The New Jersey Devils ended a mystery Friday night as the NHL draft finally took centre stage.
The Devils took Nico Hischier with the first No. 1 pick in team history, opting for the so-called “Swiss McDavid” over Nolan Patrick, the big Brandon Wheat Kings centre. It wasn’t clear which way the Devils would go in a draft that lacked the slam-dunk stars of recent years.
Dallas chose defenceman Miro Heiskanen with the third selection, Colorado went with blue liner Cale Makar at No. 4 and the Vancouver Canucks, the first Canadian team to make a selection, took centre Elias Pettersson to round out the top 5.
The Vegas Golden Knights made their first selection in team history, drafting centre Cody Glass from the Portland Winterhawks at No. 6.
Vancouver Canucks grab Elias Pettersson 5th overall1:08
The Calgary Flames selected defenceman Juuso Valimaki 16th overall while the Toronto Maple Leafs used No. 17 to take another blue liner, Timothy Liljegren of Sweden.
The Edmonton Oilers selected forward Kailer Yamamoto at No. 22, the Winnipeg Jets took forward Kristian Vesalainen at No. 24, and the Montreal Canadiens took centre Ryan Poehling at No. 25.
Patrick was long expected to be the first pick but he ended up going second to the Philadelphia Flyers and will presumably line up as a powerful second centre behind captain Claude Giroux.
The absence of an Auston Matthews or Connor McDavid helped keep the draft in the background all week as trades and the first expansion draft in 17 years soaked up much of the recent NHL spotlight.
Hischier, an electric centre with game-breaking speed, rose into top spot with an emphatic first season in the Quebec Major Junior League, piling up 38 goals and 86 points in 57 games as a rookie for the Halifax Mooseheads. The 18-year-old made an especially notable impression at the world junior championships this past winter with four goals and seven points in five games for Switzerland.
Hischier is now the highest-drafted Swiss player in NHL history, surpassing Nino Niederreiter, who went fifth overall to the Islanders in 2010. He’ll certainly provide a jump-start to the Devils offence, which sputtered to 28th overall last season.
Patrick, a Winnipeg native, was superb two seasons ago with 41 goals and 102 points in 72 games for Brandon before adding the Western Hockey League’s playoff MVP. Injuries marred this past season though for the 18-year-old, who suited up in only 33 games following off-season sports hernia surgery.
He still finished 10th in the WHL with 1.39 points per-game and was dubbed the Canadian Hockey League’s top NHL draft prospect.
His father, Steve, and uncle, James, both played in the NHL — the latter for almost 1,300 games with the New York Rangers.
