New Jersey Devils: Pucks And Pitchforks Official 1st-Round Draft Picks

The New Jersey Devils have two very important picks in the 1st round of Friday’s NHL Draft. One comes fourth overall where they are going to choose between a defenseman with a lot of upside (could be Luke Hughes, Brandt Clarke, or even Owen Power) or a forward who could do so many things (might be Dylan Guenther, William Eklund, or possible Kent Johnson). The Devils are going to get a very good player with their first pick.

But who is the right pick? Obviously, that’s almost impossible to predict because the top five in this draft are as volatile as any in recent history. We have no idea who is going to go first overall, and most of us are just guessing from there.

The Devils added another 1st-round pick in the draft after trading Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac to the New York Islanders for what turned out to be the 29th-overall pick. It’s actually the 28th pick in the draft because the NHL is weirdly counting Arizona’s forfeited pick in the count. Either way, this is going to come down to a flier for the Devils who they are taking a complete chance on. Since the Devils traded their 2nd-round pick away in the Ryan Graves trade, they can literally take anyone with this pick. They showed us that last year when they drafted Shakir Mukhamadullin. If they had a 2nd-round pick, they probably end up with a different player.

It’s going to be a lot of fun, as the Devils look to finally stop picking so high in the draft. We got the Pucks and Pitchforks gang together to predict the picks. Here is who everyone thinks the Devils will take in the 1st round.