The New Jersey Devils’ brand new general manager, Sunny Mehta, just completed his first draft at the helm of an organization. And while it wasn’t the most exciting draft for the Devils given their relative lack of picks in both quality and quantity, this draft was still illuminating in a number of ways.
One of the things that jumps out to me is that Mehta seems to have a type. From what I can tell, the traits that Mehta really coveted in his inaugural draft class were a strong compete level, hockey
IQ, transition skill, and production. Every selection that Mehta made has at least one of these abilities as one of their top selling points according to scouts, from the first selection in Alexander Command to the last selection in Quinn McKenzie. If this sounds familiar to you, that’s probably because Mehta’s former team, the Florida Panthers, were very much all-in on this archetype: The highly-skilled grinder, so to speak. I don’t think Mehta is just simplistically copying Florida’s roster-building strategy, but I do think he’s taking what worked so well with the Panthers and customizing it a bit in New Jersey.
On the flip side of the coin, it also felt like Mehta’s draft picks revealed that there is one trait that he does NOT particularly care about in a prospect: size. With the exception of Nikita Shcherbakov (and not counting goalie prospect Daniil Rusakovich), all of New Jersey’s draft picks were no taller than 6’1″ and no heavier than 190 pounds. This is a far cry from the typical Tom Fitzgerald draft, which featured a million different variants of “This 6’5″, 210 pound kid can skate reasonably well for his size”.
But again, while Mehta doesn’t seem to value size all that much, he does seem to value some element of physicality. Or perhaps a more accurate word than physicality would be disruptiveness. As we just saw in these playoffs from relatively small players such as Logan Stankoven and Zach Benson, a player does not have to be big in order to be effectively disruptive on the ice. Players like Stankoven and Benson just do it in a nontraditional way. Not necessarily throwing monstrous hits, but more just being a pain on the forecheck or strong on the boards or willing to battle defensively. Mehta really seemed to take the saying “It’s not about the size of the dog in the fight, it’s about the size of the fight in the dog” to heart.
Skating ability seemed to be a secondary area of focus as well, though maybe not as deemphasized as height and weight. Mehta did not focus on drafting a bunch of speed demons, although none of the players were noted for being particularly poor skaters. Perhaps a little below average for some of them, but that’s about it. With the league getting faster and faster by the year, it does feel like skating ability should be a priority when drafting. But I suppose if lots of other elements are there, just as long as you’re not dealing with a terrible skater then it can work out for a prospect. A high hockey IQ, for example, can make it so a player that doesn’t skate fast can still play fast. Being able to anticipate where the play is going a second before everyone else can make up for a difference in raw skating speed for sure.
I can appreciate Mehta seeming to have a clear vision for his first draft class. There was a consistency to each selection, a philosophy that he obviously believed in and followed through on. This was even evident in the picks he didn’t make, as he traded down twice on day two: From 35th to 37th, and from 140th to 149th, picking up a 4th and 7th round pick in those trades. Looks like Mehta really trusted his board in those spots, and moved to pick up some extra dart throws while still ensuring he’d get a player he wanted in that range of the draft. Having a plan, having a philosophy, and having the conviction to pull it all off are terrific characteristics for a general manager to have.
To be fair, Fitzgerald also appeared to have a clear vision for his drafts (accumulate as many massive guys with decent wheels as possible). But as the results would indicate, that wasn’t a philosophy that was bearing fruit. Will Mehta’s philosophy be any better than Fitzgerald’s? It’s obviously too early to say, but I’m bullish on it. At the very least, Mehta has a proven track record of winning in recent years with the Florida Panthers, even if he wasn’t the leading man there. I trust him more than I trust Fitzgerald. And so does the rest of the league apparently, since as of this writing, Fitzgerald has yet to land another job in the league.
And Now Comes Free Agency
So with the draft finally in the rearview mirror, Mehta and the Devils now jump from one major talent acquisition event to another: free agency. The new league year begins this week. Wednesday, July 1, to be exact. And with it comes a wave of free agent signings. Much like the draft, this will also be Mehta’s first venture into free agency as the one calling the shots. We’ve already learned a decent amount about Mehta from his draft process, so while I’m sure he’s got some surprises for us, we can make at least a handful of educated guesses as to what he’s going to do on Wednesday.
First, not that many of us thought he would make any big splashes, but I would strongly doubt he goes for a big free agent or two on Wednesday. If anything, I see him making moves that strengthen the bottom of the roster, not the top. He already got a jump on that last week actually, trading a couple of mid-round draft picks for Amadeus Lombardi and Declan Chisholm. As it stands now, Lombardi figures to be a top player for Utica while also being one of the most prominent callups for the big club when needed (although as a pending RFA he does need a new contract). Meanwhile, Chisholm could certainly be the 7th defenseman this season, although his $1.6M AAV cap hit is steep for that role. That in turn leads me to believe Mehta might have some sort of trade in the works involving a defenseman like Jonas Siegenthaler or Brendan Dillon, who both have 10-team no-trade lists that kick in on July 1. If Mehta does deal one of them, that would set Chisholm up to be a consistent bottom pairing guy this season, at least with no other moves on the blueline.
Would Lombardi be a better swing guy than what New Jersey had last season? Would Chisholm be a better third pairing defenseman than what New Jersey had last season? It remains to be seen of course, but I would guess that Mehta seems to think so based on those trades. And couple those smaller moves with the lack of bigger moves to bring in a top six scorer or a defenseman that can be a true number one, and I think we can anticipate a relatively quiet Wednesday. I know that’s not exciting, but I think between the lack of enticing options and incredible amount of no-move clauses on the roster, it’s going to be very difficult to significantly reshape this team. The biggest news I anticipate seeing would be the announcement of a contract extension for Nico Hischier. Which obviously would qualify as massive news, but it wouldn’t be new talent coming into the organization.
But hey, perhaps a flurry of smaller moves can pay big dividends for New Jersey. Mehta and the Florida Panthers have become famous in recent years for unearthing hidden gems. Gustav Forsling was a waiver claim. Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart were former top-five draft picks who were stagnating on lousy teams before Florida swooped in and turned them into premium players. Evan Rodrigues, Niko Mikkola, A.J. Greer…the list goes on. So while we all want Mehta to make a Matt Tkachuk type trade, I think the quieter moves will come first. And the accumulation of quieter moves could be just as impactful as a single big move.
I can’t totally dismiss the possibility of a big trade though. David Pagnotta recently reported that the Devils were inquiring about Detroit’s Alex DeBrincat. I don’t know how true that is, and I’m skeptical the Red Wings would deal him, but that would certainly qualify as a big splash. There are also plenty of big names out there right now, including Connor Hellebuyck, Zach Werenski, Matthew Knies, and DeBrincat’s teammate Dylan Larkin. New Jersey hasn’t been truly linked to any of them, but maybe Mehta is laying in the weeds waiting for his moment to strike. All that being said, however, I do think it’s more likely than not that we don’t see a big trade come to fruition this week.
I also think we learned about the type of player Mehta is looking for. As mentioned, he drafted for compete level, smarts, transition ability, and production. I suppose it’s possible he wants different things out of a current NHL player than a prospect, but I’m going to guess that he will look for that archetype on Wednesday as well. Look at who is available, then look at who possesses these traits. That is who New Jersey will most likely target.
And as we saw with the flurry of trades he made last week, from the Simon Nemec deal to the Lombardi and Chisholm moves to the pair of day two trade-downs, Mehta clearly isn’t afraid to churn the roster. We touched on this already, but I’ll reemphasize here: don’t be surprised to see someone like Siegenthaler or Dillon shipped out. Siegenthaler had another down year in 2025-26, but I’m sure he still has value across the league. And with a very reasonable $3.4M AAV cap hit for the next two seasons and the salary cap exploding as much as it is, there would be plenty of teams who could afford him. Meanwhile, Dillon is entering the final season of his contract, which carries a cap hit of $4M. His full no-move clause shifts to a 10-team no-trade list on July 1, so don’t be surprised to see him dealt on Wednesday or shortly thereafter.
The other fringe guys I can see being dealt for either picks (AKA cap space) or cheap NHL talent are Stefan Noesen and Nick Bjugstad. Noesen only has a seven-team no-trade list, while Bjugstad doesn’t have any no-move protection at all. I don’t think we see trades for more high profile players such as Dougie Hamilton or Dawson Mercer. Like we discussed earlier, I expect Mehta to sort out the bottom of the roster now, and figure out the top of the roster later. Along those lines, I also don’t expect the first round picks that were acquired in the Nemec trade to be dealt this week. If anything, I think they’ll be up for grabs at the trade deadline if New Jersey is in a position to make the playoffs.
Final Thoughts And Your Take
Between the draft over the weekend and free agency on Wednesday, we are in the middle of the most important seven-day stretch of Sunny Mehta’s very early Devils tenure. We already had an idea of how he might operate as a result of his time as the assistant general manager in Florida, then he showed us even more during the draft, and now we get to learn how he’ll handle free agency as a general manager in a couple of days. Again, I’m not expecting a lot of fireworks from Mehta and the Devils on Wednesday, but I’m still excited to see how our new GM will operate in free agency his first time around.
Now that I’ve had my say about the draft and made some (admittedly vague) predictions about free agency, let’s hear what you have to say. What did you think of Sunny Mehta’s very first draft class? What do you think we learned about him? Do you think the draft is indicative of the player type he’s most interested in? What do you expect on Wednesday? As always, thanks for reading!
