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Prospect Info: STI 2024 Devils-Centric Mock Draft For People Sick Of Everyone Else’s Cruddy Mock Drafts

StevenToddIves

Registered User
May 18, 2013
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28,039
Brooklyn, NY
New Jersey Devils said:
MBN or trade it for a top-6 or goalie. I’ll be mildly disappointed with anything else.
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There is no prime-era Cory Schneider available, and as such the Devils will not be trading #10 overall for a goaltender.

If you're trading for a top-6 forward it had better be someone at a Kyle Connor-level, otherwise why not just give a strong offer to Elias Lindholm?

Again, the one thing an NHL GM should never do with a top 10 pick is shop it. If we followed this logic and listened to all the "trade the pick" people, this team would have Jonas Brodin and Conor Garland instead of Jack Hughes and Luke Hughes.

If Brady Tkachuk is available? Kyle Connor? Then, of course you make your best offer. But those guys are not available. So you look to fill a hole through free agency or a smaller trade, and use the #10 pick to grab a player to be part of the future NJ talent core.
 
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Guadana

Guadana

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Mar 7, 2012
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St Petersburg
StevenToddIves said:
If @Guadana doesn't give us a few more MHL sleepers this year, we are blaming his cat.
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I gave you Nygard from the very beginning. And goalies from the MVKHL. What else can I do?

All my sleepers are not longer sleep. Players like Shuravin(I mentioned him long time ago) and Surin are projecting in the first - third round.
 
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StevenToddIves

Registered User
May 18, 2013
11,087
28,039
Brooklyn, NY
Bcap88 said:
Yea, I completely understand how comps are tough just trying to gauge what type of player he is as opposed to what his ceiling/floor is
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Ceiling/floor is a bit different and easier to describe.

With Nygard, it's pretty much as high of a floor as you can get with a pick potentially outside the top 10. This is to say -- and I'm sure even the people ranking him in the teens would agree with me -- Nygard is capable of playing a 4th line role in the NHL right now. He's good enough defensively and excellent in the physical game and his on-and-off-puck decision making.

That's not to say I'd recommend this, of course -- Nygard would be best served playing in a scoring line role in a European men's league, which is what we will see with Skelleftea.

But if he's capable of being a 4th liner now, I think his floor would have to be as one of the better 3rd liners in the NHL. Nygard is fast, physical, smart, competitive and excels defensively.

The question is whether Nygard can blossom into a scoring top 6 power forward, and this is the question which naturally will determine how much you like him come draft day.

Nygard is a smart passer but not an exceptionally creative one. His puck skills are fine, but I wouldn't exaggerate and call his hands 1st round caliber, because his stick handling is mostly functional. He's good at using his big frame in puck protection, but this is not a beat-you-one-on-one dangler by any means.

Where Nygard excels offensively is in his shooting and net-front game. He's got the potential of an elite-level shot, and he is great at crease crashing. The reason this excites me so much is that -- in amateur levels, more goals are scored from the perimeter. This is to say that defenders lose their positioning and gaps and defenses collapse under pressure at lower levels to the degree that, for a high skill forward, there's a lot of room to create from the perimeter.

At NHL levels, that room dries up very quickly. Unless you're an elite level Datsyuk or Patty Kane or whomever, it's nearly impossible to get more than microseconds of space between the perimeter and high-danger scoring areas. This is why we see the percentage of goals scored tilt heavily to the net-front at the NHL level. Rebounds, deflections, scrums. And that area is Nygard's bread and butter.

So yes, I think Nygard is a guy who can excel in a top 6 NHL role. He won't be the line-driver of course, but he can be a perfect compliment to a Jack Hughes or Tage Thompson or whomever -- digging out pucks, creating turnovers, making smart plays, firing one-timers and crashing creases. This is Nygard's upside, but I'm optimistic.
 
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Bcap88

Bcap88

Ruff season that’s for sure
Aug 12, 2011
9,793
9,063
Chicago
StevenToddIves said:
Ceiling/floor is a bit different and easier to describe.

With Nygard, it's pretty much as high of a floor as you can get with a pick potentially outside the top 10. This is to say -- and I'm sure even the people ranking him in the teens would agree with me -- Nygard is capable of playing a 4th line role in the NHL right now. He's good enough defensively and excellent in the physical game and his on-and-off-puck decision making.

That's not to say I'd recommend this, of course -- Nygard would be best served playing in a scoring line role in a European men's league, which is what we will see with Skelleftea.

But if he's capable of being a 4th liner now, I think his floor would have to be as one of the better 3rd liners in the NHL. Nygard is fast, physical, smart, competitive and excels defensively.

The question is whether Nygard can blossom into a scoring top 6 power forward, and this is the question which naturally will determine how much you like him come draft day.

Nygard is a smart passer but not an exceptionally creative one. His puck skills are fine, but I wouldn't exaggerate and call his hands 1st round caliber, because his stick handling is mostly functional. He's good at using his big frame in puck protection, but this is not a beat-you-one-on-one dangler by any means.

Where Nygard excels offensively is in his shooting and net-front game. He's got the potential of an elite-level shot, and he is great at crease crashing. The reason this excites me so much is that -- in amateur levels, more goals are scored from the perimeter. This is to say that defenders lose their positioning and gaps and defenses collapse under pressure at lower levels to the degree that, for a high skill forward, there's a lot of room to create from the perimeter.

At NHL levels, that room dries up very quickly. Unless you're an elite level Datsyuk or Patty Kane or whomever, it's nearly impossible to get more than microseconds of space between the perimeter and high-danger scoring areas. This is why we see the percentage of goals scored tilt heavily to the net-front at the NHL level. Rebounds, deflections, scrums. And that area is Nygard's bread and butter.

So yes, I think Nygard is a guy who can excel in a top 6 NHL role. He won't be the line-driver of course, but he can be a perfect compliment to a Jack Hughes or Tage Thompson or whomever -- digging out pucks, creating turnovers, making smart plays, firing one-timers and crashing creases. This is Nygard's upside, but I'm optimistic.
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Thank you for the write up as always keep doing the lords work for the rest of us
 
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Guadana

Guadana

Registered User
Mar 7, 2012
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St Petersburg
longislanddevil said:
I’ve seen a few posters use Val Nichuskin as a comp for MBN.
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He is good comparison too but Nichushkin had serious problems with shot and he wasn't two way player from the beginning. Nygard is the 3 top 5 shooter of the draft and one of the best or best two way player.
My3Sons said:
That’s a great player especially for NJ. Imagine a second line center so they can slot all the centers on the team appropriately
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We are trying to fix goaltending, defene and depth, but we should start from centers. At least back to the past and pick first pair defenseman over third line center.
 
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