The first of New Jersey’s 5 first rounders, star young fin Kotkaniemi

The Devil’s had a rough 2017-2018 SHL season, finishing 25th in the league, then to add to that disappointment they got the short end of the stick in the draft lottery. That didn’t stop them from having a good 1st round though, and the fans are pretty excited about their teams new prospects.

“We are ecstatic with our picks thus far” said GM MacPherson. “Each of these players we feel fit into our fast paced style of hockey team we are trying to build.”

The first of these picks was star finnish center Jesperi Kotkaniemi. “While he may not be the fastest we believed him to be the best center in this draft, his great two-way ability along with his high end playmaking more than make up for his lack of speed. We see him as our potential 1C of the future so Drouin can move back to wing”.

The next pick was used on star d-man Noah Dobson. “Bold statement time, I think Dobson will be the 2nd best d-man in this class. The kid was a beast in the Q this year, add in the fact he was in my opinion the best player at the Memorial Cup not named Sam Steel, which shows he can play in clutch situations. This kid should be a monster two-way d-man in the future, will be the perfect compliment to Chabot”.

At pick number 8 of the draft was another easy decision for the Devils as they picked up sniper Oliver Wahlstrom. “The kid can straight up score goals” said GM MacPherson. “One thing we are lacking in our lineup is a guy who can pot in goals on a nightly basis, Carter will be that guy this year for us but he’s closer to the end of his career than the beginning so we can’t depend on him forever”.

The next pick came a bit later in the round and was used on Isac Lundestrom. “The kid doesn’t do anything amazing but he can do a bit of everything, very effective in his own end though, we don’t expect him to be our 1C but we think he can be our future 3C” said GM MacPherson. “He’s a really safe pick and we were thrilled when he fell to us”.

The last pick the Devils had in the 1st round was arguably the riskiest out of all of their picks. That risky pick’s name is Ryan Merkley. “Kid is top 5 in the draft in terms of pure offensive talent and skating” responded MacPherson when asked why they picked him. “Obviously weaker in his own end and a bit of attitude issues but we think he’ll get his act together and be the steal of the draft”.

While not a 1st round pick, the Devils had the 1st pick in the 2nd round and turned some heads when they passed on some other talent to pick center Jake Wise. “We know the pick seems like a stretch if you go by the rankings of each prospect, but everyone here thought that this is another kid who people will look back on and think “man why did we pass on him” and we didn’t want to be that guy thinking that. Nothing is a sure thing but we had this kid high on our draft list for a while”.

New Jersey’s future was bleak before the draft, and now coming out of just the 1st round alone, the Devils future is a lot brighter. This team could be a contender for years to come if their picks from just from he 1st round alone turn out, so everyone better keep an eye on these young Devils.