When the New Jersey Devils were granted the first overall pick in 2017, the consensus seemed to be that they would have to choose between Nolan Patrick and Nico Hischier. They eventually settled on Hischier – the right call, as the now captain has established himself as one of the best two-way forwards in the sport. Meanwhile, Patrick’s career unfortunately came to an abrupt end due to concussions.
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However, a recent conversation between former Devils Cory Schneider and Brian Boyle on their podcast, One Time All-Stars, revealed that the Devils may not have really considered Patrick at all. Instead, they were debating whether to take a slight reach for who is now arguably the best defenseman in the National Hockey League (NHL) in Cale Makar. They also may have wanted defenseman Miro Heiskanen in that spot.
A Tough Decision
“I recall going up to the offices with [general manager] Ray [Shero] for a postseason meeting,” said Schneider. “They have their giant draft board with the magnets of the [prospect] names on them. It was mostly covered up, but you could see at the top, it was Hischier, Makar and Heiskanen. Those three names were grouped together. And then a separate section was Patrick, whoever else, and whoever else. I do think they were considering Makar and Heiskanen at #1 (…) This could be all happenstance, and those names just happened to be together, but I feel like based on my discussions with Ray…I think Makar was definitely in the mix for that first pick.”
In hindsight, Makar would have been a better pick than Hischier, as he has a whopping 428 points in 395 NHL games as a defenseman, with a plus-136 rating. However, he didn’t have quite the same pedigree then, since he unconventionally developed in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) as opposed to the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) like most.
If he did play in the CHL, there’s a very good chance he would have gone first. Instead, the slight question mark saw him slip to the Avalanche at #4.
Heiskanen, while not quite Makar level, has also had an impressive start to his career, notching 283 points in 475 games. It’s hard to fault the Devils though, as Hischier has 422 points in 527 career games, while being around a point-per-game for three seasons now. He’s also received Selke Trophy votes in each…
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