Was there a busier team in the NHL Draft than the New Jersey Devils? While this article is primarily about the best, worst, and most intriguing draft picks, the Devils made a few trades over the last two days, sending John Marino to the Utah Hockey Club, and they also sent some assets to the Vegas Golden Knights in what may have been a ticky-tacky move.
But you can’t say the same about first-round pick Anton Silayev, who fell right to New Jersey with the 10th pick. But even the Silayev pick wasn’t the surefire safest, so I won’t sit here and claim that he was the Devils best selection over the past two days.
If you ask me, the Devils best pick came in the sixth round when they took Matyas Melovsky with the 171st overall selection. He was a near point-per-game player in 2022-23 before he snagged 60 points and 18 goals in 53 games this past season, plus another five goals and 19 points in 17 playoff games.
Often, I save the late-round picks as the “most intriguing,” but wow, a physical playmaker who is currently 6’1, 190 pounds? That’s something. He’s 20 years old, so we’re looking at an older prospect, and that could have explained his monumental slide, but general manager Tom Fitzgerald made an excellent move here.
New Jersey Devils had an okay draft outside the first and sixth rounds
I’ll often talk about a bad pick, but I didn’t get a lot of Fitzgerald’s moves here, trading away goaltender Akira Schmid and drafting Mikhail Yegorov in the second round, plus Veeti Louhivaara in the fifth. I don’t have a problem with either goaltender, but it’s more of the fact that he had a decent one who could have evolved into a sound NHLer far sooner than the above two, and it’s particularly alarming, considering neither Jacob Markstrom nor Jake Allen are young.
I did, however, find Kasper Pikkarainen rather intriguing, as the 6’3, 198-pound winger excels with his shooting ability and physicality. He may not be the most productive player out there, with 35 points and 14 goals in 46 regular season and playoff games, but he’s someone I can see eventually giving the Devils value on the lower lines.
Overall, this was one of the more interesting drafts in the NHL, but one that also had quite a bit of value late with the Matyas Melovsky pick.
(Statistics powered by Elite Prospects)