Prospect Info: 2022 Draft Prospects, Part II

[StevenToddIves]

Whoa McArthy is ahead of Walsh? I obviously do not know much about either and assumed Walsh was our #1 guy by a mile on RD .

McCarthy is better than Walsh, and I don't think it's close. I think McCarthy is a high-floor, defense-first, 3rd pairing guy who I have high hopes for. Walsh is good but not great offensively and below average defensively, which can be more of a detriment than an asset for your team. He's like a more-talented Butcher or a less-skilled Ty Smith. If anyone thinks that's what the Devils need, they haven't watched much Devils hockey this year.

I'm not trying to beat up on Walsh, but the last thing I want to do as an NHL coach is worry about a certain defenseman being caught on the ice against more physical or higher-skilled opposing forwards. This will be a constant source of concern with Walsh, but not for McCarthy. Thus, McCarthy is markedly higher when I rank the two.

 

[StevenToddIves]

we will not draft Bratt, Yegor or Gritsyuk every year.
btw Malek is good prospect too.

I believe in hiring a good goalie scout and drafting one goalie he likes every year in the mid-rounds. It's a sound philosophy to me. Malek has had an impressive year, so it seems like a pretty good 4th round pick right now.

 

[StevenToddIves]

But I don't think that's really what's going on. They picked Holtz and Mercer and Stillman who are pretty average sized for NHL players. Even on defense where they have tended to pick taller guys they haven't picked behemoths. Both Mukh and L. Hughes are lanky. Lower down they've picked plenty of smaller players. It's really all over the place and baffling. Whatever criteria they used to pick Bratt, Shara, Zetterlund, and a couple of others they should go back to. The goalie approach has seemed relatively consistent and they do have some decent goalie prospects but there is a development gap behind Blackwood as we are seeing.

Stillman's not the brainless goon the analytics-lemmings make him out to be. He's an adept goal-scorer who skates well and plays a physical, interior game. As I have often said, he reminds me a ton of a young Ryan Callahan, both stylistically and statistically.

 

[My3Sons]

Stillman's not the brainless goon the analytics-lemmings make him out to be. He's an adept goal-scorer who skates well and plays a physical, interior game. As I have often said, he reminds me a ton of a young Ryan Callahan, both stylistically and statistically.

I was just commenting that he's not all that big as NHL players go. He's roughly midsized. The post I orignally responded to read to me as if the poster thought NJ was going "old school" and picking lumbering big players to protect the smaller or lighter forwards they already have. I'm not seeing evidence of that. Mercer, Holtz, and Stillman, were all picked for what they individually bring to the table as they are all different players and none seem to fit the bill that the poster suggested was being drafted. I might have misread it, after all, I am very old and senile.

 

[StevenToddIves]

I was just commenting that he's not all that big as NHL players go. He's roughly midsized. The post I orignally responded to read to me as if the poster thought NJ was going "old school" and picking lumbering big players to protect the smaller or lighter forwards they already have. I'm not seeing evidence of that. Mercer, Holtz, and Stillman, were all picked for what they individually bring to the table as they are all different players and none seem to fit the bill that the poster suggested was being drafted. I might have misread it, after all, I am very old and senile.

Haha, I was just sayin'.

By the way, my spring 2022 Top 100 NHL Draft rankings are up, y'all should check them out!

 

[Guttersniped]

The strange thing to me is that the late round NJ picks don't reflect anything that teams normally get criticized for. You can't say NJ drafted for need recently. Vilen, Edwards? Baumgartner? You can't say they went old school and picked just big slugs or guys who fight. You can't say they just played it safe and picked high floor guys hoping one can pan out to a bottom six guy. I really don't get it. I know Fitz is a stick to the list guy but something is disconnected compared to a few years ago with Castron in charge of both. It doesn't make sense to me.

Vilén will stick in my craw forever because it was terrible value and bad strategy, something you typically can’t say about Shero’s picks.

And, while I’m not even an amateur scout, I am a bit of a Finnish defensemen enthusiast, and you should draft them in two ways IMO.

Is it a top tier guy with an identifiable brand (larger defensive guy but plays a modern game or PMD with offense & hockey IQ & skating who’s not too small)? You can draft them early.

Everyone else, draft them later. Vilén is already a pro at 18 but his ceiling is in the sub-basement. His development has to go really well for him to even start to show anything pointing to a NHL career.

A NA player has a much better chance at being an AHL player/depth guy for you, way more then the guy establishing his pro-career in his home country. There’s a reason intriguing Euros fill the back end of the draft.

And we know that Fitz like his scouts being enthusiastic about players, so someone got to catch some of his 35 Liiga games last year and was “passionate” about him.



Love him? Then perhaps he falls and then you can grab him later. Guys like Markus Nutivaara and Santari Hatakka got picked in the 6th & 7th round like god intended.

I’m assuming this was more that Fitz ignores value and takes his “guy” rather than him viewing this as a great spot for him in terms of value. If they got oversold on him by his minutes, then that’s worse actually.

2021 was a pretty screwy draft in terms of value though (and oh boy, did we not take advantage of that) so I’m willing to see if Fitz can start getting better value from here on out.

The Shero drafts had a better mix of talent but Fitz didn’t have the endless piles of later picks that Shero had (though Shero increased the size of those piles with pick trades).

He can get better.

Shero had his quirks, including his fixation on guys who played on the same team. That just worked out well in 2019 (in terms of getting picks people like) because the USNTDP was crazy endless bag of goodies that season.

Ray also was as much to blame for The Great RHD Famine of 2020s and didn’t draft defensemen for a while.

I too don’t like Fitz seemingly not caring about speed and offensive drivers/IQ, and I hope the view isn’t “we have plenty of that, no need for more, it’s complimentary forward time forever”.

Because, yuck, the team is built around that and also that’s incredibly valuable, so, no, you can still get guys like that too Fitz. Throw us a sexy bone.

we will not draft Bratt, Yegor or Gritsyuk every year.
btw Malek is good prospect too.

You might know more about him personally but just looking at Maltsev post draft path, I assume if everything wasn’t horrible that the Devils would have signed Bardakov and let him be a bull in the AHL if he was up for it.

(And Edwards is developing nicely *shh*)

 

[Hisch13r]

Stillman's not the brainless goon the analytics-lemmings make him out to be. He's an adept goal-scorer who skates well and plays a physical, interior game. As I have often said, he reminds me a ton of a young Ryan Callahan, both stylistically and statistically.

Literally no one has acted liked he’s a goon. Just that he’s not all that good and was nowhere near worthy of his pick.

 

[StevenToddIves]

Literally no one has acted liked he’s a goon. Just that he’s not all that good and was nowhere near worthy of his pick.

Yes, the Devils should have traded down if Stillman was the guy they wanted.

 

[StevenToddIves]

Vilén will stick in my craw forever because it was terrible value and bad strategy, something you typically can’t say about Shero’s picks.

And, while I’m not even an amateur scout, I am a bit of a Finnish defensemen enthusiast, and you should draft them in two ways IMO.

Is it a top tier guy with an identifiable brand (larger defensive guy but plays a modern game or PMD with offense & hockey IQ & skating who’s not too small)? You can draft them early.

Everyone else, draft them later. Vilén is already a pro at 18 but his ceiling is in the sub-basement. His development has to go really well for him to even start to show anything pointing to a NHL career.

A NA player has a much better chance at being an AHL player/depth guy for you, way more then the guy establishing his pro-career in his home country. There’s a reason intriguing Euros fill the back end of the draft.

And we know that Fitz like his scouts being enthusiastic about players, so someone got to catch some of his 35 Liiga games last year and was “passionate” about him.



Love him? Then perhaps he falls and then you can grab him later. Guys like Markus Nutivaara and Santari Hatakka got picked in the 6th & 7th round like god intended.

I’m assuming this was more that Fitz ignores value and takes his “guy” rather than him viewing this as a great spot for him in terms of value. If they got oversold on him by his minutes, then that’s worse actually.

2021 was a pretty screwy draft in terms of value though (and oh boy, did we not take advantage of that) so I’m willing to see if Fitz can start getting better value from here on out.

The Shero drafts had a better mix of talent but Fitz didn’t have the endless piles of later picks that Shero had (though Shero increased the size of those piles with pick trades).

He can get better.

Shero had his quirks, including his fixation on guys who played on the same team. That just worked out well in 2019 (in terms of getting picks people like) because the USNTDP was crazy endless bag of goodies that season.

Ray also was as much to blame for The Great RHD Famine of 2020s and didn’t draft defensemen for a while.

I too don’t like Fitz seemingly not caring about speed and offensive drivers/IQ, and I hope the view isn’t “we have plenty of that, no need for more, it’s complimentary forward time forever”.

Because, yuck, the team is built around that and also that’s incredibly valuable, so, no, you can still get guys like that too Fitz. Throw us a sexy bone.



You might know more about him personally but just looking at Maltsev post draft path, I assume if everything wasn’t horrible that the Devils would have signed Bardakov and let him be a bull in the AHL if he was up for it.

(And Edwards is developing nicely *shh*)

Vilen was a baffling pick. No vision at all, no chance to break into the Devils Top 5 LD prospect rankings. After that pick and the Salminen pick, I'd say it's time to demote whomever is scouting in Finland.

Edwards has taken a big step, sure, but the strategy of that pick was also undeniably ill-conceived. If you're taking the position you're deepest in over multiple areas of need, it has to be an upside guy you simply cannot pass up, not a guy you're hoping will be a bottom pair, two-way defender.

 

[My3Sons]

Vilen was a baffling pick. No vision at all, no chance to break into the Devils Top 5 LD prospect rankings. After that pick and the Salminen pick, I'd say it's time to demote whomever is scouting in Finland.

Edwards has taken a big step, sure, but the strategy of that pick was also undeniably ill-conceived. If you're taking the position you're deepest in over multiple areas of need, it has to be an upside guy you simply cannot pass up, not a guy you're hoping will be a bottom pair, two-way defender.

I think lower rounds you take flawed guys with some plus tools and hope they round it out. Like Bratt’s speed and skill despite being small or Shara’s shot and size despite being up and down in terms of production. It’s probably not that complicated on some level.

 

[Guttersniped]

Stillman's not the brainless goon the analytics-lemmings make him out to be. He's an adept goal-scorer who skates well and plays a physical, interior game. As I have often said, he reminds me a ton of a young Ryan Callahan, both stylistically and statistically.

No one thinks he’s a goon. If he was known for his smart two-way play like Callahan, some people (well, me) would be more excited.

Stillman can be a feisty interior motor energy forward but without a good hockey IQ, he isn’t turning into Callahan.

He will also likely take a very long while to develop since he doesn’t have the size and strength to play tough guy in an adult league. His lack of size is a bad thing, guys who don’t have that tend to have speed or skill to make up for it.

Right now I see a guy who’s not exceptional in size, skill, speed, hockey IQ or production. He has some nice qualities and great motor.

Motor can get you a long way. The dreaded Stefan Matteau had even more underwhelming production as prospect that foretold his future in many ways, but give the guy credit, he’s played 92 NHL games so far.

Matteau was also 6’1” and 215 when he was drafted while Stillman was 6’1” and 180. (He’s listed at 6’1” and 181 on the OHL roster now.)

Callahan was 5’10” and 190 when he was drafted in his D+1 year. Size isn’t just height. We can all see that with Zetterlund, who’s 5’11” and 220. (Zetterland was 5’10” and 195 when he was drafted in 2017.)

Stillman missed a season and then played on a crappy OHL team. He signed his ELC at 18 so it can slide for two years, and it will.

He’s our prospect now. I hope he can bulk up, is a very hard worker, is coachable, has the hockey IQ to develop a smarter two-way game and also puts it together offensively.

It wasn’t a good value pick and he didn’t have a good season. I get that you’re high on him, which makes me more optimistic that he can improve, but no one here has to like this pick right now.

Particularly if they believe a team should get elite talent (and that can include size) early in the draft and see Stillman as the kind of player you get later, or ideally (if you’re a team like the Pens, Boston, Tampa, etc) in an undrafted FA signing.

I gave the pick the benefit of the doubt in the off-season but that was then. He does have some nice projectable qualities, he just seems like a long term project that might end up in our (or someone else’s) bottom six at best. Maybe there’s more there, that would be nice. I’m rooting for him.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

No one thinks he’s a goon. If he was known for his smart two-way play like Callahan, some people (well, me) would be more excited.

Stillman can be a feisty interior motor energy forward but without a good hockey IQ, he isn’t turning into Callahan.

He will also likely take a very long while to develop since he doesn’t have the size and strength to play tough guy in an adult league. His lack of size is a bad thing, guys who don’t have that tend to have speed or skill to make up for it.

Right now I see a guy who’s not exceptional in size, skill, speed, hockey IQ or production. He has some nice qualities and great motor.

Motor can get you a long way. The dreaded Stefan Matteau had even more underwhelming production as prospect that foretold his future in many ways, but give the guy credit, he’s played 92 NHL games so far.

Matteau was also 6’1” and 215 when he was drafted while Stillman was 6’1” and 180. (He’s listed at 6’1” and 181 on the OHL roster now.)

Callahan was 5’10” and 190 when he was drafted in his D+1 year. Size isn’t just height. We can all see that with Zetterlund, who’s 5’11” and 220. (Zetterland was 5’10” and 195 when he was drafted in 2017.)

Stillman missed a season and then played on a crappy OHL team. He signed his ELC at 18 so it can slide for two years, and it will.

He’s our prospect now. I hope he can bulk up, is a very hard worker, is coachable, has the hockey IQ to develop a smarter two-way game and also puts it together offensively.

It wasn’t a good value pick and he didn’t have a good season. I get that you’re high on him, which makes me more optimistic that he can improve, but no one here has to like this pick right now.

Particularly if they believe a team should get elite talent (and that can include size) early in the draft and see Stillman as the kind of player you get later, or ideally (if you’re a team like the Pens, Boston, Tampa, etc) in an undrafted FA signing.

I gave the pick the benefit of the doubt in the off-season but that was then. He does have some nice projectable qualities, he just seems like a long term project that might end up in our (or someone else’s) bottom six at best. Maybe there’s more there, that would be nice. I’m rooting for him.

I agree with this. I’m obviously still hoping he turns out but the pick didn’t look great at the time and Stillman hasn’t made it look better. There isn’t a whole lot to be excited about with him and he seems to me like someone who should’ve been taken in the 2nd or 3rd round. He’s a player who works hard and competes and then everything else about him is pretty much just okay.

To me I kind of see him as a bit better and different Zetterlund or Joey Anderson type prospect. Limited skill but plays the game the right way and plays hard and has some bottom 6 potential if things go right. I think he needs to get stronger and faster and he could make it into an NHL bottom 6 but right now I don’t expect him to become a full time NHLer. Hopefully he can prove me wrong. Still has lots of time to do so.

 

[Eggtimer]

I agree with this. I’m obviously still hoping he turns out but the pick didn’t look great at the time and Stillman hasn’t made it look better. There isn’t a whole lot to be excited about with him and he seems to me like someone who should’ve been taken in the 2nd or 3rd round. He’s a player who works hard and competes and then everything else about him is pretty much just okay.

To me I kind of see him as a bit better and different Zetterlund or Joey Anderson type prospect. Limited skill but plays the game the right way and plays hard and has some bottom 6 potential if things go right. I think he needs to get stronger and faster and he could make it into an NHL bottom 6 but right now I don’t expect him to become a full time NHLer. Hopefully he can prove me wrong. Still has lots of time to do so.

I haven’t watched him play enough to have an opinion. I just hope he can be a needed piece for us moving forward and I’ll be cheering for him to do that. Of course I’d like to see him dominate in Jr. but it has been a weird couple of last seasons so Im going to cut him a break before I pass judgement.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

My 2 cents on Jiriceck:

Seems like a decent amount of people in here would be very happy getting Jiricek but the more I watch him the less confident I am in him as a potential top 5 pick. I can see the potential but I think he is more of a project than others in his draft range with quite a bit to work on and a decent amount of risk.

He’s a big somewhat lanky defensmen who moves around decently with pretty quick feet, plays aggressive defense with some physicality, and has some nice offensive skills including a heavy shot and good vision at times.

However, I am a little concerned with certain aspects of his game and how well his game will translate.

Defensively he is very aggressive and at times overly aggressive. He rushes into checks, or skates right at guys. When it works it looks great but there are times where it doesn’t work and a guy will step around or beat him cleanly. This is something that could be exposed more against better players as he moves up levels.

I love defensmen who can contain very well using good skating and then close and step in at the right time and IMO that is exactly the type of defense that translates well.

Something else that I really like to see is defensmen that are poised and calm with the puck. They slow the play down when necessary even under pressure while remaining calm and then pick out the right play.

I don’t see that much of this in Jiricek. He just always seems to go go go and always seems to either be in a rush to get rid of the puck or just skate up with it himself. This leads to too many turnovers from him from either misplaced passes or forced plays. He needs to be better at knowing when to just go right away or when to slow things down a little.

This is something that is very noticeable when watching pretty much any top NHL defensmen , young or old and this is something that I really like about Simon Nemec’s game.
What I will also say about this is that I believe this is something that can come more and more naturally to a young player as they mature as well as with some good coaching.

Something else I’m not overly high on is his skating. He does have quick feet especially for a big guy which is nice and he gets around pretty well.
However, his skating isn’t the smoothest and his stride looks to be pretty short and choppy. His first few steps look great and that is sometimes noticeable in the ozone but I think other aspects of his skating could use some work.

Last thing I will say about him is that I really like his offensive game at times but don’t think he shows it or holds onto the puck enough.
When he gets a puck on the point and decides to hold onto the puck a bit longer and make a quick move one way or the other before making a nice pass through a seem or taking a shot from a better position he looks very good to me.

However, he is a shoot first guy and he rarely holds onto it for very long, often firing a shot right when he gets it on his stick. This isn’t really a problem but there are times where he either doesn’t get the shot through or it’s an easy save because no one had a chance to get to the net and I think he could hold onto it more often in certain situations and look for a better play. I believe this would make him an even more dangerous offensive player.

I can definitely see some high-end potential in Jiricek but I I wouldn’t love us taking him in the top 5 right now especially if there is better options available, IMO including another RD in Nemec.

 

[Guadana]

I believe in hiring a good goalie scout and drafting one goalie he likes every year in the mid-rounds. It's a sound philosophy to me. Malek has had an impressive year, so it seems like a pretty good 4th round pick right now.

I’m not a fan of the way how we did draft him too. Like I’m not a fan where Stillman was picked. I want to see more pick management. But in the end when player is good, we accept it.
I know you don’t like Salminen, but he is point leader in his fin u20 league between players of his age, he was 4th between all players. For now he is on his way. His path is long but how many years Bratt and Yegor will play here. Maybe they will decide to sign 4-5 years deals to have a shot for sign another long term high price deal in the age of 28. Salminen could fix his skating a little more and has potential to be solid offensive secondary scorer. He is good enough to be picked where he was picked.

You might know more about him personally but just looking at Maltsev post draft path, I assume if everything wasn’t horrible that the Devils would have signed Bardakov and let him be a bull in the AHL if he was up for it.

(And Edwards is developing nicely *shh*)

today SKA will play against CSKA in the conf final. When ska will end their play off trip, we will have new info. For now I didnt catch new info about him, but he didn’t sign new deal before. Maybe he wants to trip right through the AHL, maybe he wants to say and sign new deal for a couple of years with other KHL club and play more meaningful role.

 

[Guadana]

Vilén will stick in my craw forever because it was terrible value and bad strategy, something you typically can’t say about Shero’s picks.

And, while I’m not even an amateur scout, I am a bit of a Finnish defensemen enthusiast, and you should draft them in two ways IMO.

Is it a top tier guy with an identifiable brand (larger defensive guy but plays a modern game or PMD with offense & hockey IQ & skating who’s not too small)? You can draft them early.

Everyone else, draft them later. Vilén is already a pro at 18 but his ceiling is in the sub-basement. His development has to go really well for him to even start to show anything pointing to a NHL career.

A NA player has a much better chance at being an AHL player/depth guy for you, way more then the guy establishing his pro-career in his home country. There’s a reason intriguing Euros fill the back end of the draft.

And we know that Fitz like his scouts being enthusiastic about players, so someone got to catch some of his 35 Liiga games last year and was “passionate” about him.



Love him? Then perhaps he falls and then you can grab him later. Guys like Markus Nutivaara and Santari Hatakka got picked in the 6th & 7th round like god intended.

I’m assuming this was more that Fitz ignores value and takes his “guy” rather than him viewing this as a great spot for him in terms of value. If they got oversold on him by his minutes, then that’s worse actually.

2021 was a pretty screwy draft in terms of value though (and oh boy, did we not take advantage of that) so I’m willing to see if Fitz can start getting better value from here on out.

The Shero drafts had a better mix of talent but Fitz didn’t have the endless piles of later picks that Shero had (though Shero increased the size of those piles with pick trades).

He can get better.

Shero had his quirks, including his fixation on guys who played on the same team. That just worked out well in 2019 (in terms of getting picks people like) because the USNTDP was crazy endless bag of goodies that season.

Ray also was as much to blame for The Great RHD Famine of 2020s and didn’t draft defensemen for a while.

I too don’t like Fitz seemingly not caring about speed and offensive drivers/IQ, and I hope the view isn’t “we have plenty of that, no need for more, it’s complimentary forward time forever”.

Because, yuck, the team is built around that and also that’s incredibly valuable, so, no, you can still get guys like that too Fitz. Throw us a sexy bone.

Absolutely agree with you about managemen. I like idea of “my player” over “player with higher overall rank”, but overall rank still exist and good gm must find a way to pick more “his players”. Fitz could easily end previous years with two or even three more picks. And take more RD and more goalies. Or perspective third centers.

I don’t like Vilen pick, because of needs. and depth. Vilen is good but we owned 10 more left defensemen in the moment of Vilen pick. That was stupid. Edwards pick was in the same category. He isn’t bad player, but now we have huge problem with right defensemen and centers. People are nuts because we trade Schnarr- player who have 1% of chances to play one full nhl season. He wasn’t even 0.7 ppg player in AHL. because our center depth isnt great. And Boqvist isn’t looking like 3rd center we should not worry about.

I like Malek, but we could easily trade back for a couple of rounds. We could trade back and pick Stillman later and take another potential third line center.

About line drivers - I think Fitz did try to find skill iq player in Baumgartner. I don`t think he did it.

But we still have a big need in depth guys. And if Devils will have 2 players from every draft who can be regular NHLer for their role - it`s a win draft in th end. I cant` say I agree with Fitzy philosophy and management of draft, I would say I dont like his management of the draft, but I understand it and he was pretty ok to good with it.

He did hurt me with Hurtig.

 

[NJ07102]

McCarthy is better than Walsh, and I don't think it's close. I think McCarthy is a high-floor, defense-first, 3rd pairing guy who I have high hopes for. Walsh is good but not great offensively and below average defensively, which can be more of a detriment than an asset for your team. He's like a more-talented Butcher or a less-skilled Ty Smith. If anyone thinks that's what the Devils need, they haven't watched much Devils hockey this year.

I'm not trying to beat up on Walsh, but the last thing I want to do as an NHL coach is worry about a certain defenseman being caught on the ice against more physical or higher-skilled opposing forwards. This will be a constant source of concern with Walsh, but not for McCarthy. Thus, McCarthy is markedly higher when I rank the two.

While I agree on the post on the most part, Walsh is a better skater and better passer than Smith. But as far as defense, he totally depends on positioning and is really weak physically. I think it will not be funny to see Walsh defend against physical, fast NHL opponents. But I'd like to see it nevertheless, maybe he will be given a chance in a couple of games. He sure is fun to watch with his speed and passing.

 

[StevenToddIves]

I think lower rounds you take flawed guys with some plus tools and hope they round it out. Like Bratt’s speed and skill despite being small or Shara’s shot and size despite being up and down in terms of production. It’s probably not that complicated on some level.

I just came up with my top 100 list, and there will be guys on my list available in the 6th/7th rounds. Players fall for all sorts of reasons, and some of them are entirely superficial. Those are the guys I like taking late.

Gritsyuk would be a great example. He grew two inches in his draft-1 year and was a really skinny kid, still growing into his body and not too hard to knock off his skates. But the skill was obviously high end, and as such I loved the pick.

I also love the "elite tools with only one flaw" players, like Dmitri Rashevsky. That kid had elite hands, vision and shooting but was a meh skater. I can see a team not wanting to take an average skater in the first two rounds, but in the 4th? He was the most skilled player in the draft there for two straight drafts.

Defensive defensemen often fall because stats and analytics fail to indicate their effectiveness. Jake Slavin and Brett Pesce would be prime examples.

So, essentially I agree with you. I have players ranked between 35-60 who could conceivably fall to the 5th-7th rounds -- Morrison, Jonsson, Livanavage. Morrison is an over-ager, Jonsson is an elite playmaker and puck handler who lacks size and high-end speed, Livanavage is a physical, two-way D but just 5'11-160. These are all players we would call high upside.

 

[StevenToddIves]

No one thinks he’s a goon. If he was known for his smart two-way play like Callahan, some people (well, me) would be more excited.

Stillman can be a feisty interior motor energy forward but without a good hockey IQ, he isn’t turning into Callahan.

He will also likely take a very long while to develop since he doesn’t have the size and strength to play tough guy in an adult league. His lack of size is a bad thing, guys who don’t have that tend to have speed or skill to make up for it.

Right now I see a guy who’s not exceptional in size, skill, speed, hockey IQ or production. He has some nice qualities and great motor.

Motor can get you a long way. The dreaded Stefan Matteau had even more underwhelming production as prospect that foretold his future in many ways, but give the guy credit, he’s played 92 NHL games so far.

Matteau was also 6’1” and 215 when he was drafted while Stillman was 6’1” and 180. (He’s listed at 6’1” and 181 on the OHL roster now.)

Callahan was 5’10” and 190 when he was drafted in his D+1 year. Size isn’t just height. We can all see that with Zetterlund, who’s 5’11” and 220. (Zetterland was 5’10” and 195 when he was drafted in 2017.)

Stillman missed a season and then played on a crappy OHL team. He signed his ELC at 18 so it can slide for two years, and it will.

He’s our prospect now. I hope he can bulk up, is a very hard worker, is coachable, has the hockey IQ to develop a smarter two-way game and also puts it together offensively.

It wasn’t a good value pick and he didn’t have a good season. I get that you’re high on him, which makes me more optimistic that he can improve, but no one here has to like this pick right now.

Particularly if they believe a team should get elite talent (and that can include size) early in the draft and see Stillman as the kind of player you get later, or ideally (if you’re a team like the Pens, Boston, Tampa, etc) in an undrafted FA signing.

I gave the pick the benefit of the doubt in the off-season but that was then. He does have some nice projectable qualities, he just seems like a long term project that might end up in our (or someone else’s) bottom six at best. Maybe there’s more there, that would be nice. I’m rooting for him.

I can't disagree with any of your subjective opinions, but I will give my own subjective opinion that Stillman is actually a pretty high IQ player. Awareness and anticipation are not a problem with him, and he shows some very intriguing instincts both offensively and defensively. Like I said and will keep saying, I think he's going to be a key cog in a future Devils 3rd line. Did we draft him too early? Without a doubt. But will he be a better 3rd liner than Johnsson or Tatar were this year? Also, without a doubt.

 

[StevenToddIves]

While I agree on the post on the most part, Walsh is a better skater and better passer than Smith. But as far as defense, he totally depends on positioning and is really weak physically. I think it will not be funny to see Walsh defend against physical, fast NHL opponents. But I'd like to see it nevertheless, maybe he will be given a chance in a couple of games. He sure is fun to watch with his speed and passing.

Walsh is a better skater than Smith, but not a better passer. He's weaker defensively, which after Smith's season is saying a lot. I'd say that, in the long, run, the Devils are better off with neither of them. Walsh can be effective the same way Smith can -- playing 12 closely monitored minutes per game on the PP and when strategically matched-up against weaker offensive opposition. I'd rather just have six D-men you don't have to worry about such things with. As such, I don't consider Walsh a top 15 prospect on the Devils right now, but I would say McCarthy has a bright future with the team.

 

[glenwo2]

Well, this year the Devils have 7 picks from the 3rd round on -- one in each round and 3 4th rounders. These picks are crucial. People who don't study the draft might think it's dart throwing so late, but the fact remains. Under Shero, the Devils consistently made great picks in this range, and that's why they have Bratt and Sharangovich and assets which helped acquire Subban and Graves and more talent on the way in Gritsyuk etc. Though I can't pinpoint what Fitzgerald is doing differently, he's had 5 1st round picks which are all very good prospects, but the only player drafted after the first round who can even be considered an interesting prospect right now is Nico Daws.

This simply must change this year. Devils need a cohesive strategy at the 2022 draft table. As Fitzgerald is still a relatively young and new GM who has excelled in virtually all other areas, I have faith we will turn it around.

Was it Shero or was it Castron who made that pick?

I've always given credit to Castron but maybe Shero spotted Bratt? I don't know.


BTW, Steven, Bratt has a brother but he's a Defenseman :

Filip Bratt at eliteprospects.com

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Filip Bratt, 2002-05-19 Stockholm, SWE Sweden. Most recently in the HockeyEttan with Väsby IK. Complete player biography and stats.

www.eliteprospects.com

Bratt's defensive game is defined by his aggressiveness and hard work. He takes short, intense strides to get out and apply pressure towards the puck. Despite his size, he often plays the body. -EliteProspects 2020 NHL Draft Guide

A 5'10 D-man? Well alrighty then.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Was it Shero or was it Castron who made that pick?

I've always given credit to Castron but maybe Shero spotted Bratt? I don't know.


BTW, Steven, Bratt has a brother but he's a Defenseman :

Filip Bratt at eliteprospects.com

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Filip Bratt, 2002-05-19 Stockholm, SWE Sweden. Most recently in the HockeyEttan with Väsby IK. Complete player biography and stats.

www.eliteprospects.com

Bratt's defensive game is defined by his aggressiveness and hard work. He takes short, intense strides to get out and apply pressure towards the puck. Despite his size, he often plays the body. -EliteProspects 2020 NHL Draft Guide

A 5'10 D-man? Well alrighty then.

It was almost certainly whoever was scouting that region and noticed Bratt and saw the potential in him who deserves the most credit. Possibly one of the higher ups or some other scout(s) saw and liked him too but my tendency would be to give the scout of that region and a lot of luck credit for a late round euro steal like that.

 

[Hisch13r]

It was almost certainly whoever was scouting that region and noticed Bratt and saw the potential in him who deserves the most credit. Possibly one of the higher ups or some other scout(s) saw and liked him too but my tendency would be to give the scout of that region and a lot of luck credit for a late round steal like that.

It was dumb he fell that far to begin with. His production was good but smol boi so he ended up going so late

 

[glenwo2]

It was dumb he fell that far to begin with. His production was good but smol boi so he ended up going so late

Good thing many suits in the NHL back then thought like the "We want Size and Grit....hurr hurr" crowd that we have here.

We would not have gotten such a late GIFT that basically turned what could've been remembered as a Disastrous draft (McLeod at 12) to a decent one (Bratt offsetting the Mcleod pick and then some).

 

[StevenToddIves]

It was dumb he fell that far to begin with. His production was good but smol boi so he ended up going so late

I think we found Bratt for the same reason we found Gritsyuk, which was a likely directive among scouts to find high upside offensive weapons who may fall for superficial reasons.

To me -- and probably to all of us -- this is always a good philosophy at the draft.

I'm always looking for these guys myself. There are several guys in my recent top 100 list who could perhaps fit such descriptions.

I think Noah Ostlund has some Aho in him, I think Joel Jonsson could have high-scoring top 6 upside but good luck finding anyone else with him in their top 100, much less top 50. Reid Schaefer has a lot of Tom Wilson elements, while Victor Neuchev could be this year's Dmitry Rashevsky.

If you watched any of the Minnesota HS tourney, you'd have seen Alex Bump, whose skill set is off the charts. I think he could have an NCAA jump like Scott Morrow (although of course Bump is a F, not a D, but you get what I'm saying). Good luck finding him on any top 100 list.

How about Servac Petrovsky, who missed the 2023 draft by a matter of weeks? The kid has serious skill, but he's just raw, which has to be understandable for a kid who comes over to a league where he's one of the youngest players, barely speaking the language and playing on a different sized ice surface. Good luck finding him on any top 100 list.

Adam Sykora might be one of my favorite players in the draft. He's even younger than Petrovsky, and he's just been outstanding in the Slovakian men's league, scoring more than 1st-round slam-dunk Filip Mesar. He can fly and has off-the-charts intangibles and great goal-scoring acumen. I think he would be a 1st rounder next year if he were born one week later, and although he's gotten a couple mid-round rankings, I'm one of only two to put him in the first half of the 2nd round.

So, I agree with you that these are the types of players we should be keying on, not just this year but every year.