Devils 2017-18 team discussion (player news and notes) - Offseason part IX

[My3Sons]

NHL teams appear to be better at drafting defensemen these days than even five years ago. Basically, if you're a CHL defenseman who is not putting up around .7 or .8 points a game, you arent going to sniff the top 20, maybe not even the first round. This wasn't always the case, as mediocre defenseman like Gudbranson, Schenn, Murray were all drafted very high, not to mention Dylan McIlrath who was drafted 10th overall, but didn't project to be anything more than a better version of John Scott.

PPG in junior (or also for the US developmental team) for a defenseman isn't a perfect metric, but it's a lot better than what teams seemed to rely on in the past. I imagine that defenseman drafted in the first 15 picks now have a higher success rate than they used to, and they make a difference at the NHL level sooner, and almost at the same rate as forwards drafted in the same range.

It seems to me that the traditional makeup of a defender is changing. Previously size and strength were primary with skating and skill behind with the exception of obvious great players like Potvin or Bourque where you had the whole package. Now teams seem to be leaning much heavier on skating and skill with size and toughness behind. I think we will see players get a bit smaller but they are getting much faster on average and defenders have to speed up and be more skilled as well. It's not a perfect metric but generally the more skilled players score the most points.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

It seems to me that the traditional makeup of a defender is changing. Previously size and strength were primary with skating and skill behind with the exception of obvious great players like Potvin or Bourque where you had the whole package. Now teams seem to be leaning much heavier on skating and skill with size and toughness behind. I think we will see players get a bit smaller but they are getting much faster on average and defenders have to speed up and be more skilled as well. It's not a perfect metric but generally the more skilled players score the most points.

Right, and the question is that now that teams are not drafting defenseman like Gudbranson, Schenn and McIlrath in the top ten, is the idea that defenseman "take more time to develop" becoming less and less tenable? I sense that it is, and that defensemen are NHL ready at close to the same rate as forwards, which is impressive considering that it's easier to shelter a young forward who's still learning among twelve forwards, than it is among six defensemen.

 

[JimEIV]

Playing defense will always be a slower learning process. So much of it is pure situational recognition that is learned by expirience.

I'm not totally buying anything has changed either as far as philosophies of what the attributes of a good Dman are. Mite and Squirt coaches 35 years ago turned their best skaters into Defensemen. Defensemen have traditionally been the best skaters on the team.

A few things have definitely changed that made the traditional stay at home guy obsolete...the physical style of play in front of the net is almost non-existent today, so is fighting...the things that made the traditional 4th line left wing like Jim McKenzie or Troy Crowder disappear are some of the same reasons why we won't see Defensemen like Colin White or Jeff Beukeboom anymore.

And the forwards have changed as well... Lucic is a throwback​ but every team had guys his size and physicality on their team...some teams had one on every line..there aren't anymore Lindros', LeClair, Primeau's, Holik"s or even Tkachuk that type of forward is virtually non-existent as well.

 

[Emperoreddy]

There is definitely some impatience going on in here.

People forget how absolutely barren our prospect pool was a few years ago. We had very little talent at any position.

Lars and Severson were the best we had. Since then we have added a lot of young talent and added some real legit NHL forward talent.

I'm sure he hope was Lovejoy was going to be better than he was, but not everything works out.

You can't expect every single organizational hole to be filled within a couple of offseason. That is beyond unrealistic.

 

[Bcap88]

There is definitely some impatience going on in here.

People forget how absolutely barren our prospect pool was a few years ago. We had very little talent at any position.

Lars and Severson were the best we had. Since then we have added a lot of young talent and added some real legit NHL forward talent.

I'm sure he hope was Lovejoy was going to be better than he was, but not everything works out.

You can't expect every single organizational hole to be filled within a couple of offseason. That is beyond unrealistic.

IMO, most of this is Lou's fault he waited and waited to rebuild and made useless trades such as dagostini,sullivan,rutuu resigning zubrus etc. not trading clarkson when his value was at an all time high and last but not least drafting matteau instead of dumping the pick as part of the penalty

 

[Bleedred]

Maybe they're waiting for Damon's birthday to give him his present ?

Oh wait...Today is his Birthday...Where is this damn contract????

Kind of speculating here, but I think there may be a slight dispute in an signing bonus and incentives. Apparently they wanna give him his bonuses based on more time played in the defensive zone!

Seriously though, Henrique was signed in late August when he was an RFA back in 2013, so I think we've still got a few weeks (At most) before Severson is signed. It could be even sooner than that.

I just really hope there's no hesitation in giving him a similar contract to what Shero gave Larsson 2 years ago, as I've said even as a very staunch Larsson supporter back in 2015, that I thought Severson would be the best out of all of them.

 

[Bleedred]

IMO, most of this is Lou's fault he waited and waited to rebuild and made useless trades such as dagostini,sullivan,rutuu resigning zubrus etc. not trading clarkson when his value was at an all time high and last but not least drafting matteau instead of dumping the pick as part of the penalty

Some if definitely. We didn't lose much of value in trading for D'Agostini or Sullivan (7th round pick?), although you could question why did we even bother? They were low risk moves for peanuts. D'Agostini was only two years removed from 21 goals and 46 points, but that was proven to be a fluke and not indicative of his true capabilities.

Ruutu was a waste. Badly declining 30+ year old player, with 2+ years and at $4+ million per year, even though the Canes retained some salary. Zubrus at 3 years was too much term. I said it then, I'll say it now. I'm willing to bet that 35 year old Zubrus would not have been offered a 3 year deal if he had hit the UFA market that year. He also barely took a paycut from his previous deal. Even forgetting the 35+ contract thing, I'm willing to bet if his birthday was a few months later, Zubrus wouldn't have been given a 3 year deal at 34.

Still wonder what we could have gotten for Clarkson that year, but I doubt it would have been a first. Perhaps a 2nd round pick and a decent prospect.

I don't feel as bad about not forfeiting the Matteau pick, after getting back the 2014 pick, despite it being 30th overall. If JQ can become a decent NHL caliber player for us (I think he can), I think we can live with the Matteau pick. The fact that we forced him into the NHL at 18 years old was pretty inexcusable though. You know how many WAY better prospects we've had that didn't come close to playing in the NHL at age 18? I think Larsson and Matteau are the only 18 year old's to play for our NHL team since Petr Sykora in 1995.

 

[NJDevs26]

Kind of speculating here, but I think there may be a slight dispute in an signing bonus and incentives. Apparently they wanna give him his bonuses based on more time played in the defensive zone!

Seriously though, Henrique was signed in late August when he was an RFA back in 2013, so I think we've still got a few weeks (At most) before Severson is signed. It could be even sooner than that.

I just really hope there's no hesitation in giving him a similar contract to what Shero gave Larsson 2 years ago, as I've said even as a very staunch Larsson supporter back in 2015, that I thought Severson would be the best out of all of them.

Honestly I think if there's any hesitation on signing a long term deal it's from the Severson camp and not Shero.

 

[Davegarri]

Looking at the schedule for this season, why are we (according to the Devils website) playing away in Buffalo at 3pm on a Monday in October?

Is that wrong or is that some Holiday I'm just not thinking of?

 

[Better Call Sal]

Looking at the schedule for this season, why are we (according to the Devils website) playing away in Buffalo at 3pm on a Monday in October?

Is that wrong or is that some Holiday I'm just not thinking of?

Columbus Day?

 

[Merrills Marauders]

Columbus Day?

yup.

 

[Davegarri]

Columbus Day?

I forgot about Columbus day since I don't get it off for work lol.

I just think that's stupid to make it a 3pm game on a day where a lot of people don't get the day off. I don't even think I had it off when I was in high school

 

[I Hate Tie DOMI]

Looking at the schedule for this season, why are we (according to the Devils website) playing away in Buffalo at 3pm on a Monday in October?

Is that wrong or is that some Holiday I'm just not thinking of?

Canadian Thanksgiving too...not that it matters to two American teams, but I'm going to be late for my dinner and be stuck with cold turkey and mashed potatoes. Thanks NHL scheduler.

 

[MartyOwns]

Honestly I think if there's any hesitation on signing a long term deal it's from the Severson camp and not Shero.

i agree...but that's if there's any hesitation. i'm inclined to believe its just usual logistics stuff, i'm not worried about the contract at all. in fact, i think the longer it drags out, the more years we can expect the deal to be.

 

[SpeakingOfTheDevils]

As someone mentioned, RFA Henrique didn't sign his deal until late August in 2013.

I'm not worried about Severson or his new contract. I'm sure it'll be right in line with what Larsson got a few years ago.

 

[MadDevil]

Which Devil are you?

https://www.nhl.com/devils/fans/which-devil-are-you

Surprise, surprise, I'm apparently Travis Zajac.

 

[njdevils1982]

Which Devil are you?

https://www.nhl.com/devils/fans/which-devil-are-you

Surprise, surprise, I'm apparently Travis Zajac.

funny ****….

im apparently zacha

 

[Darkauron]

I got Zajac too. Make sense because I am so boring.

 

[ChicoEatsNachos]

Andy Greene

 

[Devilsfan92]

Taylor Hall

 

[Colin226]

Keith Kinkaid

 

[Xirik]

Miles Wood

 

[Bleedred]

I'm Keith Kinkaid also. Some of the questions I didn't really have the best answer for, but chose the best of all or whatever was least worst haha.

 

[MadDevil]

By the way, I found that from one of Kinkaid's Tweets.

[Tweet]894923896675336194[/Tweet]

 

[JimEIV]

Another day and no Severson contact...

57 days until the season opens...and no Severson contact.