Devils Take Ty Smith in First Round of NHL Draft

The 2018 NHL Entry Draft began tonight in Dallas at the American Airlines Center with the first round.

The Devils, who picked first overall in 2017, had a much lower pick this year by virtue of their better finish in 2017-18 and their status as a playoff team. This year they were picking 17th overall.

The 17th pick has famously yielded at least one good player for the Devils. Zach Parise was taken 17th overall back in 2003. But this year, the Devils were looking to fill a different need.

This year they took left-handed shooting defenseman Ty Smith of the Western Hockey League’s Spokane Chiefs. The 18-year-old, born on March 24, 2000, had 14 goals and 53 assists for 73 points in 69 games for Spokane last season. He is 5-feet, 10-inches tall (as the NBCSN announce crew pointed out, he was one of many under-six-foot d-men taken in this Draft so far) and 170-pounds.

Smith was ranked number 14 among North American skaters by the NHL’s Central Scouting Department. Gerard Lionetti over at All About the Jersey quoted Steve Kournianos of The Draft Analyst by saying that Smith has “exceptional hockey sense and a strong desire to join the attack and create chances.” Kournianos mentioned that Smith is very mobile and has good vision on the ice. He also said that he can “transition quickly from defense to offense” and that he is “an effortless skater with strong balance and agility, and he can pivot with the best of them.”

Kournianos also said that you will “rarely see Smith get caught chasing his man or losing positioning, as he makes timely reads and anticipates exactly where the puck will end up.” To me, that almost sounds like a poor man’s John Carlson in a way. Or maybe more akin to a little more mobile version of what the Devils want Damon Severson to develop into. Kournianos also said that he “is a hard, accurate shooter and a pure power play quarterback who works the point with confidence and poise.” He said that Smith will evade “pressing penalty killers with ease and will exploit gaps with crisp, tape-to-tape cross-ice passes.”

Smith is also referred to as a “clean, reliable three-zone defender with leadership qualities and a team-first attitude.” That attitude is something that was pointed out by Kathryn Tappen of NBCSN, as she interviewed him following his being selected by the Devils, she made mention that that came up multiple times by those interviewed at the NHL Scouting Combine. Multiple people, she said, when asked who had the best team-first attitude, said Ty Smith. That, of course, is a great attitude to have coming in and something that is great if the player is mature already.

Lionetti also quoted Ryan Pike of The Hockey Writers, who said that Smith learns from his mistakes and that last season he acquired two important traits: “experience and confidence.” Pike said that he is more confident “in terms of judging risk offensively and is much better at anitcipating trouble defensively. He still occasionally over-commits with the puck and has to scramble back to cover odd-man rushes, but those are fewer and much more far between than last season’s Smith saw.”

Now, learning to cover for your mistakes in juniors is a lot different than adapting to stuff at the NHL-level. Hopefully he has the tools to make it as an NHLer (and from the above analysis by Kournianos and Pike, it seems that he does). But it is good to see that he is able to work hard and recognize when he needs to fix things in his game.

With that, we wish Smith all of the best of luck as he begins his Devils career and hope to see him at rookie camp later this summer. We will have more coverage of the Devils’ later round picks tomorrow. Welcome to New Jersey, Ty Smith!

Ray Shero Interview With Mike Morreale

Devils general manager Ray Shero recently spoke with Mike G. Morreale of NHL.com while they were at the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo. They touched on a few topics. Here are some of the highlights.

Shero and Morreale began by talking about the possibility of the Devils trading down in the upcoming NHL Draft. Shero said that he “wouldn’t be opposed to moving down” in the Draft “if it meant obtaining additional assets.” Morreale pointed out that the Devils have just six picks in the 2018 Draft, as opposed to 2017 whne they had eleven picks. That Draft, of course, yielded first overall pick Nico Hischier.

Shero then touched on the Devils rebuild and the success that they had this season in making the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2012. He mentioned that asset management is very important for the Devils, with Taylor Hall’s contract up after the 2019-20 season. He mentioned that Hall’s new “contract would kick in” in 2020-21, “the same season Hischier becomes a restricted free agent. So we have to be careful what we’re doing beyond two years.”

What he was basically talking about was that the Devils cannot just make moves for the sake of making moves at this point. In other words, Devils fans should not be disappointed should the team not sign John Carlson and/or John Tavares.

As Shero put it: “If you’re going to move up, great, but what’s the cost to move up? Hey, we’d love to move down and get more assets, but you’re never going to know that until you’re on the draft floor and it’s coming to your pick.”

Morreale then asked Shero about his now-famous discussion with Hall following the 2016-17 season. That was the one where the superstar forward really “bought in” to what the Devils were trying to do. Morreale asked if Shero had had any similar conversations with anyone following this season. He said he did, but not in the same vein as the Hall conversation.

“Well, it probably wasn’t the type of conversation I had with Taylor, but I had a pretty frank discussion with [goalie Cory Schneider] after the season.” The gist of that conversation was that Cory is now north of 30 years old and, following his hip surgery this past year, he might need to begin to look at new ways to train this summer. Shero told a cool story about former Devil Lee Stempniak, who began doing Pilates prior to the season he spent here in New Jersey. Whether Pilates is the key for Cory is yet to be seen, but Shero did reiterate that there is support for Schneider within the organization. Shero hopes that the surgery will also get things taken care of and get Cory back to being the best goalie he can be.

Morreale’s next question was about Ilya Kovalchuk and Shero’s answer was very frank: “I’ve not reached out to Kovalchuk’s representatives and I’ve not heard from them, so there you go.” That was the long and short of it. The likelihood of Kovalchuk coming back to New Jersey seems to be slim to none and good riddance if he doesn’t come back, in my opinion. Once July 1 rolls around and he signs with the Rangers, we can finally be rid of this whole drama.

Morreale then moved right on and asked Shero about Hall, Schneider and Patrick Maroon’s surgeries following the playoffs. The updates are as follows: all are doing well, he does not know if Cory will be ready in time for training camp’s start, Hall seems to be on track to be ready for training camp and Patrick Maroon will be coming “back to New Jersey on June 11 to make sure everything is going well.” Shero was also quick to point out that Predators’ goalie and 2018 Vezina finalist Pekka Rinne had the same surgery as Cory has had back in 2013, so that should put some fans minds at ease.

The next question was about “the type of player you might be targeting with the No. 17 pick.” Shero discussed things with “(director of amateur scouting) Paul Castron and (assistant director of amateur scouting) Gates Orlando after all the interviews at the combine” and they’ll “have certain players in mind, but things change.” The interviews produce “interests and red flags” and there are follow-up interviews for the players who were at the combine as well as interviews with players who were not. Shero was very good at not tipping his hand at where the Devils may be going but there are needs that the team will likely want to fill.

Talk then turned to Geoff Ward. Morreale flat out asked if Shero has “a replacement in mind.” Shero mentioned that he is happy for Ward (he did have a year left on his New Jersey contract – but has gone to Calgary to coach with Bill Peters) and that he and head coach John Hynes have been on it “for the last week-to-10 days.” They will be talking to Ryane Clowe “to remain on board.” They have liked what he has done for the team over the last “two years and we think he has a really big upside.” Shero did point out that this might not be the direction Clowe wants to go at this point in his career. They have gotten “lots of calls … but we haven’t acted on it yet.”

Finally, Morreale talked to the GM about opening the 2018-19 season in Europe. The Devils will be playing an exhibition game in Bern, Switzerland October 1 and then their first game of the regular season will take place in Gothenburg, Sweden against the Oilers on October 6. Officially, the Swiss game is part of the “2018 NHL Global Series Challenge” while the Swedish game against Edmonton is part of the “2018 NHL Global Series.” Shero was asked how excited he was for these games.

He said that it is good exposure for the players and the team. He hearkened back to the 2017 Kraft Hockeyville Canada game at Prince Edward Island against the Senators and to his time with the Penguins, as they played an exhibition game in Helsinki, Finland and some regular season games in Stockholm, Sweden. He said that he thinks it will be a good experience for the players and that “I think it’s great for your brand.” He also feels the continued exposure overseas is good for the NHL as a whole as well.

Overall, this was a good interview. Morreale delved into some directions that you might not think he would go on the official NHL website (Kovalchuk) and also got some information out of Shero (the injury updates) and some promotion for the team (the Global Series games). It is a good read over at NHL.com and something every Devils fan should check out.