They desperately need a goal scoring RW, but I think they need to take the best player available. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I’m not familiar w/ either, aside from what little I watched during the WJC. Thx.

Does NJD winning the Draft Lottery impact Taylor Hall's decision on whether or not to re-sign w/ the Devils? He's eligible for an extension on July 1st 2019. And if he does want to stay, how much do the Devils offer him? You gotta factor in the high number if games that he's missed during his career b/c of injuries. Also, NJD is now absolutely loaded down the middle, assuming the take Hughes. Does Shero spend big this summer on a UFA like Panarin or Erik Karlsson? I'd think the NY area is a very likely landing spot for Panarin. Karlsson might wanna head to PHI.

Taylor Hall's value, by virtue of his mere presence on your team massively increasing your odds of getting the first overall pick, is easily worth $15m/yr.

Except when they take Yakapov #1 overall. Haha!

Whether or not they take Hughes or Kakko, they've got a good future with that forward group, especially if they extend Hall. However, I'm still not crazy about their defensive group. They have some nice pieces in Vatanen, Butcher, and Severson, and they play a good defensive system under John Hynes, but they don't have that true number one. If I'm Ray Shero, I'm going hard after Erik Karlsson in free agency.

I think Karlsson will end up in PHI at the end of the day, but I'd love to have him in NJ. The Devils haven't had a #1 D since Niedermayer 15 years ago. I think my biggest fear is that Hall and Karlsson are both a little bit injury prone. Is it too risky to invest about $20M combined per season on these guys?

They take Hughes for sure. It's not like the Devils are super deep at center. Hischier looks like he might be better suited as a 2C, and then they have Zajac (aging and declining), Zacha (not panning out to be what he was expected) and Coleman (a good bottom 6 guy). Can always transition Zacha to wing as well.

Exactly. They're deep at Center except they lack a sure #1. Nico is excellent defensively already and could be a future Selke winner. They seem to have like 3-4 depth Centers right now. Zacha actually showed great potential at times, especially late in the season and he's only 21. He'll be a solid #3 Center for tears to come. If they do take Hughes, as you suggest, they'll be absolutely stacked at Center. They desperately need Bastian and/or McLeoud to step up and make the team full time next year.

Just how aggressive does Shero get on Karlsson? I'm assuming 7 years at $10M is just the starting point as a UFA. I'm not sure I'd want him at much higher than that. He's been weak defensively lately, but he could still be a little injured. NJ just has so much cap space right now. They might have to sign Karlsson just to reach the cap floor!