Devils' Recent Woes Exposing Poor Drafting in First Rounds
With Jack Hughes down for a while, the Devils' recent drafting has been exposed considering the team's current needs.
Things are rough around the New Jersey Devils, despite what the standings may tell you. Jack Hughes is injured (presumably for a while) and the team has not been the same as they were in 2025 as they were through December. There are several key issues with the roster, predominantly top-six talent and center depth. Yes, to the former, the Devils have Jack, Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, and Timo Meier, but that’s just not enough anymore.
To the latter point, Jack’s injury has really exposed the organization’s lack of centers. Erik Haula should be slotting in as the second-line center, with Curtis Lazar and presumably Justin Dowling centering the bottom six. That’s just completely unacceptable.
It’s not like the pipeline is a saving grace there, either. The Devils have one (1) notable center prospect in Matyas Melovsky and even he is a far cry from an NHLer — if he hits his ceiling, he’ll be a bottom-six contributor and nothing more. There is no one in the current lineup or prospect pool who could slot into the second-line center role.
For this, I’m only going to be looking at drafts in the 2020s because that is when current GM Tom Fitzgerald started his tenure. To pump my own tires, I’ll also be posting screenshots of messages I’ve sent on various platforms from the respective draft days to show that even at the time of the draft, I was attached to different players. No revisionism here.
Chase Stillman — 29th Overall, 2021
If ever there were a highly-drafted player I feel empathy for, it’s Chase Stillman. He had no business being drafted 29th overall. He had no business being drafted in either of the first two rounds of that draft. He was, though, and he has been the recipient of constant hate from the fanbase.
Yet here I am, contributing to that.
I’m not mad at Chase for being picked, though, I’m mad at Fitzgerald for drafting him. There were several better players to be had at that position, with the ones I was particularly fond of at the time being Olen Zellweger, Logan Stankoven, and, as pictured above, Aatu Räty.
Stillman isn’t even a top-ten prospect in the Devils’ pipeline, and the only reason anyone has him any higher than 20-25th is his unwarranted draft pedigree. He’s done precisely nothing at even the AHL level and to think that he could contribute meaningfully in the NHL is nothing short of comical. His ceiling looks more and more like it’s going to cap out as a third-line minor leaguer. Again — not his fault he was drafted that highly. He had no business there. His best use as an asset is as a sweetener in a trade with a GM foolish enough to like what he brings.
Enter Zellweger, Stankoven, and Räty.
Let’s start with Zellweger, who has turned into a regular NHLer this season and grew into one of the top defense prospects in the league beforehand. He’s one of the smoothest-skating defensemen I’ve had the pleasure of watching and there is no doubt in my mind that the 21-year-old will blossom into a top-four stud. Sure, the Devils don’t need a defenseman right now — far from it, with the logjam they already have — but this would just be one more asset to have in their belt for the trade deadline and an extremely, extremely valuable one at that.
Next up is Logan Stankoven, whose sole reason for slipping to the second round was his size. He’s played 81 NHL games thus far into his career and logged 43 points doing so while operating in a middle-six capacity for the Dallas Stars. The Devils desperately need a player who can keep up with the Jack Hugheses and Jesper Bratts of the team, and Stankoven certainly profiles as that. He’s 5’8 but plays like a 6’3 power forward. He’s harder on the boards than most NHLers six inches taller than him and is an insufferably annoying player to play against. He also just so happens to be one of the more engaged rush attackers in the league. In many ways, he’s a lower-ceiling Brad Marchand.
Lastly, there’s Aatu Räty, who at the time I was the highest on of the three players which, as it turns out, was not the correct call. Where I did have it right, though, is that he’s a better player now than Stillman will ever be. He’s gotten tastes of NHL action, logging 21 games this season with the Vancouver Canucks, where he’s potted two goals and four total points. Super unimpressive, but he has been an effective defensive plug-and-play center for Vancouver when they needed some depth down the middle.
The Devils sure could use a young player down the middle with some substance to his play, don’t you think? Pair that with the fact that he’s suddenly become a point-per-game player in the AHL this season and there’s a legitimate player there.
Šimon Nemec — 2nd Overall, 2022
I still do like Nemec and I do think he’s going to be a phenomenal player. Was it the right pick, though? Definitely not.
At second overall, especially after Juraj Slafkovský went first overall, the Devils simply needed to get a slam-dunk, sure-thing stud. Logan Cooley was that guy. His ceiling had always been the highest in the draft, and his floor profiled as a second-line center.
Nemec had a very, very good rookie season in 2023-24. Cooley is on a completely other planet of excellence, though. He’s producing at a near point-per-game level, with 47 points in 54 games (17 goals, 30 assists), and is showing levels of extreme skill on a nightly basis. He’s one of the best skaters in the NHL and is a complete wizard with the puck on his stick, being able to dance and squirm between and around defensemen en route to generating loads of chances for Utah.
Nemec also wasn’t the second-best pick there, either — that belongs to Shane Wright. The Kraken stymied his development by dragging him between the NHL, AHL, and OHL for the first two seasons after he got drafted, but he’s fit right in this season and looks like a top-six center for Seattle. He’s put up 13 goals and 36 total points in 53 games in 2024-25, which are both more than respectable totals considering the offensive black hole that they are as a team.
Considering how far into dire straits the Devils’ center depth is this season, this draft is perhaps the biggest stinger on this list despite the fact that Nemec is going to be extremely solid in due time.
Alex Holtz — 7th Overall, 2020
I’ve been an Alex Holtz defender for the longest time and to some extent, I still am. There’s absolutely an NHL-caliber player there and I still think he has the chops to be a 20-plus goal-scoring passenger player in the big leagues. With that said, though, even at the time of the draft I was waving the Austrian flag hoping that the Devils would select Marco Rossi, who slid to 9th overall.
Flash forward to now, and Holtz is playing on the Vegas Golden Knights’ AHL affiliate and Rossi has 21 goals and 51 points in 61 games with the Wild this season. He’s been a saving grace for a team that has largely struggled with centers in the last few seasons, and if he stays on the team (which he should), he projects as their 1C of the future to pair alongside Kirill Kaprizov.
Shocker.
BPA is Always the Way
There is no excuse for drafting for need over drafting the best player available. The Montreal Canadiens and then-Arizona Coyotes drafted David Reinbacher and Dmitri Simashev respectively over Matvei Michkov and Ryan Leonard in 2023 because of a perceived need for defense. The Blackhawks did the same last draft, prioritizing Artem Levshunov over Ivan Demidov. It happens every season, and scarcely works out.
Do you know who drafts BPA every season? The Carolina Hurricanes and the Minnesota Wild. Carolina currently sits second in the Metro Division while The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler — the one whose opinions I respect — has their prospect pool ranked in the top half of the league. The Wild are third in the Central and Wheeler has their pool ranked second. There’s good reason to believe that both of those teams will be top dogs for a long while.
Then there’s thinking about the outlook of the Devils if they actually drafted the best players available. Let’s say they take Stankoven, Cooley, and Rossi — how much different does this season pan out so far? How many more goals do they score? Sure, they’d be smaller, but who cares?
Here’s what their lineup would look like:
Logan Cooley - Jack Hughes - Jesper Bratt
Logan Stankoven - Nico Hischier - Timo Meier
Ondrej Palat - Marco Rossi - Dawson Mercer
Stefan Noesen - Erik Haula - Nate Bastian
Jonas Siegenthaler - Dougie Hamilton
Luke Hughes - Brett Pesce
Brenden Dillon - Johnathan Kovacevic
Jacob Markstrom
Jake Allen
You’ll notice that their defense corps and goalie corps look entirely the same — it’s just that their forward corps goes from looking abysmal to looking threatening up and down the lineup.
Simon Nemec will end up the best player out of the 2022 draft, the rest of this is spot on though
Fitz picks for uniqueness. And the thought is that right handed shooting defenseman are "unicorns". So he collected a "unicorn" with Nemec. Everyone was high on Nemec at the time. He was rushed last year, and hurt coming into this year. Europeans don't want to come to US to play in Utica, which may have changed his development path.
Stillman turned out to be a disaster for the Devils. Whose fault, I am not sure. They drafted him to be a fourth-line shit disturber with a bit of skill and the ability to back up his nonsense. The Devils have no "shit-stirrers" on their roster. How many people have said it would be nice if the Devils had a Seth Jarvis type player on the team.
Alexander Holtz was a terrible pick at the time. I can only go by internet scouting reports, but when multiple question is work ethic, toughness, compete level, and take him seventh overall thinking you can either fix him or cover for it, it is a mistake. I was actually hoping the Devils picked Mercer there and Braden Schneider in Mercer's spot prior to the draft. Wanted them to deal the third pick for a vet who could help that group immediately..
More of my concern with Devils drafting is development. Team seems to want to let others handle it. Too many guys in Europe playing in European leagues, too many guys in college, not enough being coached by organization in Utica.