Prospect Info: 2022 Devils Draft Review, Recap and Grades

[AfroThunder396]

Always appreciate the work you put in.

 

[MakoSlade]

Oops -- edit! Edit!

Wow, how deep is our prospect pool if we're forgetting about Luke!

 

[Guadana]

Nemec above Edvinsson is nice . I don’t know much about Nemec but if that approx how much potential he has then I’m very impressed

Lets not... deceive yourself. Nemec has better offensive ceiling, but for now Edvinsson in miles ahead of Nemec in defensive game. His tools will help him in evry zone. Nemec should learn a lot how to be much more better two way defenseman.

I like Nemec a lot and I`m pretty happy we did draft him, but It`s to early to put him ahead of Edvinsson.

 

[StevenToddIves]

How does Casey compare to Zellweger? In my very uninformed opinion, I feel like Casey is a much better skater and defender.

Casey gets the edges exactly where you said -- skating and defending. Zellweger is better offensively, more dynamic with the puck.

Stylistically, Casey is more calm and cerebral, while Zellweger is more go-go-go. They're both excellent prospects, but both face the same challenge of trying to defend really powerful NHL forwards while in the 5'10-5'11-170s range. This is not an impossible task -- the Devils own Andy Greene topped out at 5'11-190 and was one of the better one-on-one defenders in the NHL for several years.

Good stuff; I like that they took notice that this was a D-heavy draft, saw the organizational deficiency at RD, and decided now was the time to stock up. That's not so much "drafting for need", it's acknowledging that there's a solid number of options at a position of need in a given year's draft and reacting accordingly. Next year should have some serious talent at center available, look forward to them doing some legwork for that no matter where they pick after next season.

What's really nice is not just that the Devils "drafted a lot of defensemen", but also what a wide variety of defensemen they drafted. There's some real diversity of talent in this class.

 

[StevenToddIves]

@StevenToddIves Many many thanks to lead us through another draft cycle. I really hope next year you can focus on those mid first round forwards.

Question: When the Devils picked Seamus Casey you seemed to be not as excited about the pick. In your write up the positive clearly outweighs and I am extremely surprised about your A Grade. Could you tell me, what changed your valuation of this pick?

I liked Seamus Casey all year long while I watched a ton of the US-NTDP. While Lane Hutson was the best offensive D and Ryan Chesley the best defensive D, Casey was the best all-around D. I ranked him about exactly where he was drafted, at #47 overall.

Frankly, I worry about the ability of undersized defenders to survive in the modern NHL unless they offer elite offense, like a Quinn Hughes. Seamus Casey is very adept offensively, but he's never going to be a dominate-the-game-pace guy. But the more I thought about it, the more the pick grew on me because, quite frankly, Casey is also very, very sound defensively.

This is to say I don't think this is a player comparable to recent Devils problematic undersized D like Will Butcher and Reilly Walsh, because Casey skates extremely well and can defend the position.

If I seemed unexcited at the time of the pick, I don't think it had anything to do with Casey, so much as the fact that Washington just drafted a RD I loved at the Devils original position of #36, and there were a couple of players I really loved left on the draft board when the Devils picked at #46 in RD Tristan Luneau and W Adam Sykora and W Alexander Perevalov. None of that is on Casey, it's on me.

The fact is that Seamus Casey has the potential to become a very good and productive 2nd-pairing RD at the NHL level, and I have little doubt he was the highest ranked player on the NJ draft board when he was selected. So, in those terms, I have to be firmly behind the pick.

 

[StevenToddIves]

IMO, Fitz, did a great job in this draft. He was trying to improve one of the weak parts of the Devil's game.

Fitzgerald and co. also drafted with clear strategy and vision, something we had not seen in the previous two drafts. A lot of high-floor players, a lot of RD, and a variety of player types. We can't understate that Tyler Brennan is the highest-upside goalie the Devils have drafted since, at the very least, Mackenzie Blackwood. And outside of Hauser, it's pretty safe to say that every pick was a fair value at where the Devils selected them. Just a very solid job by the Devils brass.

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

It's always good to get Steve's input on prospects. The fact that he was pretty happy with the Devils 2022 Draft Selections is a reassuring things for all of the other posters on here. I'm really liking the Casey pick the more I read up about him. I also love that we took another goalie and Brenanan seems to.be a good one at that. The goalie system doesn't have a pick goalie in it like Knight , Askarov or Oettinger but as we have learned over time alot of them go between the 2nd and 4th round. Shesterkin was a 4th round pick in 2014 as an example.

 

[StevenToddIves]

@StevenToddIves

I'm also interested to hear this and also another question has your opinion on Michael Mastrodomenico (STI rank #44) and Logan Morrison (STI rank #33) changed at all after seeing every team pass on them?

No.

Sometimes NHL teams just miss.

In the 2020 and 2021 drafts, I highly touted over-aged W Dmitri Rashevsky. He was finally drafted in the 5th round last year as a double-overager. This means Rashevsky was passed over in the NHL Draft about 560 times before finally being selected (Winnipeg). Last year, Rashevsky led U22 KHL forwards in both goals and points (NJ prospect Gritsyuk second in both, by the way). His 0.79 PPG rate was 7th all time for 21 year old KHL forwards, and three of the names in front of him were Kaprizov, Kuznetsov and Tarasenko. In a 2021 re-draft, Rashevsky is a likely first round pick.

As for Michael Mastrodomenico, it's back to the drawing board, but a good freshman season at Notre Dame next year should hear his name called in the 2023 draft. He's got a great mix of size (6'2-195) and skating and plays physically, as well as having nice skills with the puck. There's no red flags, here.

I'm not sure what Logan Morrison's future holds, to be honest. He's too old for the OHL, and he's without a contract. I have no idea how a player can dominate the OHL playoffs so convincingly and thoroughly and still get passed over. To be honest, it's almost shameful in a sense.

Hopefully, a team will give him a training camp tryout. Maybe we should start a letter writing campaign to the Devils to give Morrison a one-year deal. He'd immediately jump to #1 on the Devils center prospect depth chart, and no one drafted him. It's downright baffling.

Many thanks Steven for your posts, I always enjoy reading them all.

By any chance will you be reranking the Devil's prospect pool by position?

That's my next piece of work. Then I'll try to do a quick draft review for every NHL team by division. Then I'm on vacation haha.

 

[Darkauron]

I see always a few overagers in the CHL every year that do really well points wise, but everyone just passes over them in the draft. And then they go to nhl training camps to get contracts. Dont really pay attention if those players ever really make a name for themselves though.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

No.

Sometimes NHL teams just miss.

In the 2020 and 2021 drafts, I highly touted over-aged W Dmitri Rashevsky. He was finally drafted in the 5th round last year as a double-overager. This means Rashevsky was passed over in the NHL Draft about 560 times before finally being selected (Winnipeg). Last year, Rashevsky led U22 KHL forwards in both goals and points (NJ prospect Gritsyuk second in both, by the way). His 0.79 PPG rate was 7th all time for 21 year old KHL forwards, and three of the names in front of him were Kaprizov, Kuznetsov and Tarasenko. In a 2021 re-draft, Rashevsky is a likely first round pick.

As for Michael Mastrodomenico, it's back to the drawing board, but a good freshman season at Notre Dame next year should hear his name called in the 2023 draft. He's got a great mix of size (6'2-195) and skating and plays physically, as well as having nice skills with the puck. There's no red flags, here.

I'm not sure what Logan Morrison's future holds, to be honest. He's too old for the OHL, and he's without a contract. I have no idea how a player can dominate the OHL playoffs so convincingly and thoroughly and still get passed over. To be honest, it's almost shameful in a sense.

Hopefully, a team will give him a training camp tryout. Maybe we should start a letter writing campaign to the Devils to give Morrison a one-year deal. He'd immediately jump to #1 on the Devils center prospect depth chart, and no one drafted him. It's downright baffling.


That's my next piece of work. Then I'll try to do a quick draft review for every NHL team by division. Then I'm on vacation haha.

Morrison has another year in the OHL

 

[My3Sons]

Until December. Omg. What we are going to do? We even didn't make a podcast, didn't open our own YouTube channel and even didn't start our own prospects tv show. Can fell this year completed without it.

Its a best Fitz draft. The only thing I regret that we drafted Hauser and few picks later Dallasdrafted Mayorov. He was my goalie pick on this draft. Big, mobile, with good stats. Could be a great addition as a potential starter after 5-7 years from the draft.

And I would prefer to trade some second third round picks for Smith or Zacha. There were enough forwards with top 6 potential. Smith especially. Afrer next year Devils should invite Luke. And even Nemec may be. Graves and Sevs deals will come to an end. It could be to much rockie defensemen for one nhl season. They should start now and open the spot for Okhotiuk and Bahl to make for them a room for adapting and playing nhl roles, to have more experience and find a way to build their groove in nhl. I don't wanna see defensive line full of pp defensemen or be in the situation where we should try to invite 3 defensemen in the same time. Even two defensemen is too much, if we have play off ambition in the next two seasons.Hope they will give Nemec and Luke all the time they need in AHL to mature and adapt their game for NA adult level.

Draft was very good, but I can't give the maximum rank when I saw Carolina, who did draft 4-5 guys with real NHL potential without first round picks. It's phenomenal.

Look, you have a lot of work to do in the meantime that will keep you busy until December. First you have to check in on Gritsyuk to work on that nickname. Then you have to stop over to tell Mukhamadullin that we all appreciated him coming over for a quick round with Utica. After that it gets tough. Orlov signed a four year deal the day after the draft? What is wrong with him? He has to know his first priority is the NJ fan base!!! Are you seeing all those exclamation points? That means I must be making a valid point. Explain to him that he needs to tell Spartak it can only be a three year contract because he needs to compete for the NJ blueline after that. Once you set him straight you have to start working on Barbashoa. The nickname will have to be something related to the Pirates of the Caribbean character but beyond that I’m sure he is feeling a bit unwanted since he was a seventh round pick. You can show him @StevenToddIves rankings so he will know how we all really believe in him. Tell him there is a clear path to an NHL spot at RD in NJ if he rounds out his game. We are all rooting for him. We expect regular reports on your progress. Once STI gets back to us at the end of the year we can figure out your next assignments. In the meantime you had best get started those players aren’t going to recruit themselves to NJ.

 

[Guadana]

Look, you have a lot of work to do in the meantime that will keep you busy until December. First you have to check in on Gritsyuk to work on that nickname. Then you have to stop over to tell Mukhamadullin that we all appreciated him coming over for a quick round with Utica. After that it gets tough. Orlov signed a four year deal the day after the draft? What is wrong with him? He has to know his first priority is the NJ fan base!!! Are you seeing all those exclamation points? That means I must be making a valid point. Explain to him that he needs to tell Spartak it can only be a three year contract because he needs to compete for the NJ blueline after that. Once you set him straight you have to start working on Barbashoa. The nickname will have to be something related to the Pirates of the Caribbean character but beyond that I’m sure he is feeling a bit unwanted since he was a seventh round pick. You can show him @StevenToddIves rankings so he will know how we all really believe in him. Tell him there is a clear path to an NHL spot at RD in NJ if he rounds out his game. We are all rooting for him. We expect regular reports on your progress. Once STI gets back to us at the end of the year we can figure out your next assignments. In the meantime you had best get started those players aren’t going to recruit themselves to NJ.

Joke aside, at least I will try to connect with them.

I would try to start to find another power forwards for devils. One was drafted by Mtl, another one was drafted by Philly, another one was drafted by hurricanes. That was really hard for me. But we can work it out. We can work it out.

 

[Unknown Caller]

lanes.

Grade: A
One pick after taking the best bet for a top-pairing RD, the Devils took the best bet for a second-pairing RD. And the pick looks even better when we consider we would be underselling Casey to say he doesn’t have top-pairing upside himself.

 

[StevenToddIves]

Look, you have a lot of work to do in the meantime that will keep you busy until December. First you have to check in on Gritsyuk to work on that nickname. Then you have to stop over to tell Mukhamadullin that we all appreciated him coming over for a quick round with Utica. After that it gets tough. Orlov signed a four year deal the day after the draft? What is wrong with him? He has to know his first priority is the NJ fan base!!! Are you seeing all those exclamation points? That means I must be making a valid point. Explain to him that he needs to tell Spartak it can only be a three year contract because he needs to compete for the NJ blueline after that. Once you set him straight you have to start working on Barbashoa. The nickname will have to be something related to the Pirates of the Caribbean character but beyond that I’m sure he is feeling a bit unwanted since he was a seventh round pick. You can show him @StevenToddIves rankings so he will know how we all really believe in him. Tell him there is a clear path to an NHL spot at RD in NJ if he rounds out his game. We are all rooting for him. We expect regular reports on your progress. Once STI gets back to us at the end of the year we can figure out your next assignments. In the meantime you had best get started those players aren’t going to recruit themselves to NJ.

"Are you seeing all those exclamation points? That means I must be making a valid point."
-- HFBoards Quote Of The Year, 2022

 

[DevilDog]

Fitzgerald and co. also drafted with clear strategy and vision, something we had not seen in the previous two drafts. A lot of high-floor players, a lot of RD, and a variety of player types. We can't understate that Tyler Brennan is the highest-upside goalie the Devils have drafted since, at the very least, Mackenzie Blackwood. And outside of Hauser, it's pretty safe to say that every pick was a fair value at where the Devils selected them. Just a very solid job by the Devils brass.

I’ve seen it said Fitzgerald’s 1st draft was really Shero’s. His 2nd had his staff in place, but lacked an organizational strategy. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come and is an indication of an improvement in the teams approach to scouting and the draft.

 

[nugg]

No.

Sometimes NHL teams just miss.

In the 2020 and 2021 drafts, I highly touted over-aged W Dmitri Rashevsky. He was finally drafted in the 5th round last year as a double-overager. This means Rashevsky was passed over in the NHL Draft about 560 times before finally being selected (Winnipeg). Last year, Rashevsky led U22 KHL forwards in both goals and points (NJ prospect Gritsyuk second in both, by the way). His 0.79 PPG rate was 7th all time for 21 year old KHL forwards, and three of the names in front of him were Kaprizov, Kuznetsov and Tarasenko. In a 2021 re-draft, Rashevsky is a likely first round pick.

As for Michael Mastrodomenico, it's back to the drawing board, but a good freshman season at Notre Dame next year should hear his name called in the 2023 draft. He's got a great mix of size (6'2-195) and skating and plays physically, as well as having nice skills with the puck. There's no red flags, here.

I'm not sure what Logan Morrison's future holds, to be honest. He's too old for the OHL, and he's without a contract. I have no idea how a player can dominate the OHL playoffs so convincingly and thoroughly and still get passed over. To be honest, it's almost shameful in a sense.

Hopefully, a team will give him a training camp tryout. Maybe we should start a letter writing campaign to the Devils to give Morrison a one-year deal. He'd immediately jump to #1 on the Devils center prospect depth chart, and no one drafted him. It's downright baffling.


That's my next piece of work. Then I'll try to do a quick draft review for every NHL team by division. Then I'm on vacation haha.

I did a little research. Logan Morrison is in Dallas' development camp. I really wanted us to get him.

 

[StevenToddIves]

I did a little research. Logan Morrison is in Dallas' development camp. I really wanted us to get him.

Yeah, Morrison is a big miss. He'd be the Devils #1 center prospect by a country mile.

 

[TBF1972]

Yeah, Morrison is a big miss. He'd be the Devils #1 center prospect by a country mile.

Who is a fit in 2023 first round? Leo Carlsson could be available, where the Devils pick. Or do the Devils finally invest in their SC starter?

 

[BxDevilsFan]

Great job @StevenToddIves, @Guadana, @Jason MacIsaac as always. I really like this draft especially some of the late round picks. Filmon is someone I'm keeping my eye on as well as Barabosha. The lack of center men can hopefully be filled in next year's draft. Do you think we still need a power forward?

 

[Guadana]

Great job @StevenToddIves, @Guadana, @Jason MacIsaac as always. I really like this draft especially some of the late round picks. Filmon is someone I'm keeping my eye on as well as Barabosha. The lack of center men can hopefully be filled in next year's draft. Do you think we still need a power forward?

I would say power forward is number 1 need. Of course we have lack of centers in depth chart, but we dont have any player who drive the net, play on rebounds and redirect the puck, create space for partners and for himself, actively forecheck and close the gaps on boards etc in top-6. Sharangovich trying to do the part of it, but it`s better to use him as shooter. Nico is trying to do the part of it, but I prefer to use him differently. At least take the part of this responsabiliteis out of him.

 

[StevenToddIves]

Great job @StevenToddIves, @Guadana, @Jason MacIsaac as always. I really like this draft especially some of the late round picks. Filmon is someone I'm keeping my eye on as well as Barabosha. The lack of center men can hopefully be filled in next year's draft. Do you think we still need a power forward?

I agree with @Guadana that center is the top NJ organizational need, while power F is the top NJ need at the professional level.

With Nichushkin signed in Colorado, I'd really like to see the Devils go after Nino Niederreiter, who has the requisite skill to play in a top 6 while offering a strong, interior game which the Devils desperately lack. Remember, the Devils were 3rd in the entire NHL in goals scored off the rush last year, while finishing near the bottom of the league in goals scored off the cycle. It's a huge discrepancy, quite frankly I've never seen anything like it. Or, in simpler terms, when Nate Bastian is playing on your 1PP because no one else on your team can get any penetration in the crease for rebounds and deflections and screens, your team has a problem.

Quite frankly, the Devils filled a huge need with the acquisition of G Vitek Vanicek from Washington. And they're likely still in on signing Johnny Gaudreau. But I'm still not sure they make the playoffs in a brutal Metropolitan Division without an interior forward for the top 6.

 

[StevenToddIves]

Who is a fit in 2023 first round? Leo Carlsson could be available, where the Devils pick. Or do the Devils finally invest in their SC starter?

Charlie Stramel is my big hope for the 2023 draft, he's the Cutter Gauthier-est player I can see at the top of the class right now, and the Devils need a power forward pretty desperately. Since the Devils need at C is more depth than top of the line-up, I'd like to see the Devils aim more for that position in the middle and late rounds.

 

[StevenToddIves]

It's always good to get Steve's input on prospects. The fact that he was pretty happy with the Devils 2022 Draft Selections is a reassuring things for all of the other posters on here. I'm really liking the Casey pick the more I read up about him. I also love that we took another goalie and Brenanan seems to.be a good one at that. The goalie system doesn't have a pick goalie in it like Knight , Askarov or Oettinger but as we have learned over time alot of them go between the 2nd and 4th round. Shesterkin was a 4th round pick in 2014 as an example.

The Devils 2022 draft showed a strategy and vision the previous two drafts lacked. There are good picks and there are bad picks, but in my opinion picks like Baumgartner and Hurtig eclipsed simple "bad picks" and could only be seen as a complete breakdown. The very reason to draft over-agers is because you see an ability to sign them imminently. You don't "take a flyer" on a 19 or 20 year old, because they're already further down the development path.

In 2022, the Devils clearly singled out needs and went after them, while still managing to not stray far from a "best player available" philosophy. Every pick had intent and logic. Outside of the obvious high quality of the Devils top two picks -- which addressed RD need while getting high-talent players -- of Nemec and Casey, later picks of Leddy and Barabosha were both in the conversation for "best available player" where they were selected. The Brennan pick was a windfall -- getting a potential starting NHL goalie in the 4th round is just tremendous. Even if Brennan never becomes what we hope, it still should be remembered as a great pick because Fitzgerald and co. took a huge swing for the fences at a position of need.

The pick I was least fond of in the draft -- Petr Hauser -- still made me happy in the sense that the Devils still identified a lack of power Fs in the system and strode to address the need. The most redundant pick -- LD Daniil Orlov -- still was a good pick because he has the talent (and elite skating) to rocket up the LD depth charts, and was easily believable high atop the Devils "best available player" list in the 4th round where the Devils took him.

Virtually every Devils pick in 2022 had a high floor or fit a need or both. Every pick is a good-or-better skater except Hauser. There was clearly a strategy, which was sorely needed after a breakdown-of-communication 2021 draft which, after the obviously great Luke Hughes pick, only resulted in a bottom-of-the-line-up pair of forwards in Stillman and Bardakov, a lottery ticket in net with Malek, and a few players it's virtually impossible to envision making the pro club in NJ in Salminen, Vilen and Hurtig.

Most importantly, Fitzgerald saw the need to improve the management cohesion on draft day, and improved on his #1 area of weakness. This not only rewarded the organization with an influx of talent from a strong 2022 draft, but also gave great hope that future drafts will also be performed by the Devils at a far higher level.

 

[Devs3cups]

 

[Guadana]

Haha! It's all good. Now that the draft is completed, how would your top 6-7 D prospects rank up? I remember we had this discussion a few months back, and I believe your ranking was something like:

1. Power
2. Sanderson
3. L. Hughes
4. Faber
5. Edvinsson

Have Nemec/Jiricek changed that ranking? If so, where do they slot?

I give you hot take. Power isn`t the most talented prospect defenseman outside NHL.