Shero: Devils will 'probably' hold on to 1st overall pick

Ray Shero isn't completely ruling out trading the first overall pick, but he's leaning toward keeping it.

"I've gotten calls asking if there's interest moving down and other calls where it's been more specific and it's something to think about," the New Jersey Devils general manager told NHL.com's Mike Morreale. "But I haven't called them back. The idea is we'll probably be picking, but we're open to a lot of things."

Shero doesn't have a specific price in mind for a potential deal.

"What would it get me to trade the No. 1 pick outright? I couldn't even tell you," he said. "It hasn't been done that much, but if we did do something like that it would be pretty apparent it was the right thing to do. You have to be ready for all different scenarios in moving up or down, and in this case down."

Nolan Patrick topped Central Scouting's final rankings for North American skaters, but either he or Nico Hischier could conceivably be selected first.

"I think Nico is a little better skater; they both are good defensively," Devils director of amateur scouting Paul Castron said.

"Patrick has the size edge and both are so smart. It's all projection for us and we stress that in all our meetings. No matter what round we're picking, the guy that scores 90 points and the guy that scores 60 points must be looked at separately because there are a lot of factors that come into play. Some guys get more ice time and it's no different than in the NHL. The guys with the most points are usually the guys that get the most power-play time."

We'll find out what the Devils do with the top pick when the draft begins June 23 in Chicago.