Classic Devil
Spirit of 1988
So, I've been doing this (almost) every offseason for a long time. I think I started in the summer of 2006, which was the 23rd year in Devils history, the first year that allowed a full 23-man roster. It's the doldrums of summer so time again - although this year, I'm afraid, will be rather boring.
It's basically a puzzle challenge: make the best roster you can out of players in Devils' team history.
But there are a few rules to make this harder than it might immediately seem:
(1) You're selecting players by season. So, for instance, you can take Patrik Elias' 2000-2001 season. But you can only take one player per season. If you take Elias 2000-2001, you cannot take Mogilny 2000-2001; the 2000-2001 team only gets one player to represent it.
(2) You can only select a player once. So, if you take Elias 2000-2001, you can't have Elias 2005-2006 also.
(3) You cannot have two players wearing the same number. If you take Bruce Driver, you cannot also take Scott Gomez (each gets assigned #23). For players who wore more than one number in Devils history, they're assigned the one they wore for longer (so, if you're taking Rolston, he wears #14, which he wore for 7 seasons, and not #12, which he wore for 3 seasons).
You can otherwise make selections based on any criteria you want. You can choose players based off their regular season performances, or playoff performances; you can focus on choosing only long-time Devils or go for best single-season performances . Whatever feels right to you, go ahead and run with it.
Also choose a head coach and two assistant coaches. No restrictions on these, you can pick anyone from the team's history.
Once you have your team selected, assemble a lineup (lines and pairings, reserve forwards) and post!
Suggestions:
You can find all numbers worn in team history here, but you'll probably remember the numbers of everyone who qualifies for the team. Start by picking numbers which are going to be represented on basically every team: Brodeur, Stevens, Elias, Niedermayer have lots of good years to pick from and no competition for their numbers (Peter Stastny notwithstanding). Then pick between #9s (Parise/Muller/Hall), #23s (Gomez/Driver), #17s (Sykora/Kovalchuk/Sundstrom), #15s (Langenbrunner/MacLean), etc; these numbers are all also likely to get representation.
HockeyDB is your friend in this endeavour, you can look at all years here and click through to see season statistics. You're almost certain to take players from each of 1987-1988, 1993-1994, 1994-1995, 1999-2000, 2000-2001, 2002-2003, 2011-2012, as those seasons each featured deep playoff runs, so check through them and see which players pop out as potential additions. In general the mid-late 1990s and 2000s tend to be very well represented on these teams, but feel free to go back to the 1980s or use players from recent teams (a Schneider season will be most people's backup goalie, I think, but there are other options).
It's basically a puzzle challenge: make the best roster you can out of players in Devils' team history.
But there are a few rules to make this harder than it might immediately seem:
(1) You're selecting players by season. So, for instance, you can take Patrik Elias' 2000-2001 season. But you can only take one player per season. If you take Elias 2000-2001, you cannot take Mogilny 2000-2001; the 2000-2001 team only gets one player to represent it.
(2) You can only select a player once. So, if you take Elias 2000-2001, you can't have Elias 2005-2006 also.
(3) You cannot have two players wearing the same number. If you take Bruce Driver, you cannot also take Scott Gomez (each gets assigned #23). For players who wore more than one number in Devils history, they're assigned the one they wore for longer (so, if you're taking Rolston, he wears #14, which he wore for 7 seasons, and not #12, which he wore for 3 seasons).
You can otherwise make selections based on any criteria you want. You can choose players based off their regular season performances, or playoff performances; you can focus on choosing only long-time Devils or go for best single-season performances . Whatever feels right to you, go ahead and run with it.
Also choose a head coach and two assistant coaches. No restrictions on these, you can pick anyone from the team's history.
Once you have your team selected, assemble a lineup (lines and pairings, reserve forwards) and post!
Suggestions:
You can find all numbers worn in team history here, but you'll probably remember the numbers of everyone who qualifies for the team. Start by picking numbers which are going to be represented on basically every team: Brodeur, Stevens, Elias, Niedermayer have lots of good years to pick from and no competition for their numbers (Peter Stastny notwithstanding). Then pick between #9s (Parise/Muller/Hall), #23s (Gomez/Driver), #17s (Sykora/Kovalchuk/Sundstrom), #15s (Langenbrunner/MacLean), etc; these numbers are all also likely to get representation.
HockeyDB is your friend in this endeavour, you can look at all years here and click through to see season statistics. You're almost certain to take players from each of 1987-1988, 1993-1994, 1994-1995, 1999-2000, 2000-2001, 2002-2003, 2011-2012, as those seasons each featured deep playoff runs, so check through them and see which players pop out as potential additions. In general the mid-late 1990s and 2000s tend to be very well represented on these teams, but feel free to go back to the 1980s or use players from recent teams (a Schneider season will be most people's backup goalie, I think, but there are other options).
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but a hell of a lot of offensive finesse is there. Same could be said for the 3rd line, but I think Holik can manage.
