After losing in the Stanley Cup Finals to the Los Angeles Kings, the New Jersey Devils are planning on keeping their first-round pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, scheduled for June 22 and 23 in Pittsburgh.
As part of their penalty for the front-loaded contract the team signed with Ilya Kovalchuk before the 2010-11 season, the Devils were required to surrender a first-round pick sometime between the 2011 and 2014 drafts. The team was also fined $3 million and penalized a third-round pick in last year's draft.
When the Devils missed the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs and won the draft lottery to move up to fourth overall, keeping the pick was a no-brainer, as it allowed the team to select defenseman Adam Larsson. However, with the Devils picking 29th in this year's draft due to their run to the Stanley Cup Finals, the conventional wisdom was that the team would surrender the pick, since it couldn't get much lower. The Devils, however, don't appear to subscribe to the conventional wisdom.
Reports that the Devils intended to keep the pick began to circulate on Tuesday night, with a Wednesday afternoon post on the Twitter account of beat writer Rich Chere of the Newark Star-Ledger (@Ledger_NJDevils) relaying the information as having come from Lamoriello.
It's uncertain what the Devils' decision means. On one hand, the Devils' scouts may have a greater regard for the 2012 draft class than one of the next two. Not all draft classes have the same depth, after all.
On the other hand, the Devils may have a greater plan for the pick involving some sort of trade. In 2003 - a year that featured one of the greatest draft classes in NHL history - the Devils were scheduled to pick 22nd in the first round, but traded that pick and the 68th to Edmonton for the 17th pick, which they used to select Zach Parise. It's entirely possible that the Devils see some kind of opportunity to use the pick in a trade.
It's uncertain what the Devils' decision means, but it does add intrigue to the upcoming draft.