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The 2016 NHL Draft Lottery took place Saturday night and, for the New Jersey Devils, it was rather uneventful.
The Devils entered the night with the 11th pick and, despite a lot of movement elsewhere, that still holds true.
While it was fun to think about the possibility of adding a top-3 pick the reality is the Devils were somewhat lucky to stay at 11.
Heading into the lottery the Devils had ~10% of winning a top-3 pick while there was ~17% chance they would drop in the draft order.
Standing pat may feel like a disappointment but, again, the Devils had a better chance of generating a negative result than a positive one so it's hard to be too upset.
With a couple months until the draft, and many draft eligibles still playing meaningful hockey, rankings can and will change but regardless the Devils will be able to get a good player at 11.
As things stand right now wingers Clayton Keller and Julien Gauthier, as well as defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, are a few guys slated to go in that range that I'm high on.
Keller, who I really like, is a somewhat undersized but highly skilled forward that just put up historic offensive numbers with the USNTDP.
Gauthier is a 6'4' winger who scored 41 goals in 54 regular season games with Val d'Or (QMJHL) and also suited up for Team Canada at the World Juniors.
Lastly Sergachev is a mobile 6'3' defenseman who makes a good first pass, is poised with the puck, and can absolutely wire it from the point.
There are some other good options, too, but those are three of the guys I'll be focusing on over the next couple months.
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