Ken Daneyko is willing to say it — even if Devils GM Ray Shero isn’t just yet.
The rugged Devils defenseman turned MSG analyst knows who he’d pick if he were on stage at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Friday, making the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft.
“It’s Jack Hughes, without question,” he told The Post this week. “When you hear he’s the best skater since Connor McDavid, when you hear a lot about how he makes players better around him, that’s a big thing.”
The 18-year-old Hughes, long tabbed as the top prospect in this year’s draft, had to fend off a year-long push from Finnish power forward Kaapo Kakko, who will likely be the Rangers’ consolation prize at No. 2. Kakko’s performance at the World Championship in Slovakia last month showed tantalizing skill and goal-scoring ability that will surely make the Devils’ cross-Hudson rivals happy, but the limited glimpses of Hughes at the tournament made Daneyko a believer.
“From watching him against the best team in the World Championships — I don’t care if they didn’t win, [it was] Russia — when he got in because of injuries to [Dylan] Larkin and everybody, he was the best player on the ice,” he said. “That’s all I need to see. Against Team Russia, he was dominant. Two assists, and could have been involved in eight goals.”
Listening to rave reviews from Hughes’ Team USA teammate Patrick Kane, one of Daneyko’s favorite players, only makes the choice that much more clear-cut.
Despite his assuredness, Daneyko knows he’s not the one making a franchise-altering pick, and Shero plans to once again leave everyone waiting until the last possible moment, as he did in 2017 when he took home Nico Hischier with the No. 1 pick over Nolan Patrick.
The Devils GM, though, knows it’s different this time around.
“I think we’re in a much better spot than we were in ’17, with our younger players and certainly our cap space and things like that,” he said on the phone from Vancouver. “While you’re here you have to take advantage of it, obviously.”
It will be a busy weekend for Shero and his scouts, as they try to turn the franchise into more than a perennial playoff contender — Shero has used the draft to bring in young, skilled players and after a busy trade deadline this season, he’ll make room for more this weekend.
“We have 10 picks overall, three picks in the second round, two in the third,” he said. “It’s a big draft for us, what we do with those picks is going to be important.”
