The New Jersey Devils beat the odds Tuesday night and won the NHL draft lottery — aka the Jack Hughes Sweepstakes — when they moved from third to first, jumping over the Colorado Avalanche and Los Angeles Kings.
The New York Rangers moved from sixth to the No. 2 spot, while the Chicago Blackhawks moved all the way from the No. 12 spot to third overall.
The Avalanche owned the best chance at the No. 1 pick, having acquired Ottawa’s first-rounder in last year’s trade for Matt Duchene. They dropped instead to No. 4.
Hughes is a special talent who skates at an elite level and can make plays at high speed. The 17-year-old center’s footwork is unique among most players in that he skates deceptively on top of having higher-end puck skills. Hughes also has elite vision, which combined with his shiftiness, allows him to exploit open ice and find teammates with ease. There are somewhat limited concerns about his size and physical strength, but they have done little to dissuade most that he belongs at No. 1.
Hughes rewrote the record books at USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, blowing past the likes of Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel and Auston Matthews while putting up 202 points over his last two seasons to shatter the previous career scoring mark of 189. He is averaging 2.10 points per game this season with the U.S. National Under-18 Team amid a mixed schedule of USHL, college and international opponents. Hughes also represented the U.S. at the World Junior Championship this year where helped Team USA earn a silver medal alongside older brother and last year’s No. 7 overall draft pick by the Vancouver Canucks, Quinn Hughes.
There is really only one significant challenger for Hughes to be unseated as the No. 1 pick. That would be 17-year-old Finnish winger Kaapo Kakko who brings size and strength to a high-end offensive skill set. Kakko scored 22 goals for TPS Turku this season, which made him the highest-scoring under-18 player in Liiga history as he surpassed Aleksander Barkov for the record.
After Hughes and Kakko there are several players that could challenge for the next few spots including Russian winger Vasili Podkolzin, Western Hockey League centers Kirby Dach and Dylan Cozens, WHL defenseman Bowen Byram and some of Hughes’s own under-18 teammates — Alex Turcotte, Trevor Zegras and Matthew Boldy.
The NHL draft runs from June 21-22 in Vancouver.