New Jersey Devils Full Seven-Round Mock Draft

The New Jersey Devils have a very important NHL Draft coming on Thursday and Friday. This is supposed to be the last draft where the team is still in “rebuilding” mode. That should mean it’s the last draft where they are still trying to find the best possible pieces at the top of each round.

It all starts with the second-overall pick. We’ve done deep dives on the forwards likely available, the right-handed defensemen they could pick, and of course, the slim possibility that they can take Shane Wright. These are five incredibly intriguing options that the Devils much choose between. Do they go for the forward with upside? Do they hope the guy ranked first the entire time falls to them? Is getting a future right-handed defenseman more important than anything else? How much does being NHL ready mean to the Devils?

There are so many questions to answer, so let’s get right into it with the second-overall pick. We will choose all nine picks for the Devils in a way to have a very successful draft. For this exercise, we will use FC Hockey’s Draft Simulator to know who is still available with our picks.

1st Round, 2nd Overall
Juraj Slafkovsky, TPS Liiga

This pick has been everywhere for all Devils fans. Some are all in on Logan Cooley. Others are falling in love with Simon Nemec or David Jiricek. Shane Wright seems like a dream scenario, but in this version of the draft the Canadiens took him. There are a lot of signs saying he will be available to the Devils at two, but in this simulation he was taken by the Montreal Canadiens. So, the Devils go for the supreme winger in Juraj Slafkovsky.

We are going to pine over this pick over and over and over again. This feels similar to the 2017 NHL Draft where there were five supreme athletes in the top five, and four of them became superstars. The Devils are looking at a very high likelihood they have a winner on their hands, but if they pick wrong, it could be devastating.

Think about how much better the situation would be in Philadelphia if they got Elias Pettersson instead of Nolan Patrick. Even Miro Heiskanen would be a huge upgrade. However, this is a much different situation. Cooley, Slafkovsky, and Wright are just completely different players. This isn’t Patrick vs. Hischier, where you’re picking the best two-way center. This is picking a player who you can project to be the best. Slafkovsky has performed when the lights are brightest. He has a size and scoring ability that is just missing on the Devils. The team hoped that Alex Holtz would bring that right away, but it’s taken him a little longer than expected.

Slafkovsky has a slim chance to make the NHL right away, but at worst he’s one year away. The Devils will wait the one year if they have to if he has a chance to jump into the top six right away. Imagine if they get someone on Hischier or Jack Hughes’ wing for the foreseeable future? That’s priceless.