The Montreal Canadiens selected Juraj Slafkovsky with the first-overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft on Friday. And the New Jersey Devils didn’t call what they thought was a bluff and thought Slafkovsky would still be around to pluck in second place.
But no, Montreal wanted the young winger and passed on Shane Wright, leaving the Devils in a panic at the draft table. New Jersey was not going to pick another centre, the future is bright down the middle for them. That meant passing over Wright and Logan Cooley, and insider Pierre LeBrun revealed on Friday on the air of TSN 1050 that the Devils did not have enough time to make a huge trade involving the second overall pick and went with defenceman Simon Nemec.
“A Devils source told me last night their guy was Slafkovsky and once the Habs took him New Jersey did think of moving down but obviously in that time frame didn’t have time to get that done so they took their next best choice”.
That made players from Slovakia go 1-2 in the Draft.
We are not saying that Nemec is a bad pick for New Jersey. He had one goal and 25 assists in 39 games for Nitra MHC of the Slovak league last season. He also played for Slovakia at the Olympics, winning a bronze medal.
But the Devils really wanted his compatriot Slafkovsky and did not think the Habs would get him with the first overall pick.
Last week ahead of the draft, LeBrun had mentioned how the Canadiens could exchange the two first picks with Jersey and still end up selecting Shane Wright…
“What I was told on this day is that the Habs’ braintrust remains undecided in terms of being 100 per cent on the No. 1 pick, which is not shocking. [General manager] Kent Hughes has said that they would use all the time they had leading up to next Thursday’s first round to settle on that No. 1 pick. But what it could do in the meantime is perhaps add some intrigue in the hours leading up to next Thursday’s first round in that everyone knows the New Jersey Devils are picking at No. 2. There are some who believe that Montreal is waiting to see if the Devils make a move closer to the first round in terms of picking up the phone and asking Montreal what it would take to flip the No.1 and No. 2 picks so that the Devils can make sure they can get their hands on winger Juraj Slafkovsky,” had explained LeBrun.
Too late for it now…
