Devils Draft Review

[SladeWilson23]

That is exactly true. I don't blame Shero for what the team looks like right now. The problem is, making progress in short increments is not going to do much for this team.

It really needs to be torn down to studs and rebuilt from the ground up. Otherwise they will be, at best, a bubble team for a long time.

See, this is what the tanking culture does. It produces people who thinks its really this simple, when in reality going the "blow it up" route is extremely risky.

 

[SeidoN]

how many total ground-up rebuilds have worked

 

[Tretyak 20]

I think we did ok, considering that the breaks didn't go our way. Like I said earlier, I think McLeod has the ceiling to be very much like Scott Gomez. Not a bad pick, considering who was still available.

Another thing I liked seeing is we didn't take any more "Lou/Conte specials" - Canadian forwards who had 5 goals, 12 assists and 297 PIM's in 60+ games.

Also noticed that we took relatively high-floor, low-ceiling picks in the 1st two rounds, then high-ceiling, low-floor picks beyond that. I liked that.

 

[NJDevs26]

Also noticed that we took relatively high-floor, low-ceiling picks in the 1st two rounds, then high-ceiling, low-floor picks beyond that. I liked that.

Same here...and I did too. Especially after the high celing players supposedly all got taken before us in the first round.

 

[JimEIV]

I think we did ok, considering that the breaks didn't go our way. Like I said earlier, I think McLeod has the ceiling to be very much like Scott Gomez. Not a bad pick, considering who was still available.

Gomez? Scott was super player his first 9 years the league....if we have ANY player in our system capable of putting up 60+ points 7 out of his first 9 years we're in pretty good shape.

 

[MadDevil]

I could see McLeod being a faster, more aggressive version of Zajac. Which I would be more than fine with. As much as Zajac gets **** on lately he's still been a damn good player for us.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

Nice draft review.

It appears the devils stocked the forward prospect cupboard and I like it, especially the right wingers we got - a major team need.

 

[Ripshot 43]

Steven

Thank you for taking the time to write this up. Much appreciated

 

[MichaelJ]

Nice draft review.

It appears the devils stocked the forward prospect cupboard and I like it, especially the right wingers we got - a major team need.

Palmieri, Bennett, DSP, Bastian, Speers, Anderson, Lappin....all of a sudden we have a lot of organizational depth at a position we had none. Some might stick, some might be trade bait, some might flame out but now the team has options. Great job by Shero, the work isn't done but the foundation looks better and we should have a lot of cap room to improve over the next few seasons. Not a great draft but a good one considering team needs. Now I'm looking forward to the rest of the offseason. I expect a trade or two and a FA or two...nothing major, but I'm willing to bet whomever is added will make contributions.

We still need to add a couple of game-breakers but the organization probably isn't there just yet.

 

[StevenToddIves]

Steven,

Why do you think they chose Davies over Quenneville?

Honestly, you need someone better than me to answer that.

I love Quenneville. He's dynamic offensively, and deceptively strong and physical for his 5'9" stature. He can really skates and has exceptional instincts for when to join the rush.

Of course, like most pundits, I was able to see a ton of footage of Quenneville, playing for Medicine Hat of the WHL. I barely saw any of Davies' footage, as USHL film is difficult to find. I have a contact or two who scout the USHL, but I normally only ask them about higher profile prospects -- it's why I was so high on a player like Andrew Peeke or Wade Allison.

Since Davies was not heralded too much, I didn't ask for any info on him and knew nothing about him entering the draft except that he was small but led the USHL defensemen in scoring.

The Devils clearly sent scouts to watch him play, and clearly liked what they saw. Shero and Castron both have a good track record of scouting the USHL, the most up-and-coming developmental league in the world (outside of Finland, ha). If Shero and Castron are all-star pro scouts, consider me like a fourth-line banger scout in the AHL. So, although I personally loved Quenneville, I'm willing to take their word for it on Davies.

A final note on the USHL: their prospects are universally ranked lower by the media scouting bureaus than they should be. Why? Easy. The CSS or ISS will have several scouts for each CHL conference, but few scouts roaming to watch the USHL, NAHL and all USHS. So, they'll have several scouts that have seen everyone on the London Knights tons of times, but far fewer scouts who have seen Peeke or Davies once or twice. When the votes come in for the rankings, of course they will be weighted for the players they were familiar with.

Thus, when the media looks at Columbus' #34 pick of Andrew Peeke and calls it "a reach" because he was not ranked that high, they are being asinine. I had Peeke as a late first/early second. So did Steve Kournianos (The Draft Analyst). He is the Steve Santini/Erik Gudbransen of this draft -- a big, mean, mobile and smart shut-down defensive defenseman.

In conclusion, if Jeremy Davies played this season for Rouyn-Nouranda or Kitchener, there's a very strong possibility he would be ranked universally in the top 100 and be drafted in the third round. He's got a few years to round out his game at Northeastern, and time will tell. As for now, I will drop my Quenneville hammer and back up Shero & Castron, because they are better than I am at this.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I'll be blunt, but I personally think it is really hard to second guess a 7th round pick. Odds are both Quennville and Davies will never sniff the NHL.

I think so much at this point is just gut feeling for the scouts.

 

[Marshal Rochambeau]

I love that Castron and the staff were able to find that talent that everyone missed for whatever reason. That seems to me like the theme of this draft. Having 9 picks really set our prospect pool right. We took so many players that I forget we have 2 Russians now!

 

[StevenToddIves]

I think it's a fair point. The current status quo is banking on Zacha overachieving and someone else dramatically overachieving to top line status. That's not exactly a reliable plan.

I think we have more depth in the middle six and on defense than most fans want to give credit for. But so far, it's held true that you need some top end scoring and playmaking to win the cup post-lockout.

I will bet you right now a beer (of your choice but please not Heineken, I have standards) that, in five years, Pavel Zacha is a better player than extremely touted prospects William Nylander or Max Domi or Teuvo Teravainen.

Prospects have always gone under the radar with the Devils -- we're kind of a stealth organization in the media eye. But Zacha is a bona fide superstar prospect. Does NJ need more scoring forwards? Of course they do. So do 15-20 other teams. These guys don't grow on trees. But unfortunately the Devils drafted 11th, not 7th -- and that was the difference in getting a future scoring-leaders staple like Keller. No use railing about that.

What the Devils front office IS ACCOMPLISHING is this -- they are turning a slow, small and easy-to-play team into a faster, bigger and more physical club. In addition to that, they took a few late nice flyers on players with high scoring upside like Maltsev, Gignac and Bratt.

In the words of my beloved and departed great aunt -- turn that frown upside-down.

 

[StevenToddIves]

What did you want Shero do, wave his magic wand and produce a clone of Mario Lemieux at #11?

We need depth as much as we need top end talent. If we had hit on some more of our picks the past 5 years we wouldn't need to give contracts to guys like Tootoo just to ice a full roster.

Haha, is that possible?

***picturing Shero in Merlin hat with stars on it, flying into draft on broom***

 

[StevenToddIves]

Building a fast, strong, defensively responsible core is nothing to be upset about.

Edmonton has all the forward talent in the world, but they're small, soft and defensively poor, hence them being perennial losers. The offense first mentality has kept them in the basement for years.

Guys like Zajac and Henrique might not be elite offensively, but they play hockey the right way. If some of McLeod, Quenneville, Zacha, Bastian, Speers, Wood etc can turn into ~50 point forwards with great speed, physicality and defensive play we're in good shape.

Eventually we'll have an opportunity to acquire a bonafide top line player through FA/Trade, just go back and look at the talent that has been traded in recent years (Seguin, Kessel etc). We may even hit on a stud or two in the later rounds like Dallas did with Benn & Klingberg, or Tampa did with Palat, Johnson & Kucherov.

If we build up a fantastic supportive core meanwhile we'll be in great shape to contend sooner rather than later, Shero is building the team the right way and i'm thrilled to see it after so many years of the Devils being old, slow and mediocre.

We're not bad enough to get a #1 overall pick any time soon, so we have to be patient. Eventually we'll get a gamebreaker, but until then it isn't hard to see we're doing the right things to get us back to where we want to be.

Everybody listen to this guy, he's very smart.

 

[StevenToddIves]

our hope is that one of your "home run swings" becomes a star or we get a hot free agent.

i will not support tanking and thank god our owners don't seem to be keen on it either. don't underestimate what "tearing down" can do to fans and players' mentalities

This guy, also smart.

 

[StevenToddIves]

Greene and Cammalleri I suppose...but like Cory both are on affordable long-term contracts, they're still likely worth more to us than we could get in trade. Zajac isn't a realistic trade option with his NMC and limited offensive numbers.

Anyway there are other threads to argue about this...this is a draft review post and a good writeup at that, probably better than anything from the 'beat' guys.

My ego is already bloated. So so bloated. Oh wait, that's my liver. Never mind.

 

[StevenToddIves]

Only a minor quibble on this...Palmieri wasn't really injury prone. Between the AHL/NHL he played 72 games in 2010-11, 69 games in 2011-12, 75 games in 2012-13 and 73 games in 2013-14, the first three of those years bouncing between the AHL and NHL. He went down to 57 games played the year before coming to us for whatever reason - think he had a shoulder injury at one point that put him out a few weeks.

and re: Quenneville, it doesn't seem like the Devils really looked at RHD at all with their depth there. The only three defensemen they've drafted the last two years were all LHD cause the depth is far weaker there.

You're probably right on both points, but I'm still waaaaay better at analysis than Mike Milbury.

 

[StevenToddIves]

Steven

Thank you for taking the time to write this up. Much appreciated

I'm pretty certain that it was you that asked in the first place, so I took time out of my busy schedule of experimental fiction and beer.

 

[StevenToddIves]

I love that Castron and the staff were able to find that talent that everyone missed for whatever reason. That seems to me like the theme of this draft. Having 9 picks really set our prospect pool right. We took so many players that I forget we have 2 Russians now!

I will take this opportunity to reiterate that I really, really like Maltsev.

I'm not saying he will be the Kucherov of this draft, but I would say Christian Dvorak is a fair comparison. If he were healthy last year, people would have been talking about him in the late first round. He will be a lot of fun to follow in the next couple of years.

 

[Crosby87Domi11]

I'm new to the Devils fanbase (via the Bennett trade) and i'm not quite sure what to say so....Hi i guess.


Sorry if this is really awkward, i just wanted to y'know drop in

 

[StevenToddIves]

I'm new to the Devils fanbase (via the Bennett trade) and i'm not quite sure what to say so....Hi i guess.


Sorry if this is really awkward, i just wanted to y'know drop in

Hi, my name is Steve, and I'm an alcoholic.

Um, I mean I wrote nice stuff about your guy Bennett. You can find it, like, two pages ago.

 

[Crosby87Domi11]

Hi, my name is Steve, and I'm an alcoholic.

Um, I mean I wrote nice stuff about your guy Bennett. You can find it, like, two pages ago.

I actually read it earlier Nice to see some positive stuff.

I was terrified to post anything here to be honest :l

 

[billingtons ghost]

yeah, you know my first thought about McLeod was that :

'We are building a team entirely of 2nd and 3rd liners that you'd see on a Stanley Cup Winning squad'...

I'm not sure you can win a cup that way, but I think its clear that quality players on all 4 lines are necessary for a team to go deep into the playoffs.

What I like most is that they are all gritty character players too - Looking at our last few drafts as well -

We've got lots of Captain material coming up through the ranks and that really makes for a team that is greater than the sum of its parts.

 

[BurntToast]

Adjectives can play a major role in the perception of a prospect. We read all the articles,watch games, and try to process all the stats, but its human nature to get caught up with the hype.( Lights-Out, Franchise Players, Dominant, Electric, Up-Side, Big, Hi Hockey IQ) can sound more favorable then ( Solid, Smart, 2-way, Safe). Hi Upside sounds better the Hi Floor. I also hate how players get labeled with lines (2nd line/3rd line). I love the last two drafts, many of the peospects have a strong chance of making the NHL and we filled many needs. We got guys with Speed, Playmakers, who play 2 way hockey and as a kicker most have great faceoff numbers. Devils faceoff success last few season = Zajac. Devils top two lines looked great last year. We had guys in the top ten till around Christmas. The Devils' 3rd and 4th lines need some work.