Trades aside, the Devils filled a need and acquired a stud defenseman and some other players who have a chance. Here’s my take on a mostly successful draft class.
To put it mildly, it was an eventful two days for the Devils at the NHL draft. This post will not focus on the trades, other than to say, it seemed to be one of Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald’s goals to acquire draft capital for next year’s draft, as he acquired several picks for next year. I think this is wise as it gives the Devils more assets to accumulate depth at the trade deadline, but we shall see how it plays out. For coverage of the elephant in the room trade, please read John’s excellent summary here.
As a class, the draft filled one of the biggest team needs in its prospect pool in my opinion — strength and compete. It is little secret that the Devils are not exactly tough to play against. Not only did that hurt them this season, but it will be a death knell late in the playoffs should the team make a deep run. Simply put, the Devils need to get tougher and stronger as they built around their highly-skilled core. This draft accomplished that — at least by putting players in the pipeline for sometime down the road.
The Big Fish
I am personally over the moon on the Anton Silayev pick as I thought he’d go Top 5 in this draft and he’s the perfect complement defenseman to what the Devils are building on their blueline. A true shut-down archetype, but with great speed and high-end skating all in a 6’7’’ frame. Silayev is no slouch on offense either. He plays the power play in the KHL as a 17-year-old. That is extremely impressive given the KHL’s typical under utilization of young defenseman. While offense will not be his calling card, I would not expect it to be a hindrance either. Silayev, who is already a beast, will only get stronger as he develops and I do not think it is a stretch to compare his ceiling to someone like Victor Hedman. That is not to say he will definitely reach that level, at least offensively, but I think the possibility is there. Either way, the Devils have the perfect top-pairing compliment of the future for someone like Luke Hughes or Simon Nemec. The Silayev pick alone makes this a winning draft class for me.
Other Slightly-Less Large Fish
Later round picks are always a bit of a crapshoot, but I like most of the Devils selections. Mikhail Yegurov was the highest ranked NA goalie by Central Scouting. While his numbers were not great, his athleticism is, and the Omaha Lancers were a horrorshow in the USHL this past season. Personally, I would have waited until the third round and selected Pavel Moysevich, but I would have been shut out once the Devils traded back twice as the Golden Knights took my personal favorite goalie in the draft two picks before the Devils snagged Kaspar Pikkarainen.
Speaking of Pikkarainen, I love the pick. As evident by All About the Jersey profiling the player before the draft, Pikkarainen was one of the players I was hoping the Devils would take in the 3rd round. Pikkarainen was listed as a potential sleeper on multiple sites including this excellent write-up by the Hockey Writers. As most players in the later rounds do not make the NHL, a sleeper is really what you are looking for. In Pikkarainen, I see a pest of a player, who plays a strong defensive game and who has shown flashes of play-making brilliance. If Pikkarainen’s decision-making catches up with his puck skills, there is potential for a top of the lineup player here. Even if not, Pikkarainen is the perfect archetype of a bottom six energy forward, who chips in offensively. Time will tell where he ends up.
I see a similar player in Herman Traff, selected by the Devils as their second selection in the 3rd round, only with a bit more uncertainty. Traff’s ceiling has been compared to Tage Thompson, which is one heckuva ceiling, but let’s not put too much pressure on the kid. The reality is that Traff is far more likely to become someone like A.J. Greer than Thompson and that would be a successful third round pick in its own right if that were the case. Still, Traff has the tools to be a high-end power forward if he can put it together, so the comparisons to Thompson for a ceiling are not entirely without merit. As with all picks in this range, time will tell if he does. Let’s hope he does.
For the Devils last three selections, Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald chose two double-overager centers and goaltender Veeti Louhivaara. I have very few thoughts on the goaltender as the position is very hard to predict, especially this late in the draft. Hopefully, he pans out.
As to the double-overagers, I really like the Matyas Melovosky pick and I expect him to contribute to the Utica Comets fairly soon. I think Melovsky has a shot to play in the NHL, which is very good value for a sixth round pick. Max Graham is a tough player, known for fighting majors and leading the WHL in penalty minutes, in a role that saw him protecting the smaller star players on his team. I am not against acquiring Max Graham for the Devils system. I understand the move. I do think; however, the Devils could have signed him as a free agent after the draft, but I will defer to their scouting team as they know a lot more than I do about any buzz there might have been about teams taking Graham late in the draft and if the Devils want their man, I cannot fault them for getting him.
Those are my thoughts on this year’s draft class. I look forward to seeing them in development camp. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.