The New Jersey Devils spent two first-round picks on two different kinds of certainty in the last two drafts.

Anton Silayev is 6-foot-7 and already signed. Alexander Command is 6-foot-1 and still in Sweden. One is supposed to kill rushes. The other is supposed to win his minutes down the middle. Both sit near the top of our 2026 Devils Prospect Rankings for the same reasons the rest of this series uses: skating, puck skills, hockey sense, compete, defensive detail, then production, trajectory, and a job that actually exists in the NHL.

It’s not about who looks better in September. It is about who you would rather have in 2030.

What each player is

Silayev was drafted 10th overall in 2024 and spent three seasons with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod before signing his entry-level deal on June 1. He is 20 now, and is on this side of the pond for the upcoming season. Last year the offense vanished — a goal and two assists in 61 games — after Torpedo changed coaches. The two seasons before that were much better offensively. Eleven points as a 17-year-old. Twelve the year after. He wasn’t drafted for his space on the scoresheet, however. The Devils drafted a giant who can skate the length of the ice and close a play most 6-foot-7 defensemen never get to.

Command was taken 12th overall in 2026. He led Örebro’s U20 team with 44 points in 30 games, added 13 more in the playoffs, and played six quiet SHL games against men. He helped Sweden win gold at the U18 Worlds and then signed on in Örebro through 2027-28. There is no rare skill hiding in the profile. What the 18-year-old forward has is the reliable stuff: pace, detail, a clean release, and a habit of being where the puck is about to go.

One player changes how a rush dies. The other changes how a line survives.

Tools

Silayev wins the rare-tools argument without much of a fight. Left-shot defensemen as tall as he is and move the way he does don’t often show up every draft. The stride covers ice. The stick takes away time. When it works, forwards stop trying the middle. When it doesn’t, that extra half-second he had in the KHL is gone, and the first pass has to be perfect.

Command wins on completeness. He is already a center. He can play the wall, he can shoot, he can check. Nothing in the toolkit looks like a future problem so much as a future average, and that is the whole idea of the high floor. You do not need him to become someone else. You need him to keep being this against better players.

The hockey sense is close. It just shows up in different ways. Silayev’s is spatial — when to step up, when to use the reach, when to let the play come to him. Command’s is sequential — next battle, next faceoff, next play. Compete leans Command’s way in the ugly minutes. Size and range lean Silayev’s in the ones that decide games.

Timeline

This is the split that actually matters.

Silayev is here. The contract is signed and for him, camp is in New Jersey. The first piece in this series still holds: he pushes for a roster spot in September and, more likely, spends most of the year in Utica. If the AHL game slows down for him, he can get a call before the season is over. The runway is shorter because the pro sample is already long.

Command is not here. He is under contract in Sweden for two more seasons, and that is the right place for him. He needs men’s minutes, not a rushed look in a packed Devils middle. New Jersey can wait on a center who already plays like a pro in junior.

So the comparison is uneven on purpose. Silayev can help in 2027. Command is more likely to help in 2029. Long-term is not the same as soon.

What “better piece” means

If better means peak impact on a playoff roster, it is Silayev.

A top-four shutdown defenseman who can skate with the league’s fastest forwards is harder to find than a middle-six center, although it is admitedly close. The Devils can more easily buy a center as opposed to a 6-foot-7 left shot who does not look lost in transition. If Silayev becomes that, he is a cornerstone. If he becomes a third-pair penalty-killer who never quite trusts the first pass, he is still an NHLer — and a disappointing 10th overall pick.

If better means the odds of becoming a useful regular, it is Command.

His range is tighter. The high end is a 2C who drives a line and kills penalties. The middle is a 3C who does not hurt you. The low end is still a fourth-line center who can play the wing in Utica. That last version is a miss for 12th overall. It is also more useful than a giant who never gets comfortable moving the puck in North America.

The ranking already picked a side. Silayev is No. 1. Command is No. 3. That was not a proximity ranking. It was tools and impact. The long-term question should not flip just because Command is safer.

The risks

Silayev’s last year in the KHL is the warning label. The coaching change in Nizhny Novgorod turned a steady climb into an outlier. The offense dried up. The breakout that used to look simple started looking late. North America will not wait for him to find that extra second again. He has to defend the rush at NHL pace and move the puck when the forecheck does not give 6-foot-7 defensemen a courtesy lane.

Command’s risk is quieter. The U20 numbers were excellent. The SHL sample was six games and nothing on the board. Plenty of Swedish centers look like first-rounders until the men’s league takes the time away. If the shot stops beating goalies and the pace is only average, he becomes the player every team thinks it already has.

Injury history is not a separator yet. Runway favors Command by two years. Translation favors Silayev because he has already lived in a men’s league. Those two facts pull in opposite directions, which is why the argument exists.

Verdict

If both hit, both are Devils cornerstone players. A shutdown left shot who can kill rushes and a two-way center who can win his minutes are how you reach the playoffs and close a series.

The difference is what each one gives you when it works. Silayev, at his best, changes the temperature of a game without touching the scoresheet. Command, at his best, makes a line trustworthy in every situation. Those are different jobs. They are not different levels of importance.

The Devils drafted both. They should want both. If the question is which name you protect, it is still Silayev. The position is rarer. A 6-foot-7 defender who can skate with the league is harder to replace than another responsible center, even a good one. That is why he is first on the list.

Command is not the consolation prize. He is the player more likely to become exactly what the report said he was. In a thin forward pipeline, that still counts. It just is not the same scarcity.

Watch Silayev in Utica. Watch Command take real SHL minutes. In two years this will not be a debate about who matters at the end of April. It will be a debate about who already did.

Sportsnaut

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