buium out of the USHL going to the Devils here. In the FanSided mock draft that we did as a network, Stankoven was taken so I went with Jack Peart out of Fargo. There are other good players here, but if the other GMs pass on Stankoven because of his size, the Devils will get a possible star in a draft that is desperate to find them.
Round 3, Pick 68
Dylan Duke, Left Wing, U.S. National Team Development Program
This admittedly is also Pronman’s pick for the Devils, but it’s one that makes a lot of sense. His rankings are all over the place, but most draft writers have him in the top 40. To get a player with top 40 talent at pick 68 is great. When watching his game, he does a lot well but not a lot great. You know what they say about a jack of all trades. They are a master of none.
Still, the Devils aren’t looking for a superstar in the 3rd round. They want to draft players who have a high likelihood to make the NHL, and Duke is that type of player. He will play his role as well as the coach wants him to, he will fall in line to switch his game up between scorer, penalty killer, and distributer, and he is always going to be a fan favorite.
Duke is a player that can play 20 minutes a night if you need him to, but he would be best in a middle-six role where he is giving you secondary scoring and contributing on the power play. He is putting himself on what’s quickly becoming a stacked University of Michigan team where he will learn from some of the best prospects in the game and one of the best coaches in Mel Pearson. He should grow even more than he has already under the USNTDP.
There are other interesting players available here. Artem Grushnikov is a Russian defenseman that is very intriguing to me. He played zero games this past season because of the cancelation of the OHL season, and that will hurt him, but he’s a defenseman who can do just about anything he’s asked. Albert Sjoberg is a player I think the Devils will like, but I personally picked between Duke and Grushnikov. I went with Duke because he is closer to what he is going to be and Grushnikov needs more playing time, but this could be the same mistake that saw Grushnikov fall this far and I could regret this pick.
Round 4, Pick 100
Ben Roger, Defenseman, London Knights
I might have skipped defenseman in the 3rd round because of how excited I was to take Ben Roger in the 4th round. Okay, that’s not how an NHL Draft would work, but scouts still predict who is available later in the draft when they make earlier picks. That’s what happened here. I love Ben Roger. He’s a right-handed defenseman, a desperate need among Devils prospects. He continues to grow into his role, he’s a giant at 6’4 with a massive reach that leads to one of the best poke checks in the draft, and his speed is deceiving when looking at his size.
He’s another player impacted by the lack of an OHL season, so everyone is judging him by his 16-year-old tape. Unless he spent his quarantine eating BonBons, then his pure talent level will lift him much higher than just a top-100 pick in the draft. Sure, he’s not going to be a 40-point scorer at the next level, but the Devils need more than just scoring defensemen. They have Kevin Bahl and Nikita Okhotyuk who might already play this type of shutdown role, but with Roger missing this past season, he needs time to grow anyway.
There’s a chance that Roger hits the ice and looks like an even better defenseman than he did in 2019-20. He has the mobility to close gaps, his size can knock players off the puck, and again, that poke check will be his ultimate weapon.
There are other defensemen still available here in Pronman’s draft. He has Cole Jordan going here out of Moose Jaw, and Tyson Galloway is an interesting name out of Calgary. Red Savage is a player that has intrigued me at center. He is another player who does just about everything on the ice, and he would be a good weapon for the Devils’ arsenal of prospects.
Round 5, Pick 129
Brody Lamb, Right Wing, Green Bay Gamblers
Brody Lamb is one of many USHL players that will catch scouts eyes this season. With so much time to watch tape and the lack of major Canadian hockey seasons, the USHL is gaining extra eyes, and sometimes it gained extra players as well. Brody Lamb is a player that should expect to get more eyes on him this draft process.
Lamb actually spent most of his season playing high school hockey, but he did try to play well above his weight level in the USHL. He only recorded two assists in 10 USHL games, but he is much better than his stat line.
He was named the Minnesota High School Player of the Year by the Associated Press. He scored 52 goals, which is impressive on the surface, but it becomes insane when you consider he scored 10 shorthanded goals this season. That takes a certain level of instincts and Hockey IQ to continue to score goals when the other team has a man advantage. Lamb is the type of player who teams target late in the draft because those singular skills can translate to the next level.
He’s going to the University of Minnesota, and he could see his game grow by leaps and bounds there.
There are more established players the Devils could take here. Deni Goure has a solidified set of skills in place and plays the much more desireable center position. Defenseman Valtteri Koskela has fallen under the radar in the Finnish leagues, but he has a ton of upside. However, when it comes to upside, Lamb is the way to go. He might flame out completely, and even with that fact, he is well worth the pick here.
Round 6, Pick 164
Cameron Berg, Center, Muskegon Lumberjacks
Cameron Berg is another player who is getting more eyes for playing in the USHL, but he is actually a USHL veteran. He’s been there for three seasons. He was toiling on the Omaha Lancers for a season and a half until Muskegon traded for him. That unlocked something in Berg, who went from four points in 14 games to 30 points in 32 games in the same season. Then, he got even better last season putting up 58 points in 51 games. He went on to score four goals in four games.
Looking at some of his tape, it’s clear the differences between Berg on Omaha and Berg on Muskegon. He has learned to find the weaknesses of the other team. He can move just a tiny bit to get him a lane to the net. When the opposing goalie gives him an inch, he can shoot it at that inch. His precision with the puck is impressive.
Where he needs to get better is when he is challenged. Players are not going to sit back and let him pick his spot at bigger levels. So, he needs to find a way to get to those lanes and find those shooting angles when someone is trying to hit him.
There are plenty of other players available here, but we’re getting into the late part of the draft where everyone is a flier. One player who intrigues me here is Noah Meier. He’s a really good skater over in Switzerland, and his passing is another weapon. He is someone who I would be happy if the Devils drafted, but I barely lean towards the center here.
Round 7, Pick 203
Luke Mittelstadt, Defenseman, Lincoln Stars
Luke Mittelstadt is the brother of Buffalo Sabres forward Casey Mittelstadt, but he plays defense and hasn’t had the same success as a teenager as his brother. He’s played mostly high school last season, but he did have 12 games in the USHL. He put up three points in 12 games for the Lincoln Stars.
Mittelstadt is a player who thrives in transition, which is something the Devils have prioritized in seasons past when it comes to prospects. They like a player that can get the puck out of their zone. It’s actually a good strategy. On paper, getting the puck out of the zone is key to ending an offensive threat. Obviously, defensemen need to also be able to stop players when they have the puck, and that’s where Mittelstadt needs to work on his game, but it’s good to already have an important aspect of his game in the bank.
Mittelstadt could grow into an NHL defenseman. He has the tools, and there are some rankings who really like what he brings to the table. He’s going to the University of Minnesota, so he can grow his game there significantly.
Next. 3 Trades To Make Lightning and Devils Better. dark
It’s the 7th round, so the talent pool is pretty dry at this point. I didn’t end up taking the annual goalie that the Devils have added, so maybe Tom Fitzgerald will take Ivan Zhigalov out of Belarus, but with Akira Schmid and Nico Daws in the AHL now and Cole Brady playing well for Arizona State, it might be time to let these current goalies grow.