Juraj Slafkovsky is tearing up the World Championships for Slovakia. He’s making the decision for number two overall in the NHL Draft very easy for the New Jersey Devils.
The New Jersey Devils have a hard decision to make this offseason. They have the second-overall pick in the NHL Draft. They hope to never be here again. The Devils went 20 years between top-five picks. Prior to taking Adam Larsson with the fourth-overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft, the last time they picked that high was when they took Scott Niedermayer with the third-overall pick in 1991. And, they got that pick from the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Since 2011, the Devils have picked in the top five three times, four after this most recent draft. They picked in the top ten six times including the 2022 NHL Draft. They’ve hit pretty consistently with these picks. Only Pavel Zacha is a real “bust”, and he’s still an everyday player. He’s more a product of going in one of the best draft classes in NHL history.
This season, the Devils pick second overall. They’ve had the second-overall pick two times, and they ended up with Kirk Muller and Brendan Shanahan. Those are two great players from the era prior to the Devils championship wins.
The Devils have a pretty good track record at second overall. It seems like they have a lot of choices at second overall. Logan Cooley could be the best player available. Simon Nemec and David Jiricek are two right-handed defensemen that could solidify this unit for years to come. However, right now, it’s becoming almost impossible to go any other direction than Juraj Slafkovsky.
Slafkovsky is playing lights out for Team Slovakia at the World Championships. He has seven points in six games, and he looks like he belongs alongside NHL players. He’s eighth in points per game in the entire tournament. He’s made other players look stupid while trying to cover him.
https://twitter.com/HockeyNewsHub/status/1527726007175741447
Juraj Slafkovsky with a snipe.🎯#SUISVK #IIHFWorlds pic.twitter.com/vCNfWcrd4C
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 18, 2022
It’s getting to the point that legitimate hockey personalities are actually talking about the Montreal Canadiens taking Juraj Slafkovsky first overall over Shane Wright. That still seems like a long shot. Remember, many wanted the Devils to truly consider Kaapo Kakko over Jack Hughes. It just seems like a legit first-overall pick gets picked over and over again, and that leads to analysts overstating their flaws and accentuating a player’s strengths when they aren’t the traditional top player.
Still, is there any way the Devils can take Cooley, Nemec, or Jiricek after the performance they are seeing from Slafkovsky? He looks like he can jump onto Jack Hughes’ line tomorrow and produce at a high level. Imagine Yegor Sharangovich joining Hughes and Slafkovsky for the next eight seasons? That’s how you build a brand and an offense.
The Devils still have a hard decision, but it will be incredibly hard to tell this fanbase that there’s a better player to take over Slafkovsky. He has a ton of size already, he seems to know how to use his skill at a high level, and his lethal shot is exactly what Hughes needs on a top line.
Is the Devils’ pick becoming a no brainer? It’s not exactly fair since Cooley and Wright aren’t playing. Nemec and Jiricek are playing, and they’re doing fine. However, Slafkovsky, coming off a stellar Olympics performance earlier this year, is shining on the international stage again. His regular-season numbers are mediocre compared to other players at the top of previous drafts. Slafkovsky had 10 points in 31 games in Liiga last season. Kappo had 38 in 45 games in his final season in that league.
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It’s not a done deal yet, but it’s getting closer to seeing this draft as one-two and then everyone else. Cooley seems like a stellar player, Nemec and Jiricek could grow into amazing defenders, but Slafkovsky could be the final piece to the puzzle.