Good afternoon, Devils fans. Today, we’re doing a short rundown of the Devils’ picks and draft-related moves from the past few days. Below, you can find links to each of the relevant picks and trades.
* Acquired when trading down from 35th to 37th
** Acquired when trading down from 140th to 149th
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The New Jersey Devils truly did not have a ton of draft capital leading up to this year’s event. Prior to the Simon Nemec trade, they lacked third and seventh-round selections. By acquiring the 35th overall pick (along with two future firsts) for Simon Nemec and making two trade down moves, Sunny Mehta was able to spin a few extra picks over what the Devils were supposed to be selecting. This is quite good, as it seemed the Devils were targeting Vanhanen in the early second round along with a goalie in Rusakovich when they traded down in the fifth round.
In all, I think the Devils largely did a good job of getting value equal to or above their draft slots throughout the draft, with few exceptions. As I mentioned in the Alexander Command post, our 12th overall selection had an identical NHLe projection to third overall pick Caleb Malhotra (32 draft year NHLe/32% star probability and 67% NHLer probability per Hockey Prospecting). Vanhanen, meanwhile, was much lower on the NHLe boards (8% star probability and 29% NHLer probability) while being very well regarded by microstat trackers. I would give the Command pick an A (especially when considering his super-high compete level and intensity) and the Vanhanen pick a B+.
The Devils’ third pick, Nikita Shcherbakov, is not someone who is going to be well-liked by NHLe-focused draft projectors. Shcherbakov is a large Russian mobile defenseman. On tape, his skating looks awesome, but he has not been an eye-popping point producer in Russian juniors. However, with a decent 10 points in 35 VHL (second-tier to the KHL) games, Shcherbakov may be able to get into a full-time role with Salavat Yulaev Ufa of the KHL next season. To be honest, I am not sure they had to grab Shcherbakov this early in the draft, but maybe a suitable trade down was not available. I would give this pick a C+.
The trade of the Devils’ 108th pick for Amadeus Lombardi, while going down prior to the draft, is important to note. Lombardi, a center, has had 35 goals and 82 points over his last 91 AHL games across the last two seasons, which is far more than the Devils have had from any AHL center over the last couple of years. Per AHLTracker, Lombardi has been very good at five-on-five, with his team having a 58.7 goals for percentage with him on the ice this season. Considering that fourth round picks are usually a few years away from the NHL, I thought it was a solid, B-grade move to acquire someone who is ready for that chance to see if he’s capable of a fourth or third-line role in the NHL.
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My favorite Day Two pick came in the pick they gained when trading down from 35th to 37th. That 119th pick was used to select Lavr Gashilov out of the Russian junior MHL, and he may have been the highest-NHLe value forward pick they could have made in this slot. Gashilov is a super-skilled center whose rankings are all over the place, but his raw point production could have been that of a player justifiably selectable in the mid-first round. His tape may be more limited, and he does have to work on his skating and defense, but players who go the farthest in the NHL are generally those who are dominant scorers in their teenaged years. With Gashilov only under contract through the upcoming season, it may be less difficult to get him over to North American hockey as well. Since skating is one thing I have little problem letting a young prospect work on (it’s not like he has to learn how to score), I give this one an A+. He had one of the best seasons ever for a draft eligible player coming out of the MHL.
After trading down from 140 to 149, the Devils selected their annual goalie in Daniil Rusakovich, and he had some pretty good numbers in Russian juniors. Rusakovich had a ,913 save percentage in 20 MHL games this season after having a .909 save percentage in 31 Belarusian U17 games the year prior. HockeyProspecting gives him a 35% NHLer probability based on his draft year performance and league, which is in line with many future NHL goaltenders with a wide range of abilities, from Nico Daws to Joel Hofer to Igor Shesterkin. Goalies are hard to predict, so this gets a flat B.
The Devils’ pick at 172 was probably the “weakest” of the draft, but it was the sixth round. Luke Wilfley did not have the kind of profile I would consider selecting, but he grades high as a physical rush shooter with average transition skills who has not turned the puck over much at all in juniors. If Wilfley was not so young, I would probably give this pick a D, but the fact that he is still 17 at the time of this article means I will bump him up to a C-. Adding in that he has learned over the years from David Clarkson tells me he has a good idea of what his path to the higher levels is. I am not super high on the pick, but he could surprise.
With the third-to-last pick of the draft, it’s almost impossible to project a future NHLer. But we will be hoping that Quinn McKenzie, who honestly had a decent draft season with 51 points in 65 OHL games, has something in store for us. Selected 222nd overall, McKenzie grades rather well as a defensive forward with some offensive and transitional drive in microstat evaluations, though he does have a bit of a turnover problem. Scouts regard McKenzie as a super high motor player, with Brock Otten from OHL Prospects saying, “he reminds me a bit of when you hit the Go-Kart track.” McKenzie will need that motor to make his game work at his smaller stature, but I would give this pick a A, all things considered. Even though McKenzie is not in the HockeyProspecting database, Thomas Vandenberg, who went in the fourth round to Los Angeles, had 50 points in 59 OHL games and had a 14% star probability with a 59% NHLer probability. With a few fewer goals and one more point in six extra games, I would estimate that McKenzie would come in around 6-8%/25-40% if he were available.
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And, I mean, fun fact: if you look at the “Devils in the System” page on Elite Prospects, these are the top ten players ranked by their most recent raw production outside of NHL games:
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Matias Vanhanen, 87 points in the WHL
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Lavr Gashilov, 69 points in the MHL
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Quinn McKenzie, 51 points in the OHL
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Jeremy Hanzel, 49 points in the ECHL
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Alexander Command, 45 points between the U20 Nationell (44) and U18 Region (1)
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Amadeus Lombardi, 42 points in the AHL
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Xavier Parent, 39 points in the AHL
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David Rozsival, 37 points in the USHL
What Sunny Mehta understood here is that not only does the prospect pipeline desperately need forwards, it needs scoring forwards. When Tom Fitzgerald made his first pick of the 2025 Draft at 50th overall, he selected Conrad Fondrk, who only had 39 points in 55 games between the U.S. National U18 Team and the USNTDP Juniors. He proceeded to have eight points in 25 NCAA games this season, the lowest of their three 2025 draftees to play NCAA games this year. North American reputations for defense don’t mean much when your players can’t put the puck in the net. Also adding a player with more AHL points than any of their potentially returning AHLers with a fourth round pick is a solid immediate depth move.
Adding a goalie, a large shutdown defenseman, and a gritty shooting forward on top of that tells me that overall, I would give Sunny Mehta about a B+ on his first NHL Draft with the Devils. Retrospectives will be telling here, but if I had to predict where I think each of these guys will end up right now, it would be this:
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Alexander Command: middle six two-way all-around pest center (ideal NHL ETA: 2027-28)
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Matias Vanhanen: plug-anywhere top nine playmaking wing, to be paired with shooting centers (ideal NHL ETA: 2028-29)
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Nikita Shcherbakov: sixth or seventh defenseman with penalty killing use (ideal NHL ETA: 2029-30)
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*Amadeus Lombardi – fourth-line center for the New Jersey Devils in 2026-27 for at least 40 games*
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Lavr Gashilov: NHL power play monster and sheltered scoring line center or wing (ideal NHL ETA: 2028-29)
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Daniil Rusakovich: Second or third rotational goaltender (ideal NHL ETA: 20230-31)
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Luke Wilfley: AHL grit forward, probably some super-high scoring ECHL seasons or a trip overseas at some point (ideal NHL ETA: 2030-31)
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Quinn McKenzie: AHL scorer or NHL high-intensity fourth-line plug-in forward who can spark teams; possibly someone who spends his 30s overseas after a few partial or full NHL seasons (ideal NHL ETA: 2030-31)
In all, I am pretty good with that draft. I don’t think it will be too long before all of Command, Vanhanen, and Gashilov are in the NHL and able to contribute, as they are the players I am definitely most hopeful for out of this year’s Devils draft pool. I think I would have preferred to see a trade with one of their second-round picks for someone who can help in 2026-27, but the Devils do have a lot of first-round draft capital to work with in their next two drafts that could be leveraged in the days after July 1, when some no-trade clauses weaken. We will see: this B+ grade is on the value and fit of the picks taken and not representative of the whole offseason, which may not even be at its peak. I am particularly excited about the fit that Command will have on the Devils, lining up behind Hischier and Hughes and possibly being the guy who successfully takes pressure off of them. Beyond Command, I think Gashilov is a steal in the making.
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But what do you think of the draft as a whole? If you have not yet done so, check The Feed for any polls that are still open on the draftees, and I will update this post here with the full results when all of them close later tonight. For now, thanks for reading.
