Introduction
Last night the New Jersey Devils had the second overall pick in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft. Who they would use the pick on has been a main topic of discussion among Devils’ fans, and surely Devils’ management, for months now. Surprisingly, New Jersey made the decision to draft defenseman Simon Nemec over Shane Wright.
Wright was favored by many to be the potential first overall pick. Why was this? What possibly led into this decision?
Why Simon Nemec?
If you want an in depth breakdown on Nemec, you can read that here. The main thing to know is that he’s a two-way defenseman with the potential to be an elite top pairing defenseman in the NHL. He’s extremely smart at both ends of the ice, and uses that along with his creativity and skating to drive offense both at even strength and on the power play.
Nemec was ranked fourth on our top 32 prospect rankings for the 2022 NHL draft, which you can read here. Another important note about Nemec is that he’s generally loved by the prospect analytics community. This is seen especially with Hockey Prospecting and JFresh Hockey’s player cards for Nemec, which are shown above and below:
Why Not Shane Wright?
Shane Wright was the consensus top ranked player by many different hockey media outlets, including us. So, how did he fall to Seattle at four? The answer to that is complicated. It’s entirely possible that Montreal, New Jersey, and Arizona, all had Wright as their number two guy, but he happened to be behind the guys who went one through three.
Or it’s also possible that Wright was just straight up outside all of the team’s top three. The reason for this could be due to his lack of high-end upside. Corey Pronman of the Athletic wrote last night that scouts who watched Wright came away thinking that, “He was very good, but nothing special.”
If that was the case for the Devils, then it makes sense why they didn’t pick Wright at two. Why would you pick someone who you don’t think can be anything special at second overall? On the flip side, the Devils, and many other teams, clearly thought very highly of Nemec. Pronman said on The Athletic Hockey Show that ‘quite a few’ teams, outside of New Jersey, thought Nemec was the second or even best overall player in the draft.
Conclusion
Devils’ fans have the right to be a tad disappointed that the Devils picked Simon Nemec over Shane Wright. However, they also have to trust the Devils’ front office and their exposure and experience with these prospects behind the scenes. At the end of the day, Nemec is most likely going to be a terrific player.
Even the fans who are still bitter about the Devils passing on Wright should be content thinking about a future top four consisting of Luke Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, Simon Nemec, and Jonas Siegenthaler. That’s something to get excited about, that’s for sure.