While he can still be a useful player for us, I know many of us Devils fans were a little worried about taking Pavel Zacha at #6 in 2015. Spent a lot of time debating whether to take Hanifin/Provorov if they were available, but I think the team might have pigeonholed itself into taking a forward. But it's easy to forget what our NHL forwards looked like in 2015: New Jersey Devils 2014-15 roster and scoring statistics at hockeydb.com
Definitely some 'hindsight is 20/20' for some other picks:
1997: J.F. Damphousse (24th overall), Brenden Morrow (25th 0verall) - Easy to take for granted that Martin Brodeur would play as long as he did, but they wanted an insurance policy if Brodeur bolted via free agency. The Devils were only a couple years removed from a Brodeur holdout.
2002: Anton Kadeykin (51st overall), Duncan Keith (52nd overall), Barry Tallackson (53rd overall) - Unfortunately the Devils the two picks sandwiched around Keith.
2005: Nicklas Bergfors (23rd overall), T.J. Oshie (24th overall) - In fairness, at the time Bergfors was ranked higher and Oshie was an astute off the board selection by Jarmo Kekalainen when he was working for St. Louis.
2008: Mattias Tedenby (24th overall), John Carlson (27th overall) - Carlson seemed like the RH puckmoving D that we lacked in the system. And as a bonus he was a New Jersey kid who was a Devils fan. But the team opted for Tedenby who was ranked higher than Carlson in pretty much every ranking I can remember. But he slid on draft day, presumably because teams had questions about his hockey sense.
Definitely some 'hindsight is 20/20' for some other picks:
1997: J.F. Damphousse (24th overall), Brenden Morrow (25th 0verall) - Easy to take for granted that Martin Brodeur would play as long as he did, but they wanted an insurance policy if Brodeur bolted via free agency. The Devils were only a couple years removed from a Brodeur holdout.
2002: Anton Kadeykin (51st overall), Duncan Keith (52nd overall), Barry Tallackson (53rd overall) - Unfortunately the Devils the two picks sandwiched around Keith.
2005: Nicklas Bergfors (23rd overall), T.J. Oshie (24th overall) - In fairness, at the time Bergfors was ranked higher and Oshie was an astute off the board selection by Jarmo Kekalainen when he was working for St. Louis.
2008: Mattias Tedenby (24th overall), John Carlson (27th overall) - Carlson seemed like the RH puckmoving D that we lacked in the system. And as a bonus he was a New Jersey kid who was a Devils fan. But the team opted for Tedenby who was ranked higher than Carlson in pretty much every ranking I can remember. But he slid on draft day, presumably because teams had questions about his hockey sense.