Devils 2018-19 team discussion (news and notes) - camp begins!

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

they can build for the next 7 years around kane, karlsson, meier and hertl. whether or not that's a succesful strategy i don't know but i expect their gm to have a more optimistic view of their window

if the corps of your team is Hertl and Meier your team probably isn't very good

and I like both players

 

[Darkauron]

Considering they haven't talked in the entire week right before camp I think that's an indication they're really far apart.

Yeah it is not a great position to be in. Seems like neither side wants to budge, but Wood also really doesnt have any leverage at all.

 

[Cult of Hynes]

Such an organizational headache. A guy with a ton of speed, decent hands that seem to get better, and is willing to bulldoze over people to win and stick up for his teammates.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Marcus Johansson is 27 lol

31?

 

[RangerDoggo]

Bold prediction: Wood will LeVeon Bell it into the regular season. Shero either needs to sign him or start shopping, because the longer he does nothing, the worse he looks.

 

[devilsblood]

@OmNomNom I'm not allowed to post on that other page anymore so I can't reply to your last post with your projection with the next 3 years and contracts. I just did my projection a gew posts earlier which I'm sure you saw.

You're giving Marcus Johansson - a 31 year old with 2 concussions in 2018 a multi year deal worth $7m? If youre doing things like that than yes, any teams cap will get tight. Thats not realistic.

The point is that the Devils have among the cleanest - if not THE cleanest slates in the league right now. I would argue that is nowhere near as important as people here make it out to be as the teams who are making the biggest impact player moves are consistently teams who do NOT have clean cap situations, but instead teams who successfully manuever around whatever cap situations they have - as the Sharks just did today.

But since we are talking: The Devils have $18m in cap right now.

In the next 2 seasons they have the following money coming OFF their books:
Johansson - 4.5
Boyle - 2.7
Lovejoy - 2.6
Kinkaid - 1.2
hall - 6
Greene - 5
Vatanen - 4.8

Thats an additional 26.8 of contracts coming off ALONE in addition to the 18 in space thats already there!

Now of course - Hall gets 11 (if he takes it... I am nervous. If I were him I'd like some evidence that the team will bring in some players and I havent seen it yet but who knows I don't know the man). That brings that number down to 15.8 right there.

You have to extend Butcher, Hischier, Bratt, Zacha, Mueller (if you want) and Wood by that time will have a higher number.

And you may extend Vatanen and Johansson. But those would be your choice.

Any way you stack it its a massive amount of space and you have a ways to go to even get BACK to the $18m that youre starting at after you factor in whats coming off, And I didnt even factor in the following year when Zajac drops.

And the young players like Anderson, McLeod, Seney, Smith etc who will replace the Johansson, Boyle, Lovejoy Greene guys will do so at a fraction of their numbers.

Again the idea that the devils need to preserve their current cap number in order to resign current players is complete hogwash. Its propaganda used to direct fans away from the real reason that they are not among the teams adding players to their roster, which is that they do not want to.

Mojo turns 28 in Oct.

The injuries he had last year are not the norm for him and the Marchand hit was both cheap as hell and a pretty rare occurence.

I'm not signing him to $7 mil either, but I'd think 3 years at $5mil would be OK.

Edit:Obviously if we don't sign Mojo and Vat's we would then have to go out and get someone, but I'm not writing off those contacts as open cap space.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Yeah it is not a great position to be in. Seems like neither side wants to budge, but Wood also really doesnt have any leverage at all.

Maybe his agent also thinks he is a injury risk and is trying to force a big payday now?

 

[RangerDoggo]

Re: Johansson’s health: he played 120+ consecutive games before he got infected with bad luck the instant he got traded.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Bold prediction: Wood will LeVeon Bell it into the regular season. Shero either needs to sign him or start shopping, because the longer he does nothing, the worse he looks.

so basically just give into the player that has absolutely no leverage?

yeah great idea

 

[MartyOwns]

the situation with wood is not encouraging at all

 

[Zezel22]

Mojo turns 28 in Oct.

The injuries he had last year are not the norm for him and the Marchand hit was both cheap as hell and a pretty rare occurence.

I'm not signing him to $7 mil either, but I'd think 3 years at $5mil would be OK.

I was being sloppy by saying 30 but he will be 29 - thats close. And the point is that you have a CHOICE. You dont need to worry about space for Marcus Johansson. We'll see what happens this year. Its a big question mark at this point.

 

[Emperoreddy]

 

[Zezel22]

Re: Johansson’s health: he played 120+ consecutive games before he got infected with bad luck the instant he got traded.

He also had 2 straight concussions in one season. We'll see what happens this year but thats a big concern with a multi year deal to a 29 year old player.

 

[devilsblood]

I was being sloppy by saying 30 but he will be 29 - thats close. And the point is that you have a CHOICE. You dont need to worry about space for Marcus Johansson. We'll see what happens this year. Its a big question mark at this point.

I'm not worried about cap space for Mojo, I'm worried about cap space for Hall, Nico, Zacha, Wood, Bratt, Butcher etc etc.

 

[RangerDoggo]

I really think Shero is being penny wise, pound foolish on this one, just like he’s been during his entire tenure as Devils GM. Wood’s speedy, has improved his scoring skills, and can be physical when he wants to. I don’t know where he’ll ultimately slot in, but the team is better with him around, and we have nothing to gain if he’s not on the roster.

 

[TrufleShufle]

Considering they haven't talked in the entire week right before camp I think that's an indication they're really far apart.

I don't see any real evidence he's a problem for the coaching staff though, other than his play dropping off a cliff after his suspension.

Oh yea no doubt there, but to automatically put it on Wood to be the one to close the gap when we don't know where either party stands is just wrong. You haven't done that as far as I know, just clarifying what I meant in my original post.

In an extreme case, imagine they are offering 2 years at league min, and Wood wanted 2.5, but went down to 1.5 and they still didn't budge. So they just haven't talked in a week because they are waiting for the other to come closer. Would it be an indication that Wood is an "organizational headache?"

 

[devilsblood]

He also had 2 straight concussions in one season. We'll see what happens this year but thats a big concern with a multi year deal to a 29 year old player.

Meh, I feel concussions are less of a concern when guys are given time to recover.

It's not like Clowe who probably played his way through a bunch of concussions.

 

[OmNomNom]

I was being sloppy by saying 30 but he will be 29 - thats close. And the point is that you have a CHOICE. You dont need to worry about space for Marcus Johansson. We'll see what happens this year. Its a big question mark at this point.

so in the other thread where my original post was, (by the way, the $7 for MarJo was a generous assumption), it seems capfriendly says we have $35M in space (though i don't get how).

with that, i'll agree that we could/should make a good splash for a solid player, but you do have to acknowledge the fact that there is some wisdom in seeing what pieces we have. If we have more than 1 bratt-level performance this year, then we should be making trades, and not spending unless absolutely necessary. Palms and Vatanen are obviously the primest examples we have of those types of moves we love.

 

[Zezel22]

I'm not worried about cap space for Mojo, I'm worried about cap space for Hall, Nico, Zacha, Wood, Bratt, Butcher etc etc.

Why? Thats not a rational concern. You are drinking the kool-aid. See my post above for my thoughts but really thats not a valid concern UNLESS you are one of us ane believe there is an internal cap, which... yes, that could get tight. The NHL salary cap will be nowhere close to met with those players you mentioned and the losses of the expiring contracts the Devils have in the same period of time.

 

[devilsblood]

Why? Thats not a rational concern. You are drinking the kool-aid. See my post above for my thoughts but really thats not a valid concern UNLESS you are one of us ane believe there is an internal cap, which... yes, that could get tight. The NHL salary cap will be nowhere close to met with those players you mentioned and the losses of the expiring contracts the Devils have in the same period of time.

Your post above with the faulty info? Way too long to sift through when the your not on point with your facts.

 

[Emperoreddy]

The Behind the Glass special looks really good. Definitely watching it when it premieres in a few weeks.

Potential for some real drama if Wood walks in half way through.

 

[MadDevil]

We'll be calling for Kowalsky to be fired by the second week of the season.

 

[NJDevs26]

Oh yea no doubt there, but to automatically put it on Wood to be the one to close the gap when we don't know where either party stands is just wrong. You haven't done that as far as I know, just clarifying what I meant in my original post.

In an extreme case, imagine they are offering 2 years at league min, and Wood wanted 2.5, but went down to 1.5 and they still didn't budge. So they just haven't talked in a week because they are waiting for the other to come closer. Would it be an indication that Wood is an "organizational headache?"

It's a fair point that we don't know what the offers are on either end, without any real info generally I do default to thinking any agent's being unreasonable though. Especially when the player has no leverage and there's only so much he's going to get paid on an RFA deal after a season of 3rd-4th line duty.

The Behind the Glass special looks really good. Definitely watching it when it premieres in a few weeks.

Potential for some real drama if Wood walks in half way through.

It won't have QUITE the drama that Revis ending a holdout did on Hard Knocks though

 

[devilsblood]

so in the other thread where my original post was, (by the way, the $7 for MarJo was a generous assumption), it seems capfriendly says we have $35M in space (though i don't get how).

with that, i'll agree that we could/should make a good splash for a solid player, but you do have to acknowledge the fact that there is some wisdom in seeing what pieces we have. If we have more than 1 bratt-level performance this year, then we should be making trades, and not spending unless absolutely necessary. Palms and Vatanen are obviously the primest examples we have of those types of moves we love.

I'll assume that $35 mil includes RFA's who will need contracts.

Also includes guys like Vat's who are UFA's that we could likely sign.

Edit:Also includes Greene, who yeah is probably not resigned, but will require a replacement, who will require his own contract.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Yeah my default is also to assume the agent is being unreasonable. More so when our other RFAs got fair deals.