2. Shane Wright
Seattle Kraken
We’d all love to go back in time and fix our mistakes. We said back when it became clear that the Montreal Canadiens were going to take Juraj Slafkovsky with the first-overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft that the Devils should take Shane Wright. Many thought it was unlikely because of the Devils' current centers (Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Dawson Mercer, and others), and they ended up being right. However, the Devils would love to have Wright today, as he’d fix many of the Devils' bottom six issues and eventually fit right into the top six.
Did the Devils make a mistake picking Nemec over Wright? It all depends on how this all plays out. Wright also had a hard time making it to the NHL and was widely criticized for how he was handled. The microscope has been on him since he fell from the expected number-one overall pick all the way to fourth. If he went second, the fall wouldn’t be covered as much, and the Devils might not need as much from him since the season after the pick went very well.
Would the Seattle Kraken even be open to such a move? It’s really hard to know, but we’ve seen these surprising trades for young players before. We saw the Anaheim Ducks trade Jamie Drysdale for Cutter Gauthier. Maybe we see something similar here, where the Devils add to the Kraken’s defensive needs (the Kraken have allowed the sixth-most goals per game), and they add to the Devils' need at forward.