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Devils 2019 offseason team discussion (news and notes) XI

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You could argue having a strong right side is pretty important with question marks on the left side...it's probably more important to at least lock down one guy on each pairing than to try to pound square pegs into round holes. And if Vat does play left side, what do you do with Greene, Butcher and Smith?

Whatever anyone thinks of each guy they're all going to be on the team and should be in the lineup barring injury or a trade. The only realistic 'solution' is to play Butcher at RD in place of Vat but it's almost a change for change's sake to swap Butcher and Vat both on off hands. You aren't moving Vat over and scratching one of the above to put freaking Carrick in the lineup, both moves make the D far worse.
 
NJDevs26 said:
You could argue having a strong right side is pretty important with question marks on the left side...it's probably more important to at least lock down one guy on each pairing than to try to pound square pegs into round holes. And if Vat does play left side, what do you do with Greene, Butcher and Smith? Whatever anyone thinks of each guy they're all going to be on the team and should be in the lineup barring injury or a trade. The only realistic 'solution' is to play Butcher at RD in place of Vat but it's almost a change for change's sake to swap Butcher and Vat both on off hands. You aren't moving Vat over and scratching one of the above to put freaking Carrick in the lineup.
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If we keep Vata and play him on the left, I'd try Butcher with Severson and keep Greene with Smith and specialize on the PK.

My preference is to trade Vatanen for a defensive LHD to play next to Subban.
 
NJDevs26 said:
You could argue having a strong right side is pretty important with question marks on the left side...it's probably more important to at least lock down one guy on each pairing than to try to pound square pegs into round holes. And if Vat does play left side, what do you do with Greene, Butcher and Smith?

Whatever anyone thinks of each guy they're all going to be on the team and should be in the lineup barring injury or a trade. The only realistic 'solution' is to play Butcher at RD in place of Vat but it's almost a change for change's sake to swap Butcher and Vat both on off hands. You aren't moving Vat over and scratching one of the above to put freaking Carrick in the lineup, both moves make the D far worse.
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It is important to note though that Butcher can play the right side effectively but I agree with the premise. That means that we still dont know what to do with Mueller.
 
NJDevs26 said:
You could argue having a strong right side is pretty important with question marks on the left side...it's probably more important to at least lock down one guy on each pairing than to try to pound square pegs into round holes. And if Vat does play left side, what do you do with Greene, Butcher and Smith?

Whatever anyone thinks of each guy they're all going to be on the team and should be in the lineup barring injury or a trade. The only realistic 'solution' is to play Butcher at RD in place of Vat but it's almost a change for change's sake to swap Butcher and Vat both on off hands. You aren't moving Vat over and scratching one of the above to put freaking Carrick in the lineup, both moves make the D far worse.
Click to expand...
But would it be?

What good does cementing a strong 3rd pair do if the 1st is in shambles? thats like trying to build a boat with amazing woodwork everywhere but the hull - the ship wont lst long if the hull isnt strong.

1st pair is of most importance right now. If it means having a weaker 2nd and 3rd pair to have a stronger 1st pair, you do it IMO. Not that I think it ends up that way but just making my point known

Im also very much against the strategy of playing all three pairs near equally in time. That type of handing out minutes IDT has won a cup at all let alone recently. Your best defenseman should be playing the most. And Andy Greene aint that anymore
 
Nico the Draft Riser said:
But would it be?

What good does cementing a strong 3rd pair do if the 1st is in shambles? thats like trying to build a boat with amazing woodwork everywhere but the hull - the ship wont lst long if the hull isnt strong.

1st pair is of most importance right now. If it means having a weaker 2nd and 3rd pair to have a stronger 1st pair, you do it IMO. Not that I think it ends up that way but just making my point known

Im also very much against the strategy of playing all three pairs near equally in time. That type of handing out minutes IDT has won a cup at all let alone recently. Your best defenseman should be playing the most. And Andy Greene aint that anymore
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Andy Greene will get his minutes kicked up to 18-20 with heavy PK usage. Subban will get his minutes kicked up to 23-25 with heavy PP usage. Everyone else will get bounced around based on score and how they are performing that day.

We'd all like to assume players are consistent every day like the video games but sometimes you feel like crap and sometimes you feel great. Hopefully the coaching staff can pick up on it.
 
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I just have a very very hard time believing that if no one is added at least to start the season it will be either Greene or Vatanen with Subban. Smith May earn the mins but to just toss the kid out there wouldn’t be wise.

We will just have to wait and see how it all plays out.
 
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I was just curious what the analytics had to say about our D...

cX3B0ls.png

(from Tableau Public)
 
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And while I was at it, I looked up a few of the defensemen we've talked about over the last few weeks...

FsJlm9Y.png
 
NJDevs26 said:
You could argue having a strong right side is pretty important with question marks on the left side...it's probably more important to at least lock down one guy on each pairing than to try to pound square pegs into round holes. And if Vat does play left side, what do you do with Greene, Butcher and Smith?

Whatever anyone thinks of each guy they're all going to be on the team and should be in the lineup barring injury or a trade. The only realistic 'solution' is to play Butcher at RD in place of Vat but it's almost a change for change's sake to swap Butcher and Vat both on off hands. You aren't moving Vat over and scratching one of the above to put freaking Carrick in the lineup, both moves make the D far worse.
Click to expand...

I think this is what you do and you just try to even out the ES minutes for all three pairs.
 
You know, Ottawa needs to hit the cap floor.

What we could do to clear more room is trade Zajac to Ottawa, opening up a decent amount of caproom.

That would in turn give us way more flexibility to do an offersheet and keep our current core.

Hall - Nico - Palmieri
Bratt - Hughes - Marner

Zacha can take over as third center and we run with Rooney or who f***ing ever as the 4th line center.

Ottawa has a gaggle of picks in upcoming drafts so we could use that to our advantage. Perhaps we could do Zajac for San Jose's 2020 1st (by way of Ottawa)

Or maybe a collection of their 2nd rounders.

I definitely think there's a way we could get something done with Dorion and company though. They need the cap hit, Zajac is still a producer so it works for them and for us, it clears out a log jam at the position while at the same time clears up cap space to either offer sheet Marner/Laine or do extensions right now.
 
The D is such a wildcard in many ways.

If Smith makes the team, who is the healthy scratch and who is waived? Mueller as the HS and Carrick waived?
 
MJMazzarone said:
You know, Ottawa needs to hit the cap floor.

What we could do to clear more room is trade Zajac to Ottawa, opening up a decent amount of caproom.

That would in turn give us way more flexibility to do an offersheet and keep our current core.

Hall - Nico - Palmieri
Bratt - Hughes - Marner

Zacha can take over as third center and we run with Rooney or who ****ing ever as the 4th line center.

Ottawa has a gaggle of picks in upcoming drafts so we could use that to our advantage. Perhaps we could do Zajac for San Jose's 2020 1st (by way of Ottawa)

Or maybe a collection of their 2nd rounders.

I definitely think there's a way we could get something done with Dorion and company though. They need the cap hit, Zajac is still a producer so it works for them and for us, it clears out a log jam at the position while at the same time clears up cap space to either offer sheet Marner/Laine or do extensions right now.
Click to expand...

There is no log jam at center and we have plenty of cap room. Absolutely needless move.
 
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MJMazzarone said:
You know, Ottawa needs to hit the cap floor.

What we could do to clear more room is trade Zajac to Ottawa, opening up a decent amount of caproom.

That would in turn give us way more flexibility to do an offersheet and keep our current core.

Hall - Nico - Palmieri
Bratt - Hughes - Marner

Zacha can take over as third center and we run with Rooney or who ****ing ever as the 4th line center.

Ottawa has a gaggle of picks in upcoming drafts so we could use that to our advantage. Perhaps we could do Zajac for San Jose's 2020 1st (by way of Ottawa)

Or maybe a collection of their 2nd rounders.

I definitely think there's a way we could get something done with Dorion and company though. They need the cap hit, Zajac is still a producer so it works for them and for us, it clears out a log jam at the position while at the same time clears up cap space to either offer sheet Marner/Laine or do extensions right now.
Click to expand...

Trading Zajac is the last thing this team should do if we hope to be somewhat competitive.
 
Zajac has a NMC anyway, he probably can’t be traded even if we wanted him to be.

Greene can start the year on the first pairing but if he ends it on the same pairing, then we’ve got a problem.
 
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