List of New Jersey Devils draft picks The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark , New Jersey . They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League ( NHL ) . The club was founded in Kansas City , Missouri as the Kansas City Scouts in 1974 , moved to Denver , Colorado as the Colorado Rockies after only two seasons , and then settled in New Jersey in 1982 . Since arriving in New Jersey , the Devils have drafted 299 players . The NHL Entry Draft is held each June , allowing teams to select players who have turned 18 years old by September 15 in the year the draft is held . The draft order is determined by the previous season ' s order of finish , with non - playoff teams drafting first , followed by the teams that made the playoffs , with the specific order determined by the number of points earned by each team . The NHL holds a weighted lottery for the 14 non - playoff teams , allowing the winner to move up a maximum of four positions in the entry draft . The team with the fewest points has the best chance of winning the lottery , with each successive team given a lower chance of moving up in the draft . The Devils have never won the lottery . Between 1986 and 1994 , the NHL also held a Supplemental Draft for players in American colleges . New Jersey ' s first draft pick was Rocky Trottier , taken eighth overall in the 1982 NHL Entry Draft . The highest New Jersey has ever drafted is second overall , which they did twice ; Kirk Muller ( 1984 ) and Brendan Shanahan ( 1987 ) were taken in the second spot . Ten picks went on to play over 1 , 000 NHL games : Shanahan , Pat Verbeek , Muller , Ken Daneyko , John MacLean , Bill Guerin , Scott Niedermayer , Eric Weinrich , Brian Rolston , Jason Smith , and Martin Brodeur . On the opposite end of the spectrum , three Devils draftees ( Stanislav Gron , Mikko Jokela , and Joey Tenute ) have just one NHL game to their credit . By nationality , the Devils have drafted 145 Canadians , 81 Americans , 26 Russians , 13 Swedes , 11 Finns , 9 Czechs , 6 Slovaks , 3 Germans , 1 Briton , 1 Kazakh , 1 Latvian , 1 Pole , and 1 Australian . The Devils have drafted 12 players from the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League , more than from any other team ; the OHL also comprises the greatest number of draftees for the Devils , as 61 OHL players have been drafted . 191 forwards , 101 defensemen and 7 goaltenders have been drafted . In the 2009 NHL Entry Draft , the Devils traded their first and third round picks to the Calgary Flames for Calgary ' s first round pick ( 20th overall ) , which they used to select Swedish center Jacob Josefson . After using their second round pick on Canadian defenseman Eric Gelinas , they used a third round pick they had acquired in an earlier trade with Minnesota to take Alexander Urbom , a Swedish defenseman playing for Djurgardens IF . Four of the Devils ' seven draft picks in 2009 were on defensemen . Draft picks . " Statistics are complete as of the 2008 – 09 NHL season and show each player ' s career regular season totals in the NHL . Wins , losses , ties , overtime losses and goals against average apply to goaltenders and are used only for players at that position . This list includes players drafted by the team in New Jersey only . "