The New Jersey Devils already have some very nice young players in their NHL lineup that people should be excited about. Kids like Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, Dawson Mercer, Yegor Sharangovich, and Jesper Bratt have all had their moments of brilliance. They all have extremely bright futures.
However, more help is on the way. Scott Wheeler of The Athletic just recently released his Top 50 drafted NHL prospects ranking for 2022. When New Jersey Devils fans read it they will certainly enjoy what they see.
Owen Power of the Buffalo Sabres is currently the number one prospect in the NHL. Right behind him is fellow Michigan Wolverines defenseman and New Jersey Devils prospect Luke Hughes. The fact that he is ranked this high is very telling.
Of course, Luke is the younger brother of Devils All-Star Jack Hughes. The two of them are going to be cornerstones on this team for a long time as one is a forward and one is a defenseman. If each of them reaches their potential, the Devils will win a lot of hockey games.
The New Jersey Devils have some really nice prospects to be excited about.
The cool thing here is that Simon Nemec is ranked as the number four prospect there. The Devils drafted Nemec with the second overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft which surprised a lot of people as Shane Wright was still on the board.
Wright was listed one spot ahead of him at number three after being drafted fourth overall by the Seattle Kraken. That is a bit concerning as we can only hope that the Devils didn’t make a franchise-altering mistake by passing on him.
Later down the list, you will find Alexander Holtz at number 17. He has dropped a little bit in the eyes of some scouts but he is still looking like he could be a very good NHL player. If he simply comes to the NHL and becomes a good pure goal scorer, the Devils will be happy with him. If he becomes more than that, they are really looking good. He has shown flashes.
Those top 50 guys aren’t the only good ones either. New Jersey has other great prospects to be excited about and we saw some of them in 2021-22. This is a team that is on the rise and should be pretty good in relatively short order.
The fact that they are building almost all of it through the draft is very important. They are also putting a good amount of emphasis on every position rather than loading up on forwards or defensemen. 2022-23 is going to be very fun as we follow all these guys and their paths to the NHL.