DRAFT: A Look Back at the 2018 Class

Just over two years ago, the New Jersey Devils selected defenseman Ty Smith with the 17th overall selection in the 2018 NHL Draft. The team would go on to select five more players over the course of the weekend, including one other defenseman, three forwards and a goaltender.

We take a look back at their 2019-20 seasons to see how these Devils prospects are developing.

ROUND 1, PICK 17 - TY SMITH

For the second season in a row, Devils defensive prospect Ty Smith was named the CHL Defenseman of the Year.

Smith captained the Spokane Chiefs to a 41-18-4-1 record, registering 59 points in 46 games. Smith set a career high in goals with 19, while adding 40 assists. In May, Smith was named the WHL Defenseman of the Year, winning for a second consecutive season. He is only the third player in the WHL to repeat as Defenseman of the Year, following former NHL player Dion Phaneuf and current Edmonton Oiler Kris Russell.

Of Smith's 59 points, 21 were scored in the final 10 games of the season. That stretch included an eight-point night against the Seattle Thunderbirds, where Smith broke his own Spokane record for points in a game by a defenseman. Smith ended the night with a hattrick and five assists.

Additionally, the 20-year-old also competed with Team Canada at the World Juniors, where Smith and his teammates picked up the gold medal. Smith had three assists in the seven-game tournament.

ROUND 4, PICK 110 - XAVIER BERNARD

For a second consecutive season, the defenseman was traded before the QMJHL trade deadline. He began his year with the Charlottetown Islanders where he had 12 points in 33 games, including four goals, before joining the Sherbrooke Phoenix where he played 29 games adding an additional 17 points.

ROUND 5, PICK 136 - AKIRA SCHMID

The Swiss goaltender was limited to just 13 games in the USHL this past season. An injury kept Schmid out of the lineup for a substantial part of the season and also kept him from representing his national team at the World Juniors. Although he did not suit up for Switzerland, Schmid was on their roster and did travel with the team to the Czech Republic for the tournament.

After returning to North America after the World Juniors, Schmid was traded from his Omaha team to Sioux City where he appeared in seven games, going 3-4-0 with a .888 save percentage.

ROUND 5, PICK 141 - YEGOR SHARANGOVICH

Yegor Sharangovich has quietly gone about his business and improving his game with the Binghamton Devils. This past season, the Belarussian reached a career-high 25 points in 57 games. As the season went on, Sharangovich became more familiar and more comfortable with the North American game, where 60 percent of his offense this season was generated in the final 15 games of the year. In addition, he held the team lead in shorthanded goals (3) with Nathan Bastian when the season was paused in mid-March.

He was also one of the more reliable players for Binghamton, taking just two penalties all season long. He didn't find himself in the penalty box until the 36th game of the season, and again no penalties in the final 16 games of the year.

Sharangovich was loaned to Dinamo Minsk in the KHL on July 16th to continue playing while waiting for NHL training camps to open in mid-November. He will return to New Jersey once training camp begins.

ROUND 6, PICK 172 - MITCHELL HOELSCHER

In his third full season in the OHL with the Ottawa 67's, Hoelscher was on a high powered 67's team stacked with talent. Hoelscher contributed 34 goals, ranked sixth on the Ottawa roster. He finished the year with 76 points.

ROUND 7, PICK 203 - EETU PAKKILA

21-year-old Eetu Pakkila spent the season playing in his native Finland. He spent time between Liiga, the top professional league in Finland and Mestis, the second-highest men's league in Finland. With Ilves in Liiga, Pakkila had 11 points in 39 games, including six goals, before adding 14 points in 18 games with Koovee in the Mestis league.