2024 NHL mock draft roundup: Expect New Jersey Devils attackers

Friday, 2024 NHL Draft The competition will be held at The Sphere in Las Vegas. As of this writing, New Jersey Devils still own the 10th overall pick. If they hold onto that spot before Friday’s draft, they’ll have plenty of candidates to choose from. The 2024 NHL draft class is expected to be eye-opening after Maclin Celebrini became the No. 1 pick and Artem Levshunov is likely to be the No. 2 pick. To answer who the Devils will pick on Friday, you may first need to answer who able The Devils will face off on Friday.

To get a feel for who the Devils might take, I found mock drafts from a variety of people online. Some are fans like you and me. Some are professionals in the media and/or hockey prospects. Some come from their website, their YouTube channel, or a concise list on X. As long as the mock draft was done in June and it’s a mock draft — not a ranked list — I’ll take a look. The general idea remains: The crowd’s thoughts will probably provide a good set of expectations for what happens on Friday. These mock drafts were not taken down until last night. I apologize for leaving out any good or updated picks from the list.

For this summary, I focused on the two drafts the Devils made before and after the 10th pick in 40 mocks. While the first seven picks are certainly important, who Seattle and Calgary pick could affect any last-minute decisions/confirmations the Devils make. Who Buffalo and Philadelphia pick could indicate who the Devils could have taken directly at 10th, rather than who they chose. The title is accurate: most mocks have the Devils taking a forward. As for who, well, that’s still unknown.

40 mock draft roundups

View mock draft sources

In 40 mock drafts, the most frequently mentioned player for the New Jersey Devils is Jukurit center Konsta Helenius. The argument that keeps coming up is that with Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier already in the fold, adding a player like Helenis could make the Devils very strong in the middle. I think that’s a valid argument, even if it takes time for Helenis to make it happen. It’s worth noting that the most common argument simply means he goes to New Jersey in only 10 (25% of the total) mock drafts. The second most common name is another forward: USNTDP scoring winger Cole EssermanI’m personally not sure the Devils should take him given what they did with Alexander Holtz, but a lot of the same reasons arise: Imagine him completing Hughes’ pass. Even if that’s not what I would do, it’s enticing and defensible. Again, this is the pick in 7 mocks. The third pick is Berkeley Cotton, Yesterday, we mocked him based on James’ board. He was picked in all six simulated games.

In total, 21 of the 40 mock drafts have New Jersey taking a top-three pick. This all suggests that this draft is extremely deep with prospects. The headline comes from the fact that 30 of the 40 mock drafts have the Devils selecting a forward. The remaining 9 have the Devils selecting a forward. Tiji Iginla If Calgary does not have (4 simulations), Michael Brandseger-Nygard (3 simulations) or Beckett Sennek (2 mocks). I’m perfectly happy with Iginla or MBN, and I could be persuaded to go with Sennecke.

Only a quarter of all simulations predicted the Devils would select a defenseman, with four of those predictions predicting the Devils would select a defenseman. Sam Dickinson, Two pointing to the devil Anton Silayev,as well as Zeev Buyum and Zain ParekhAnother commonality between all of these possible names is that they are almost all offensive players. Silayev might be a bit of a stretch in that regard, but every other rookie possesses offensive skills that make them a good candidate for a 10th pick (or 10th overall) in the eyes of mock drafters. I generally agree with this. Offensive skills are extremely valuable in the NHL and can determine where one ends up on an NHL roster. Even so, in this sample that I drew, 10 different players were mocked to be drafted to the Devils.

That’s the situation for teams drafting around the Devils. There seems to be a consensus that Seattle should take a defenseman. Whether it’s Buim, Parekh, Silayev, Dickinson, or (in two cases) Carter Yachemchukit’s anyone’s guess. But there are still a few who think a forward could be acquired, especially if Cayden Lindstrom or Ivan Demidov falls to seventh. From a story and skill standpoint, it makes sense for Calgary to draft Tij Iginla. Nineteen mocks picked him — still less than half. Those who scoff at Catton or Dickinson often point out that Iginla would have been a good pick — assuming they didn’t scoff at Iginla going to Utah sooner. I think that would have happened if he was there, but if not, then their loss is New Jersey’s gain. The question remains: Both teams could have done a lot of different things, and it’s not entirely unreasonable. Except for the person who thinks Artyom Levshunov would have fallen to ninth.

So what about Buffalo and Philadelphia? Who will pick them after New Jersey? For them, the situation is completely unclear, too. Yakmchuk leads with 12 votes, followed by Helenis, Sennek, Esserman, Cotton, and Parekh. These are all potential and legitimate choices for New Jersey, although the Devils probably should stay away from Yakmchuk given this group of picks. Philadelphia’s draft is more spread out, with Yakmchuk, Helenis, Cotton, and Sennek making up half of the picks. After No. 10, some uncommon names emerge, like Trevor Connelly and Adam Giricek. Basically, these two teams have to make adjustments as the draft progresses. Again, there’s no strong consensus on any particular name – just like the three teams ahead of them.

All of this is in preparation for the fact that several names will be on the New Jersey team’s 10th pick podium on Friday. After all, the most common names from No. 8 to No. 12 are Iginla and Carton, and they account for only 62.5% of all 40 mock drafts – most of which have them ranked lower than No. 8. Assuming the Devils still have that pick on Friday night.

Mock draft sources

For the sake of transparency, here are the 40 mock drafts I sampled for this roundup. These mock drafts came from a variety of sources including websites, X, and Youtube. From fans to people who do public scouting to media members and more. These mock drafts may not be exhaustive, but they should be a good representation of what most people think. Again, there is a lot to be said for this year’s draft. Links to each mock draft will be after this chart.

See the link below this image

Links to all mock drafts:

• CalgaryFlames.com – Alex Medina, Chris Wall, Ryan Dietrick, Torrey Peterson
• Newsday – Andrew Gross, Colin Stephenson ($)
• Bleacher Nation – Tab Bamford
• NHL.com – Adam Kimmelman, Mike Morrell
• My NHLDraft
• sports – Corey Planman ($), Scott Wheeler ($)
• Locking up the Senators – Ross Levitan, Brandon Piller, Jerome Berube (#8), Wheeler (#9-12)
• NHL Draft Pros
• Blue chip outlook
• Hockey Man
• Emerald City Hockey Team
• SportsGrid – Zach Cook
• Lines – Bill Placzek
• McKean Hockey – Brock Otten
• FC Hockey
• TSN – Craig Patton
• FloHockey – Chris Peters
• amNY – Joe Pantono
• Top Hockey
• Black Hawk – Todd Matthews
• Hockey Writer – Logan Horn
• The Hockey News – Tony Ferrari
• Daily Showdown – Steven Ellis
• Locked On Network mock draft (link to reaction video)
• Tank Marathon
• Washing – Will Scouch’s personal taunt, Will Scouch and Sam McGilligan impersonation
• Breakaway Scouting and Ryan Ma
• Sirius XM NHL Network – Shane Malloy, Russ Cohen
• Marc-Olivier Baudouin
• Draft Central – Dylan Robillard
• Montreal Hockey Now – Franck Bernard
• Draft prospects hockey
• Sportsnaut – Alan Serafka

I want to thank everyone who has mock drafted this year’s draft. Especially those who excel after the first round, like some of them. Going into two rounds is impressive. seven The circular simulation is astounding.

Your opinion

Most mock drafts have forwards being selected if the New Jersey Devils keep the 10th pick. Of those, in order of most often being selected, those forwards are Konstad Helennis, Cole Esserman, Berkley Caton, Tee Iginla, Michael Brandseger-Nygaard, and Beckett Senek. Now I want to know what you think. Of the players New Jersey has mocked, which one intrigues you the most? Who should they take? Who do you think the Devils should avoid in their mock drafts? Please leave your answers and reactions to these mock drafts in the comments. Thanks for reading.