The Devils yesterday balanced Friday’s first-round draft of smallish Swedish speedster Mattias Tedenby by grabbing a big, checking center from the Quebec league with the second-round pick they acquired by trading down for Tedenby.
After using their own second-round pick, 52nd overall, to select tough defenseman Brandon Burlon, the Devils grabbed 6-2 center Patrice Cormier 54th with the selection they received from the Capitals for dropping from 21st to 23rd so Washington could take Anton Gustafsson, son of ex-Cap Bengt. The Devils finally picked 24th in the first round, swapping with the Wild (Tyler Cuma) for a third next year, and Lou Lamoriello went for 5-9 LW Tedenby.
Cormier, listed at 200 pounds, went 18-23-41 in 51 games for junior Rimouski last season, and is regarded by central scouting as a player who drives the net and plays in traffic.
Burlon is expected to play at the University of Michigan next season. The 6-foot, 190-pound lefty is regarded as a strong, all-around backliner, whose defensive game needs improvement.
Lamoriello said the Devils had targeted two players as their first-round quarries Friday, and when both were still on the board when their 21st-overall pick arrived, he elected to trade down, as he told The Post Thursday he might. Lamoriello would not reveal his other option.
“When you draft as late as we draft, you target the player,” Lamoriello said.
Tedenby is regarded as one of the swiftest, flashiest players in the draft.
“This is a sheer talent. Speed is something you can’t teach,” Lamoriello said. “He’s an exceptional player.”
With their third-round pick yesterday, 82nd overall, the Devils grabbed 5-foot-11, two-way center Adam Henrique of the Ontario league’s Windsor Spitfires. Henrique’s stock dropped dramatically to 65th among North American skaters from 47 at midseason. Regina D Matt Delahey, who fell from 50th NAS to 67th, was their fourth-rounder at 112th.
New Jersey drafted Oshawa C Kory Nagy in the fifth at 142nd and C David Wohlberg from the US Development Program in the sixth round at 172nd. The Devils’ seventh-round picks were defenseman Harry Young, at 202nd, a 6-4, 200-pounder with Windsor of the OHL, and LW Jean-Sebastien Berube of the Quebec league’s Rouyn-Noranda (205th from Minnesota).