Nico over Nolan.

The New Jersey Devils ended the long simmering debate on Friday night, making Nico Hischier the first No. 1 overall pick in franchise history. The so-called "Swiss McDavid" got the nod over Nolan Patrick, the Brandon Wheat Kings centre who was long projected to go first in a draft lacking the slam-dunk star of recent years.

"There are no words to describe this feeling," said Hischier, giddy after becoming the highest-drafted Swiss player in NHL history.

The Vancouver Canucks were the first Canadian team to make a selection, taking centre Elias Pettersson at No. 5.

The Calgary Flames took Finnish defender Juuso Valimaki with the 16th pick and were followed by the Toronto Maple Leafs adding a defenceman of their own in Timothy Liljegren at No. 17.

The Edmonton Oilers selected forward Kailer Yamamoto with the 22nd pick, the Winnipeg Jets grabbed forward Kristian Vesalainen at No. 24, the Montreal Canadiens took forward Ryan Poehling 25th overall and the Ottawa Senators picked forward Shane Bowers at No. 28.

An electric centre with game-breaking speed, Hischier rose into top spot with an emphatic first season in the Quebec Major Junior League, piling up 38 goals and 86 points in 57 games as a rookie for the Halifax Mooseheads. The 18-year-old made maybe his biggest impression at the world junior championships this past winter with four goals and seven points in five games for Switzerland.

He should — alongside Taylor Hall — help jump-start a Devils offence that ranked third-last in the NHL last season.

Patrick didn't drop much — ending up in the second spot after being taken by the Philadelphia Flyers. He should line up as the second centre behind captain Claude Giroux.

The Brandon Wheat Kings centre was selected second overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2017 NHL Draft 1:48

"I think me and Nico are completely different players," said Patrick, coming off an injury-plagued draft year in Brandon.

"I think he might be a little more offensively dynamic than me and I think I might be a little more defensive than him. I think we're just completely different players. So they wanted him. It's not like I'm sitting here mad wishing I went to Jersey. They didn't want me so it doesn't matter too much to me."

Patrick might very well have been the first pick had injuries not limited him to just 33 regular season games.

Patrick, a Winnipeg native, was superb two seasons ago with 41 goals and 102 points in 72 games for Brandon before adding the Western Hockey League's playoff MVP. He still finished 10th in the WHL with 1.39 points per-game this past season and was dubbed the Canadian Hockey League's top NHL draft prospect.

His father, Steve, and uncle, James, both played in the NHL — the latter for almost 1,300 games with the New York Rangers.

Patrick is hopeful to play for the Flyers as soon as next season.

The Dallas Stars went with Finnish defenceman Miko Heiskanen in the third spot and he was followed by Calgary native Cale Makar to Colorado fourth overall. Maker, a defenceman who models his game after Ottawa Senators captain Erik Karlsson, became the highest player ever drafted from the Alberta Junior Hockey League — surpassing Joe Colborne who went 16th to Boston in 2008.

Vancouver gets their centre

The Vancouver Canucks selected Swedish centre Elias Pettersson with the 5th pick in the 2017 NHL draft 1:08

The Canucks, meanwhile, got the playmaking centre they were looking in Swedish pivot Pettersson. Listed at only 165 pounds, Pettersson thought he needed to get a lot bigger before he could make the jump to the NHL.

"I feel at five we're getting a real good player," Canucks GM Jim Benning said before the draft. "The player we take at five, we're going to have to be patient with him because he's going to need a couple years of development to get stronger and stuff, but I feel over the course of time that player we take at five has a chance to be as good as any player in the draft."

Following him, the Vegas Golden Knights made Cody Glass their first-ever draft pick at No. 6. A speedy centre who compares his game to Winnipeg Jets star Mark Scheifele, Glass posted 32 goals and 94 points in 69 games last year for the Portland Winter Hawks.

He's been to Vegas before too — for a minor hockey tournament of all things when he was only 10. His team finished second in the tourney, but Glass recalled an enjoyable experience walking down the Vegas Strip.

"I didn't really see that as a hockey place when I went there," he said, changing his mind when he saw the fan support the Knights had already attracted.

The Calgary Flames took Finnish defender Juuso Valimaki with the 16th pick and were followed by the Toronto Maple Leafs adding a defenceman of their own in Timothy Liljegren at No. 17.

The Edmonton Oilers selected forward Kailer Yamamoto with the 22nd pick, the Winnipeg Jets grabbed forward Kristian Vesalainen at No. 24, the Montreal Canadiens took forward Ryan Poehling 25th overall and the Ottawa Senators picked forward Shane Bowers at No. 28.</s>Center Nico Hischier holds a New Jersey Devils jersey after being selected by the team in the first round of the NHL hockey draft, Friday, June 23, 2017, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

CHICAGO (AP) -- The New Jersey Devils have selected center Nico Hischier with the No. 1 overall pick in the NHL draft.

The Philadelphia Flyers then grabbed center Nolan Patrick with the second selection.

The 18-year-old Hischier is the highest drafted Swiss player in the NHL history. He had 38 goals and 86 points in 57 games with the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this past season. He spent the previous two seasons in the Swiss pro league, where he was coached by current Ottawa Senators coach Guy Boucher.

Hischier fits in nicely with general manager Ray Shero's desire to put a faster team on the ice. New Jersey is coming off its worst season in nearly three decades, finishing with a 28-40-14 record.

Patrick, the Brandon Wheat Kings star whose father Steve and uncle James played in the NHL, held the top spot in the NHL Central Scouting Department's final rankings in April.</s>CHICAGO — The New Jersey Devils have selected centre Nico Hischier with the No. 1 overall pick in the NHL draft.

The 18-year-old Hischier is the highest drafted Swiss player in the NHL history. He had 38 goals and 86 points in 57 games with the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this past season. He spent the previous two seasons in the Swiss pro league, where he was coached by current Ottawa Senators coach Guy Boucher.

Hischier fits in nicely with general manager Ray Shero’s desire to put a faster team on the ice. New Jersey is coming off its worst season in nearly three decades, finishing with a 28-40-14 record.

But Hischier is listed at 6-foot-2 and 179 pounds, and will need to put on more muscle to succeed in the NHL.

The draft is being held in Chicago for the first time.</s>CHICAGO >> The New Jersey Devils grabbed Nico Hischier, and the Philadelphia Flyers felt quite comfortable with Nolan Patrick.

It was all about the forwards at the top of the NHL draft.

Hischier went No. 1 overall to New Jersey on Friday night, and Patrick was the No. 2 pick by Philadelphia despite being hampered by a groin injury last season. The expansion Vegas Golden Knights also opted for one of the top forward prospects for their first-ever selection, taking Cody Glass of the Portland Winterhawks at No. 6.

“I’m speechless,” Hischier said. “I don’t know what to say. It’s just an incredible feeling. You can’t describe it.”

Seven of the top 10 picks were listed as centers. Defensemen Miro Heiskanen (No. 3 overall to Dallas) and Cale Makar (No. 4 to Colorado) and right wing Owen Tippett (No. 10 to Florida) were the only exceptions.

The 18-year-old Hischier is the highest drafted Swiss player in the NHL history. He had 38 goals and 86 points in 57 games with the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this past season. He spent the previous two seasons in the Swiss pro league, where he was coached by current Ottawa Senators coach Guy Boucher.

Hischier fits in nicely with general manager Ray Shero’s desire to put a faster team on the ice. New Jersey is coming off its worst season in nearly three decades, finishing with a 28-40-14 record.

But Hischier is just over 6-feet tall and listed at 179 pounds, and will need to put on more muscle to succeed in the NHL.

“I love hockey,” he said. “It’s my biggest goal to play in the NHL. I’m so happy.”

The 18-year-old Patrick, a Winnipeg, Manitoba, native whose father Steve and uncle James played in the NHL, held the top spot in the NHL Central Scouting Department’s final rankings in April. He sustained a sport hernia last summer that hampered him during his season with Brandon of the Western Hockey League, but he finished with 20 goals and 46 points in 33 games.

“Once we gathered all the information we felt comfortable that if he was there for us we were going to take him,” general manager Ron Hextall said.

Glass, another 18-year-old forward, had 32 goals and 62 assists in 69 games for Portland last season.</s>The New Jersey Devils selected center Nico Hischier with the No. 1 overall pick in the NHL draft on Friday night.

The Philadelphia Flyers then grabbed center Nolan Patrick with the second selection, and the expansion Vegas Golden Knights made center Cody Glass their first-ever pick at No. 6.

The 18-year-old Hischier is the highest drafted Swiss player in the NHL history. He had 38 goals and 86 points in 57 games with the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this past season.

Hischier fits in nicely with general manager Ray Shero's desire to put a faster team on the ice. New Jersey is coming off its worst season in nearly three decades, finishing with a 28-40-14 record.

Patrick's father Steve and uncle James played in the NHL.</s>CHICAGO — Maybe it was destiny. Maybe it was fate. Maybe it was just meant to be.

“Maybe it’s all those things,” said Nico Hischier. “It’s pretty special how it worked out, isn’t it.”

Here he was, the kid from Naters, Switzerland, grinning from ear to ear in front of dozens of cameras and microphones and reporters.

Just minutes earlier, he’d been standing on the stage in front of a packed house at the United Center, overwhelmed at being the first player from his country to be selected No. 1 in the National Hockey League draft.

As New Jersey general manager Ray Shero handed him his new bright red Devils jersey, it just felt right as he pulled it over his head and proudly showed it off to the cheering throng on hand.

Maybe that’s because this wasn’t the first time he’d worn a Devils jersey before.

Eight years earlier, as a young lad of 10, he was playing in a minor hockey tournament back in Switzerland. As part of the event, each team was presented with a set of NHL-replica jerseys to wear in the competition.

The uniforms handed out to Hischier and his teammates: the New Jersey Devils.

And now, almost a decade later, he was exactly that: a New Jersey Devil.

Even he agreed you can’t make that stuff up. Indeed, no sooner had the pick been announced when a photo of young Nico donning that Devils sweater as a boy began flooding the internet.

“There’s no words,” he said. “So much emotion. I’m really happy.”

In the days, weeks, even months leading up to the 2017 draft, the jockeying to be selected in the top spot was between two centres: Hischier, the flashy offensive threat of the Halifax Mooseheads, and Nolan Patrick, the injury-prone star of the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Patrick, 18, was long considered the top prospect in the draft despite playing just 33 games in 2016-17 due to sports hernia surgery. He was examined by doctors of both the Devils and the Philadelphia Flyers, who had no issues snapping him up once Hischier was off the board.

“If a team doesn’t want me, they don’t want me,” Patrick said. “I’m not looking at this as any kind of revenge thing. Nico and I are two different players. He has a little more offensive flair, I think I do a lot of things well.”

The first real surprise of the draft came after the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche selected defencemen Miro Heiskanen and Cale Makar respectably. And it came via the first Canadian team to pick in the draft, the Vancouver Canucks.

With most prognosticators figuring the obviously selection would be centre Cody Glass of the Portland Winterhawks, Canucks GM Jim Benning opted instead for centre Elias Pettersson, a 6-foot-2, 161-pound beanpole from Timra IK.

“His offensive skill and his playmaking abilities are his best assets,” Benning said earlier in the week. “It’s his vision on the ice and how he can anticipate plays. He’s a tall, thin kid and will have to put on some weight and strength before he’s ready to play, but he’s a smart player.”

With Glass still on the board, the expansion Vegas Golden Knights were quick to make him their first draft pick in franchise history.

The next Canadian team on the board was Calgary, which took defenceman Juuso Valimaki at No. 16. Valimaki put put up 19 goals and 42 assists in the WHL with the Tri-City Americans.

One pick later, the Toronto Maple Leafs got what a number of scouts thought was a steal by selecting Swedish defenceman Timothy Liljegren. Liljegren was ranked the seventh player taken in Postmedia’s mock draft, some 10 spots higher than where he went.

At No. 22, the Edmonton Oilers took speedy forward Kailer Yamamoto. Three picks later the Montreal Canadiens addressed a need at centre by taking Ryan Poehling. The Ottawa Senators rounded out the night for Canadian teams by snapping up Waterloo centre Shane Bowers at 28.

Windsor Spitfires centre Gabe Vilardi, meanwhile, went 11th to the Los Angeles Kings.</s>CHICAGO (AP) New Jersey Devils select Halifax Mooseheads center Nico Hischier with the No. 1 pick in NHL draft.</s>CHICAGO — Perhaps it was a good omen nine years ago when Nico Hischier slipped an oversized New Jersey Devils sweater over his head and posed for a photo with the club he was eventually destined to play for.

“I was really young,” Hischier said after being selected No. 1 overall in the 2017 NHL draft by the Devils on Friday night. “There’s a tournament in Switzerland where you wear an NHL team (jersey). It was always random. That year, I wore the New Jersey Devils.”

The Devils aren’t random to Hischier anymore. They’re the 18-year-old center’s new home. Hischier’s selection to New Jersey came in historic form, as he became the first Swiss-born player to get selected first overall.

“It means a lot,” said Hischier. “There’s a lot of guys in Switzerland supporting me.”

Hischier admittedly was “speechless” after hearing his name called because the Devils didn’t tell him he was their choice until it was announced to the United Center crowd. So speechless that he blurted out on an NBC Sports Network TV interview, “I find no words. I love to hockey.”

Not too long ago, the hockey world would’ve been surprised with the Devils’ pick as well. Hischier failed to make a huge impact as a teenager playing against older competition in Switzerland during the 2015-16 campaign.

But his first season in North America showcased his game-changing offensive ability and potential. Hischier had 86 points in 57 games last season with the Hailfax Mooseheads in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. That prowess also helped him ascend up mock draft boards until he was considered a top prospect alongside Brandon Wheat Kings star Nolan Patrick, who went to the Philadelphia Flyers at No. 2.

“It was a lot of emotions, from one second to the other,” Hischier said of waiting to reach his childhood dream.

“Hearing my name called was unbelievable,” Hischier said.

Hischier, a player with dynamic offensive abilities, is far from a one-dimensional player; he’s seen as a top-end playmaker with a great feel for the game. Devils general manager Ray Shero saw Hischier’s skill set fits in with his desire to run a "faster" system and felt like Hischier was the player to help resuscitate the franchise.

“Somebody’s gonna be a Hall of Famer in this draft,” Shero said before the draft. “The challenge is to find him. I hope he’s at No. 1.”

The Devils finished with a 28-40-14 record in 2016-17 and missed the postseason for the fifth consecutive season. The 70 points were the fewest since 1988-98. They have ranked 27th or worse in offense in those seasons.

Of course, it’s not the recent Devils teams that Hischier is most familiar with. His childhood jersey was almost a decade old, after all.

“To join such an amazing team with a lot of history, it’s just awesome,” Hischier said. “And I’m really happy to be part of that organization. I’m really looking forward to it.”</s>Nico Hischier poses for photos after being selected first overall by the New Jersey Devils during the 2017 NHL Draft at the United Center in Chicago, on June 23, 2017. Nico Hischier poses for photos after being selected first overall by the New Jersey Devils during the 2017 NHL Draft at the United Center in Chicago, on June 23, 2017.

Start the conversation, or Read more at The Globe and Mail.</s>Windsor Spitfires forward Gabe Vilardi was selected by the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of Friday’s NHL Draft.

Vilardi, who netted 29 goals for the Spitfires this past season, was the fourth-ranked North American skater. However he was still available when the Kings picked 11th overall in the opening round.

The New Jersey Devils selected centre Nico Hischier with the No. 1 overall pick.

The 18-year-old Hischier is the highest drafted Swiss player in the NHL history. He had 38 goals and 86 points in 57 games with the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this past season. He spent the previous two seasons in the Swiss pro league, where he was coached by current Ottawa Senators coach Guy Boucher.

Hischier fits in nicely with general manager Ray Shero’s desire to put a faster team on the ice. New Jersey is coming off its worst season in nearly three decades, finishing with a 28-40-14 record.

But Hischier is listed at 6-foot-2 and 179 pounds, and will need to put on more muscle to succeed in the NHL.

The draft is being held in Chicago for the first time.
Swiss ice hockey player Nico Hischier is selected first by the New Jersey Devils.