It takes a few years to determine winners and losers from a draft. The prospects take time to develop, and only after three or more seasons does a clear picture start taking shape. It’s what makes draft grades the day after the draft one of the funnier things to read. 

The 2022 draft is now a few years in the rearview mirror, so it’s a good time to revisit it, especially from the New Jersey Devils' perspective. Sure, it’s easy to look back with hindsight. However, this was a draft where the Devils could have been the big winners, taking a good team and making it the next dynasty. Instead, they not only missed, but they also missed big. 

It all starts with the second overall pick. The Devils had all of the options in front of them after the Montreal Canadiens took Juraj Slafkovský with the first pick. The question was who general manager Tom Fitzgerald would take, and the selection was arguably a turning point in his tenure. 

The question was whether the Devils should take the best player available or address their biggest need. It’s a question every team must answer, especially with a top-five pick, and it can help or hurt a team one way or another. 

The Philadelphia Flyers, for example, have taken the most talented player in multiple drafts, and while their young core is great, they lack a top-line center and a top-pair defenseman. The San Jose Sharks have an exciting forward group led by Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, and Ivar Stenberg, but lack a number-one defenseman. 

The Devils took Simon Nemec to fix the defense. He was seen as the best defenseman in the draft and, more importantly, was the ideal blueliner to pair with Luke Hughes to round out the core. Hughes was taken in the 2021 draft and was an offensive-minded defenseman, while Nemec was seen as the bigger option who also had a scoring touch. 

Looking back, Nemec ended up becoming a better player than David Jiricek, who was taken with the fifth pick, or Pavel Mintyukov, who has yet to break out with the Anaheim Ducks. That said, Nemec never worked out with the Devils, and that’s why he was traded this offseason to the Calgary Flames. 

The Canadiens surprised many on the first night of the draft when they took Slafkovsky, who had high upside but was an unknown. By taking him, Shane Wright, Logan Cooley, and Cutter Gauthier were still available for any team to draft. 

It’s easy to look back and say that the Devils should have used the second pick to take Gauthier. He’s an elite scorer who would have been incredible on the wing for Jack Hughes. However, there’s no telling whether Gauthier would fit in with the Devils or ask out and demand a trade the same way he did with the Flyers. 

Cooley entered the draft as a top center from the USA development program, and the belief was that he would be on the third line, with Hughes and Nico Hischier already centering the top two lines. However, he would have been the best pick considering the injury history of Hughes and the elite play he brings to the lineup. 

The Devils drafting him would give them a different approach, a patient one as they moved him up in the lineup. Eventually, Cooley would make his way to the top six, even if that meant spending time on the wing. He’s a playmaker who makes the skaters around him better and would take Hughes, Hischier, or Jesper Bratt’s game up a notch. The Utah Mammoth are benefiting from his rise in their system, and he would have been a great player anywhere. 

The Devils doubled down on their need for defensemen. After taking Nemec with their first-round pick, they took Seamus Casey in the second round. He was also the contrast to Nemec in more than one way. He was a smaller, offensive-minded defenseman who came from the USA development route, while Nemec was an overseas project. 

Casey is still progressing and developing into a pro. He attended the Devils' rookie camp and scrimmages last week and looked like one of their top players, as he should be at this point in his career. The problem is that Casey’s role is limited on the Devils. 

At best, he’s a depth defenseman who moves the puck and adds to the offense. The problem is that he’s not a shutdown defenseman, the type that the Devils need on their second or third pair. It leaves him stuck between the NHL and the American Hockey League, hoping for a call-up that hasn’t come yet. 

In fairness, nobody knew Lane Hutson would become a superstar when he was taken by the Canadiens at the end of the second round. Not even the Canadiens did, because if they knew, they wouldn’t have waited until the 62nd pick and selected three players before taking him. In a re-draft, Hutson goes number one overall instead of Slafkovsky. 

So, it’s hard to blame Fitzgerald for missing out on Hutson when a lot of GMs did. However, what stings for the Devils is that they took two defensemen, hoping to fix the unit while Hutson was still on the board, and he would have single-handedly turned it around.

Even worse, Fitzgerald took a defenseman with similar skills and build to Hutson with the Casey selection, with both defensemen being under six feet. The Devils would have received similar criticism if they took Hutson, but the payoff would be a Norris Trophy-caliber defenseman in their core. Now, imagine how good the Devils would have been had they taken him instead.  

After the first two rounds, the Devils put together an uneventful draft. They took six players, and none of them have played an NHL game yet. None of them are on track to do so anytime soon, either. 

It’s a failure of this draft and Fitzgerald's time with the team. The Devils never added a late-round gem when he was running the front office, and it showed by the end of his tenure. The Devils lacked depth and didn’t have a young project that they developed through their farm system. 

It wasn’t just an issue with the 2022 draft either. The Devils struggled with their prospect development under Fitzgerald. It was noticeable when multiple draft classes saw late-round picks fail to make it far in their careers. Anyone can draft well when they have a top-five, even a top-10 pick. The great teams know how to find prospects beyond that. 

The best teams get the most out of their late-round picks and project draft selections. The Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, and Tampa Bay Lightning all built a farm system to take those players to the next level. The Devils didn’t under Fitzgerald. They hope that the new GM, Sunny Mehta, does.