Grading the New Jersey Devils' Full 2026 Draft Class
Grading each of the seven draft picks the New Jersey Devils selected over the weekend.
Thank you, as always, for reading the Devils’ Advocates Substack! If you enjoy the quasi-daily content, please consider subscribing and sharing with your friends, family, and any Devils fan you know. It is completely free of charge and helps out quite a bit!
Consider checking out the Devils’ Advocates Podcast, which features weekly episodes chock-full of in-depth content and exciting guest appearances. They’ll be available on this Substack, but you can also listen on your favorite platforms at the following links:
The 2026 NHL Entry Draft just wrapped up, with the Devils having a grand total of seven picks over the course of the draft. They entered the night having five, and subsequently moved two of them to gain additional draft capital — New Jersey acquired the 37th and 119th pick in the draft in exchange for #35, and, later on, acquired picks 149 and 222 in exchange for #140.
With that in mind, let’s go pick by pick and grade each of the seven selections:1
12. Alexander Command: A
Center | 6’1, 187 Pounds | 17G + 27A = 44TP in 30 U20 Nationell Games
With both of my preferred targets in Wyatt Cullen and Tynan Lawrence off the board — they went back-to-back at 10 and 11 — the Devils selected Swedish center Alexander Command with the 12th overall pick in the draft. The 6’1, 187-pound forward put up strong production in the weak U20 league, posting 17 goals and 44 total points in just 30 games. He followed that up with a playoff performance of five goals and 13 total points in 14 games.
You can read my full scouting report on Command with tool-by-tool breakdowns and tons of clips here, but the gist of it is that he is extremely well-balanced as a player. He’s one of the most defensively mature and projectable players in the entire class, with a penchant for getting under his opponents’ skin both physically and mentally. He’s an absolute gamer who has himself said that he hates seeing the other team win more than he likes winning himself.
Offensively, he’s gifted with dual-threat capabilities, boasting a very high hockey IQ on the offensive side of things, above-average skating abilities, and an above-average shot. Command uses physicality to create space for himself and others, separate the puck from the opposition, be a pest on the forecheck, and simply wear the opponents down.
The more I read about him, watch film, and listen to him, the more and more I like this pick. Admittedly, I was a Nikita Klepov guy at this spot in the draft, simply because I think his ceiling is higher and he is more dynamic, but I don’t think the Devils could have done much better here.
My Preferred Target: None
37. Matias Vanhanen: B+
Forward | 5’11, 176 Pounds | 21G + 66A = 87TP in 62 WHL Games
After trading down from the 35th overall spot and acquiring pick #119 in the process, the Devils drafted forward Matias Vanhanen 37th overall. The 18-year-old overager2 lit up the WHL this season, tallying 87 points in 62 games, good for ninth in the league. His 24 points in 18 playoff games ranked second.
Vanhanen wasn’t really on my radar as a technical overager, but I loved what I did see of him throughout the course of the season. He’s legitimately dynamic as a playmaker and playdriver, seeing the ice incredibly well with perhaps the best vision in the WHL. He anticipates plays perfectly, rifles passes through multiple layers of traffic, executes give-and-goes with consistency, and can manipulate the defense and goaltender to best exploit playmaking opportunities. He’s grown a good bit too, which has allowed him to engage more physically (which is something he will continue to develop as time goes on).
While I would have preferred to see the slightly higher-upside bet in Mathis Preston here, I’m perfectly happy with this pick and think Vanhanen is a likely bet to make the NHL at some point in time. His playmaking chops are just too good for him not to make that leap.
My Preferred Target: Mathis Preston
44. Nikita Shcherbakov: A+
Left-Handed Defenseman | 6’5, 187 Pounds | 0G + 10A = 10TP in 15 MHL Games
At 44th overall, the Devils made a phenomenal pick in Nikita Shcherbakov, a hulking, 6’5 defensive defenseman out of Russia.
In many ways, as has been pointed out by many a scout, Shcherbakov’s game emulates that of 2024 10th overall selection Anton Silayev.
For one, he’s huge and has a ton of runway to fill out with 20-30 pounds. He uses that frame to seal off opponents and be a stalwart netfront defender, and filling out will only further exacerbate how effective he is in doing so. He’s also a superb skater, not quite the caliber of his 6’7 counterpart but an undeniably smooth and mobile defenseman regardless. He uses his strong four-way mobility to shut down the opposition on the rush, and can keep pace with downhill attackers in a straight line as well.
Where Shcherbakov differs is in his puck-moving capabilities. I wouldn’t call him a dynamic passer by any means, but he is legitimately great at exiting the defensive zone through a strong first pass, even if he is plagued by forechecking pressure. He handles contact well and can make plays through it. There’s some legit puck-moving upside here, making him a potential top-four defender at the NHL level if things develop smoothly.
I never outlined Shcherbakov as a potential second-round prospect in my draft prospect series simply because I didn’t expect him to be available in the second round, period. He was a consensus late-first-round target, and for good reason. This was a superb pick for New Jersey.
My Preferred Target: None
119: Lavr Gashilov: A+
Center | 5’11, 185 Pounds | 16G + 53A = 69TP in 53 MHL Games
The Devils were yet again opportunistic with their next pick, selecting fellow MHLer Lavr Gashilov with their newly acquired 119th overall selection. The Russian center is a pure boom-or-bust prospect with a ton of traits that make him an appealing draftee, and was projected to go as high as the second round in many mock drafts.
The reality is, with the puck, there were perhaps no players as truly game-breaking as Gashilov in the MHL this season. He’s an absurdly good playmaker and manipulator of space, drawing multiple defenders to his location with head and body fakes before threading a pass through them to an open teammate. He finds cross-crease passes like nobody’s business, sauces passes over sticks when he can’t get them through, and has the vision to see plays far before they develop.
As a shooter, Gashilov is above-average as well, though I prefer his backhand far more than I do any other shot type in his arsenal. He has great hands which allow him to escape pressure, further manipulate defenders in the neutral zone and offensive zone, and lift the puck from right around the goalmouth.
Defensively and physically are where Gashilov turns from a projectable NHL talent to a boom-or-bust pick. He’s somewhat unengaged in his own end, lacking in positional awareness even if I wouldn’t say he’s lazy. He’s unengaged physically, too, far preferring to stay as an F2 or F3 in board battles rather than involving himself in them to begin with. There’s reason to believe these will dissipate when he makes the full-time leap to the KHL next year, and I think he has the dynamic traits to end up as a potential third-line complementary playmaker because of it. I loved this pick through and through.
My Preferred Target: None
149: Daniil Rusakovich: C+
Goalie | 6’4, 183 Pounds | 10-7-2 + .913 SV% + 1.94 GAA in 20 MHL Games
Goalie evaluation at this — or any — level is admittedly not my strong suit, so after asking around on the Devils’ 149th overall selection, Daniil Rusakovich, I was told that this was a “fine” pick for this spot in the draft.
According to others, Rusakovich is athletic and mobile in net, with a big enough frame to absorb the shots he doesn’t see. Tracking pucks is his weakness, occasionally getting beaten from distance because of it, but he reportedly has strong reaction abilities, can make sprawling, miraculous saves, is explosive from side-to-side, and has strong positioning. Goalie longshots are just that, and the Devils should realistically be drafting one a year until they have a long-term solution between the pipes.
My Preferred Target: Lars Steiner
172: Luke Wilfley: D
Center | 6’1, 179 Pounds | 9G + 6A = 15TP in 66 WHL Games
With the 172nd overall pick in the draft, the Devils selected Luke Wilfley, my least favorite pick of the day by far. The gritty center had just 15 points in 66 games in the WHL in 2025-26, though it should be noted that he was deployed in a fourth-line role and was young for the draft.
Wilfley countered the status quo for this draft class in the sense that, with the puck, he didn’t do a whole lot. A quintessential fourth-line grinder, even at the WHL level, he focused far more on forechecking and playing physically, even if it resulted in a penalty against him.
Some are hopeful, though, that he has a bit more developmental runway given his age and the rare flashes of skill he did show. He had a stretch in January and February where he looked like more than just a goon, showing some in-tight finishing chops and an ability to act proactively without the puck in the offensive zone. Still, those looks were few and far between, and I’m not holding my breath.
My Preferred Target: Jonas Woo
222: Quinn McKenzie: B+
Center | 5’9, 176 Pounds | 21G + 30A = 51TP in 65 OHL Games
With their final pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, the Devils selected another center in Quinn McKenzie of the OHL. I had the pleasure of watching him several times over the course of 2025-26 while keeping my eyes on Chase Reid, his teammate who went within the top-ten of the draft, and I must admit that McKenzie looked pretty good in those games.
McKenzie is yet another dual threat player who dropped mostly because of his size. At 5’9 and 176 pounds, he’s stocky but extremely short. He also isn’t a superb straight-line skater who relies more on edgework and agility to separate himself than explosiveness. As a shooter and passer, though, McKenzie is pretty solid, especially when evaluating them in conjunction with his off-puck positioning.
See, work ethic and off-puck IQ are the names of the game for McKenzie. He is a diligent battler, and when he does not have the puck, he knows where to be relative to coverage and his teammates in order to get a shot or one-touch pass off. He’s efficient in the touches he does get, too, being deliberate and having the skill to either beat goalies or get pucks where they need to be.
For a seventh-round flier, there are projectable enough tools and a work ethic to go along with it. I would have preferred the undrafted Philippe Veilleux, but this was a perfectly good pick anyway.
My Preferred Target: Philippe Veilleux
Overall Grade: B+
If one thing was clear throughout the draft, with the exception of Wilfley, it’s that the goal was to draft a bunch of players who do a bunch of things on the ice. Mehta’s first draft as GM of a team was one in which cardio merchants were off the table, highly preferring productive players with dynamic qualities and the ability to play with the puck on their stick. I loved it.
Overall, I think Mehta had a strong first draft as GM of the New Jersey Devils. Command, Vanhanen, and Shcherbakov all look like should-be NHLers, and Gashilov and McKenzie were smart swings on players with projectable qualities. I’m not a fan of the Wilfley pick whatsoever, though. Hopefully, it ages just as well as it looks on paper.
As a quick aside, I will be doing full scouting reports with clips on each of the draftees in the class throughout the week. This piece is more so just an overarching opinion on the draft class and its members. Stay tuned!
Kind of. If he were born less than a week earlier, he would have simply been the oldest first-year draft-eligible in the class.
We can see Sunny's vision taking shape with his initial draft. I was hoping for Elofsson at #140, but those pesky Avs nabbed him earlier, so I told myself Sunny traded back due to that development. Had my eye on Lars at #172...then the damn Blues struck again right before us. They seemed happy to get Vanhanen when they did and I loved the next two picks after that. Here's hoping development goes well with this crop!
I was very disappointed they did not take Belchetz. Thought he would give the Devils a type of player that they do not have in their system. That said... they dont have many guys who have Command's tool kit either. The answer will come in four years when both should be contributors in the NHL