As a history buff, learning about hockey history is always interesting. That’s especially true when it comes to the ‘Original Six’ era. Unfortunately, the Devils weren’t one of the NHL’s first few teams. That doesn’t stop us from feeling nostalgic and romantic about stories about players we’d never got to watch play a game in a bygone era.
Yahoo Sports Canada did an extremely interesting experiment recently. If the NHL was limited to only six teams, what current players would be on their rosters? Out of the over 700 current NHL players, how do you break down that list into 72 forwards, 36 defenseman, and 12 goalies? Also, which current New Jersey Devils’ players showed up on that list?
The Results
Yahoo Sports Canada writers filled their rosters in what could be explained as a glorified fantasy draft. Any player currently on an NHL roster was eligible, even if they were on long-term IR (here’s looking at you, Nikita Kucherov). One interesting tidbit, author Steven Psihogios threw out was that team general managers (his fellow writers participating in the draft) could either draft for the now or build for the later. Here are the results:
What About The New Jersey Devils?
As you can see only two New Jersey Devils ended up on ‘Original Six’ rosters. That was forward Jack Hughes and defenseman Dougie Hamilton. Are we really surprised that the team’s best forward and best defenseman were the only two taken? Hamilton is a top NHL defenseman, so that wasn’t a surprise. It was a minor surprise to see Jack Hughes on the list because there’s still many out there who continue to discount the young forward.
We wanted to see more Devils on this list. Did more Devils deserve to be on this list? To break it down in simple terms, who on the Devils would be a top-72 forward, top-36 defenseman or top-12 goaltender? MacKenzie Blackwood is still developing, but he unfortunately isn’t a top-12 goaltender at this point in his career. You could make the case that Jesper Bratt is a top-72 forward, but there’s also a lot of competition for a forward who continues to fly under the NHL radar. As for defensemen, maybe someone thinks Ryan Graves is close to the top-36 in the league? That’s a strong maybe.
Current, Former, and Potential Devils On The List
Taylor Hall didn’t make the cut. After his Hart winning season there’s no doubt he was a top-72, let alone perhaps top-10 forward in NHL. Even if he’s regained some form with the Boston Bruins he’s not at the level he was in New Jersey (let’s blame the Buffalo Sabres). In fact, there are no former Devils made the list. Considering the best former New Jersey Devils still in the league after Taylor Hall is Kyle Palmieri that’s not a surprise.
Two names of players the Devils past over in the first round of the draft in recent years are on the list. That’s Matt Barzal of the New York islanders from the 2015 draft and Bo Horvat of the Vancouver Canucks from the 2013 draft. Okay, the Devils didn’t pass over Horvat. They traded the pick used on him for Cory Schneider. Point is that they could have had him but chose otherwise.
Vladimir Tarsenko of the St. Louis Blues is on the list. Tarasenko has returned to form this past season and there were trade rumors around him and New Jersey. Devils’ fans may look at this as a player they could have had making the list, but we’ll never know how serious those trade rumors were. Maybe, Tarasenko refused to be traded here? Maybe the Devils just kicked the tires and nothing ever came of it?
How The Rest of The Metropolitan Division Matches Up
Obviously the usually suspects of Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Artemi Panarin and Evgeni Malkin are on the list. Here’s how the rest of the division matches up:
New York Rangers (5):
Adam Fox, Igor Shesterkin, Mika Zibanejad, Jacob Trouba, Alexis Lafreniere
Pittsburgh Penguins (5):
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust
Washington Capitals (4):
Tom Wilson, Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson, Evgeni Kuznetsov
Carolina Hurricanes (3):
Jacob Slavin, Andrei Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho
Philadelphia Flyers (3):
Ryan Ellis, Carter Hart, Claude Giroux
New York Islanders (2):
Matt Barzal, Ilya Sorokin
Columbus Blue Jackets (1):
Zach Werenski
Final Observations
Definitely some questionable choices on this list. The fact Hart was chosen as a top-12 goalie goes to show how much he’s being over-valued and people hope he becomes the next Ron Hextall. Alexis Lafreniere hasn’t lived up to expectations so this seems like a clear “build for the future” move. Ilya Sorokin doesn’t have the body of work that Hart has, but has shown bits of being a spectacular goaltender. Still it seems too early to say he’s a better goaltender than others who were left off the list. The Washington Capitals are the only team where there’s no debate all their players deserve to be on this list.