The New Jersey Devils had a choice in 2022. They won the right to pick second in the NHL Draft, and many believe the Montreal Canadiens took their expected choice, Juraj Slafkovsky. That left them with a choice between four options: Simon Nemec, David Jiricek, Shane Wright, and Logan Cooley.
The Devils surprisingly went with Simon Nemec. Back then, we called for them to draft Shane Wright. Despite the need, the Devils still could have gone for Shane Wright. While they didn’t have a top-line center position open, and they didn’t even have a second-line center position open, they still should have gone for the player who was the best that was available.
As much as we like Nemec, Wright was the best player available at that time.
Wright hasn’t taken the path many expected. He struggled for the next two years after he fell to fourth to the Seattle Kraken. He couldn’t make it into the NHL as a full-time player until this season. He spent basically a full year with the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
This past season, he played well, but it’s not “first-overall pick three years in” well. Think about Jack Hughes, who largely struggled to start his career. Hughes had more points than Wright did last season, putting up 56 points in just 49 games. Wright needed 79 games to get to 44 points.
The big question is, “Why would the Kraken trade a 21-year-old franchise center?”
For one, the Seattle Kraken is under new management. Jason Botterill took over as general manager this offseason. They hired a new head coach in Lane Lambert. While Ron Francis is still in-house as the President of Hockey Operations, there could be a new philosophy for roster building.
The Kraken have $10 million in cap space and no good free agents to spend it on. They did make a trade for Mason Marchment and signed Ryan Lindgren to a big contract. Those moves were taken with very different reactions from the public.
This is a team that still very much needs a lot to be competitive. Many thought they would buy out Phillip Grubauer, but that didn’t happen. The expectation was they would take advantage of their status as a no-tax state to sign the big free agents, but the only one they got was Lindgren, and nobody expected them to pay that much for him.
What could the Devils offer to the Kraken to move the needle on Shane Wright?
Any deal probably starts with Dawson Mercer. He’s just 23 years old and would add upside to their forward group. They probably have to add a right-handed defenseman, but there’s no world where they trade the Kraken Simon Nemec. That would be claiming a major failure of the Tom Fitzgerald era. While Fitzgerald is allowed to call it quits on a prospect (see Pavel Zacha and Alexander Holtz), it’s much different to call it quits for the player you directly had a chance to get.
That’s why the Devils switch out Seamus Casey. He’s a really exciting prospect, but he had a chance to show he had NHL upside last season. He has flaws, but he’s an amazing offensive defenseman. The Kraken could use that right now.
There would be some other pieces to make it make sense. We’re thinking another prospect that’s close to NHL-ready without being a superstar and a second or third-round pick.
A deal can be done here. The Devils have extra assets and a major need. Wright playing third-line center for the team for the foreseeable future, and a chance to jump in if the Devils' top two centers go down. This is a way to secure the future while enhancing the present.