WHO’S ON 1ST?

Rangers-Devils series a showcase for first-round talent, with 19 top picks in total

This first-round playoff series between the Rangers and Devils will feature four first-overall picks and a staggering 19 first-round selections in the NHL draft.

The Rangers have 10 players who heard their name called on Day 1 of their respective drafts, while the Devils have nine. That’s just about as even as it could get for these two clubs who have not only had a tremendous track record in recent drafts, but have also gone out and acquired several lineup-bolstering players along the way.

But it is the next generation of talent on both teams that will likely steal the spotlight on this postseason stage.

To confidently write that sentence about a series that has veterans Vladimir Tarasenko, Patrick Kane, Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Timo Meier and Dougie Hamilton, says something.

The Rangers have five players who were drafted in the first round in the last seven years, while the Devils have five in the last eight. It is a new wave of players who have largely prioritized speed and skill over grind and grit on their journey to the show.

Even though he made his NHL debut last week after the end of his collegiate season at Michigan, the most recent first-rounder — the Devils’ 2021 fourth-overall pick, Luke Hughes — is included in that list. After he scored the overtime gamewinner, which was assisted by his brother, Jack Hughes, in the Devils’ season finale, how could he not?

Plus, Devils head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters Saturday that “when a player is on a roster, there’s always a possibility he will play.”

All eyes, however, will be on the pingpong ball foursome of Jack Hughes, Alexis Lafreniere, Nico Hischier and Kaapo Kakko.

Rivalry playoff series like Rangers-Devils are the kind in which players can make names for themselves. That is the opportunity these four 24and-under skaters have in front of them beginning Tuesday at Prudential Center.

After leading the Devils with 43 goals and 99 points in 78 games this season, Jack Hughes enters the series facing the highest expectations. The Devils’ first-overall pick in 2019 was the first of the organization’s two recent top picks to emerge as a bona fide star, taking leaps from season to season instead of just steps in his development.

Competing in his first ever NHL playoffs at 21 years old, Hughes is tasked with leading the Devils the same way he has the entire year. Hischier shares a similar responsibility as captain.

Kakko, who was taken right after Hughes in 2019, has probably been one of the Rangers’ most improved players from last season, when the Finnish winger ended his year as a healthy scratch in Game 6 of the conference finals.

Obliterating his previous career-highs with 18 goals and 22 assists this season, the 22-year-old has become a possession machine and a nightmare to defend below the hash marks. Kakko’s line with Lafreniere, the Rangers’ No. 1 pick in 2020, and Filip Chytil, their No. 21 selection in 2017, will need to replicate their performance in last season’s playoffs if the Rangers hope to advance. Tarasenko, who St. Louis took 16th overall in 2010, and Kane, who was the No. 1 pick by Chicago in 2007, both came to the Rangers ahead of this year’s trade deadline. The Rangers also picked up the ninth-overall pick by Winnipeg in 2012, Jacob Trouba, in June 2019 and eventually made him the 28th captain in franchise history.

And who could forget the highway robbery former Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton pulled on Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion in July 2016? The Blueshirts acquired current No. 1 center and 90-plus-point star Mika Zibanejad, the No. 6 pick in 2011, in exchange for Derick Brassard and a seventhrounder in 2018.

Meanwhile, the Devils landed one of the most coveted rentals available at this year’s trade deadline in Timo Meier, the ninth-overall selection by San Jose in the 2015 draft. Top defenseman Hamilton, who Boston drafted at No. 9 in 2011, was also a major free-agent signing for the Devils in July 2021.

Curtis Lazar (17th-overall pick by Ottawa in 2013) and former Blueshirt Brendan Smith (27th-overall pick by Detroit in 2007) round out New Jersey’s lineup.

The top-tier talent will be on display in Manhattan and Newark in the coming weeks.