Picking yet another forward, Rozsíval hopes to add some opportunism to the Devils’ offense.
After selecting three centers, a wing, and a goalie with their first five selections of the 2025 NHL Draft, the New Jersey Devils selected their second wing of the day in David Rozsíval. I am a huge fan of this one. Rozsíval is a 6’0” left-shooting right wing from Czechia. He was the 22nd ranked European skater by NHL Central Scouting, and he is set to jump to the big club at Bílí Tygři Liberec after a great season in the Czech U20 league. Below, you can see his Elite Prospects page.
Elite Prospects
In Jordan Orth’s profile of Rozsíval for The Hockey Writers, Orth writes that Rozsíval is a bit inconsistent and needs to improve his skating, but has good vision and puck handling skills. Orth believes that he may be able to contribute in a bottom six role in the future, but only if he becomes more consistent. His top production profile comparison on Byron Bader’s Hockey Prospecting is Miles Wood, but do not mistake that for a stylistic comparison. If Rozsíval makes the NHL, I think it will be because he rounds out his game in a way that allows him to play in the middle six. Being a grinder is not, from what I can tell, his style.
In Rozsíval’s highlight package for HSD Prospects, you can see that he works very well with the puck, but perhaps relies a bit too much on the game being a little slower and less physical at his age. But he tries to work around the net, and he will need to keep doing that if he wants to make the NHL. At some point, I will take time to watch a shift-by-shift video (as I will with all skaters drafted by the Devils this year) so I can evaluate him a little more in-depth. But in terms of production and where he was ranked by NHL scouts coming into this Draft, I feel like he is a good value pick.
Now that you know what I think about the pick, please feel free to give your reaction to the pick in the comments. Please also vote in our flash poll (ends at 7:00 PM tomorrow), that will lead to a later post describing what you, the People Who Matter, thought of the pick. Thank you for reading.