The New Jersey Devils have been very good at moving up in lotteries over the last decade. This is the fourth time that they have moved up in the last 15 years which is honestly insane. The Montreal Canadiens won the lottery but they had the best odds so they didn’t move up.
New Jersey, as mentioned before, move up by winning the second and final lottery spot. They went into the night with fifth-best odds and ended up out with the second overall pick in the NHL Draft. After the way this year went for the Devils, this feels earned (every team in the top ten probably would feel that way).
They do, despite the bad year, have a lot more clarity on a lot of their young players. It is so clear now that Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Jesper Bratt are outstanding players that are going to lead this team for a long time.
There are other young guys to be excited about. We also learned that kids like Nathan Bastian, Yegor Sharangovich, Jesper Boqvist, Nolan Foote, Kevin Bahl, Fabian Zetterlund, Nikita Okhotiuk, and Reilly Walsh might be able to be good NHL players as well. A nice core might be forming.
The New Jersey Devils have a lot of players to consider at pick number two:
It is also an organization with prospects that haven’t made their NHL debut yet that are exciting young players. With this new second overall pick that they now have, they are going to be adding another one. There are some great players to consider there. These are the three main players for the Devils to consider at pick number two: