Devils 2021-22 team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - part XII

[Smitty426]

Scott Gomez got paid and I don't think he regrets one second that he was getting big checks with his name on it from the Rangers and the Habs... are those decisions, in retrospect, the right one's? Probably not, but getting paid kind of erases all of that, wouldn't you say and it's not as if we went to win multiple cups during that same timeline.

I am pretty sure he's on record with saying he had no idea how good he had it in NJ.
He was always going to "get paid" was it enough? That's can be argued. He didn't win anything elsewhere and you cant say him staying in NJ would not have helped them win. You can definitely say the teams he played for, did not.

 

[NJDfan86]

He was meh early but looks much different to me as the season has gone on. In his last 15 games Hischier is playing at a roughly 64 point pace if my math is correct. Hopefully he keeps that up and maybe even scores a bit more.

I think the looking "meh" was just the function of his low shooting % early on - he was still driving play and contributing assists. His shooting % the last few games is much higher and his season shooting % is now closer in line with his career numbers as well.

 

[Triumph]

I think the looking "meh" was just the function of his low shooting % early on - he was still driving play and contributing assists. His shooting % the last few games is much higher and his season shooting % is now closer in line with his career numbers as well.

He had a rough stretch of shotlessness - he had 23 shots in 17 games between November 5th and December 10th. During this stretch, he looked to be struggling a bit with beating defenders with speed, but I agree the rest of his numbers looked generally fine. He seems to be coming out of that hopefully - he has 20 shots in the last 6 games.

 

[ChicksDigTheTrap]

So who will Fitz compare his production to, Andreas Johnsson?

You cannot be serious.

 

[NJDfan86]

He had a rough stretch of shotlessness - he had 23 shots in 17 games between November 5th and December 10th. During this stretch, he looked to be struggling a bit with beating defenders with speed, but I agree the rest of his numbers looked generally fine. He seems to be coming out of that hopefully - he has 20 shots in the last 6 games.

I almost included a line about him not shooting enough in my post, but yea that was the one area where he has been "meh" in the season.

 

[Buck Dancer]

You cannot be serious.

I'm just trying to follow your logic. You said that it won't make any sense to compare Bratt's future deal with someone like Hughes and/or Hischier and that we would have to compare it with someone who plays the same position, on the same team. If what I just mentionned is how you see things, who are we supposed to compare Bratt to when all our other wingers are hot garbage, outside of Johnsson who's playing "ok" this year.

What I said was that Bratt's agent will most definitly try and compare the deal he wants with what Hughe/Hischier got, based on the production he's giving his this year, regardless of the position they play on our team.

 

[My3Sons]

He had a rough stretch of shotlessness - he had 23 shots in 17 games between November 5th and December 10th. During this stretch, he looked to be struggling a bit with beating defenders with speed, but I agree the rest of his numbers looked generally fine. He seems to be coming out of that hopefully - he has 20 shots in the last 6 games.

I agree his skating looks much better as the season has gone on. That has keyed other elements of his game. I’m not sure if he was still struggling with some injury hangover from last season or had a different injury they never disclosed.

 

[Buck Dancer]

I agree his skating looks much better as the season has gone on. That has keyed other elements of his game. I’m not sure if he was still struggling with some injury hangover from last season or had a different injury they never disclosed.

Hischier looks 10X better now compared to what we saw at the start of the year. It still bothers me that he has absolutely no help whatsoever on the wings and we're trying to help out Hughes and Mercer as much as possible and leave Nico kind of out to dry because he's just so smart with and without the puck.

 

[Zippy316]

Right now the core would seem to be Dr. Evil, Hughes, Hischier, and maybe Bratt depending upon how he finishes the season. I doubt they blow that up. Mercer is too young for a team to consider a core player but I'm sure they expect him to be a core player long term and won't move him either absent some sort of massive overpay. Pretty much every other player is a complementary player and can be moved if the team likes what they are getting back.

Maybe not that core, but that would trigger a more aggressive shuffling around some of the other guys.

I would also be very surprised if Zacha is on this team next year. I could see him being Fitzgerald’s path to shaking up the locker room a bit by swapping him a similar forward. Use it as a wake up call to the core group.

 

[ChicksDigTheTrap]

I'm just trying to follow your logic. You said that it won't make any sense to compare Bratt's future deal with someone like Hughes and/or Hischier and that we would have to compare it with someone who plays the same position, on the same team.

I never said on the same team.

 

[MauDevils]

Who is a Bratt comparable? William Nylander?

Tough to find similar age, production and trajectory.

 

[ChicksDigTheTrap]

Who is a Bratt comparable? William Nylander?

Tough to find similar age, production/l and trajectory.

You find players in recent years with similar production of the same age and see what percentage of cap they got.

 

[Buck Dancer]

I never said on the same team.

If that's the case, my bad.

I just think that positions are widely overated, because if you're a center but a defensive liability, it shouldn't boost your value because you're playing a more "valuable" position. The same thing is also true for wingers who are great defensively, like Mark Stone for example, who is probably better defensively then 95% of any centers in the league.

 

[glenwo2]

 

[My3Sons]

Maybe not that core, but that would trigger a more aggressive shuffling around some of the other guys.

I would also be very surprised if Zacha is on this team next year. I could see him being Fitzgerald’s path to shaking up the locker room a bit by swapping him a similar forward. Use it as a wake up call to the core group.

I don't see them moving Zacha to "wake up" Nico or Bratt and I don't think moving Zacha is likely an issue for Hughes or Dr. Evil. Moving Zacha would no doubt disappoint Bratt and Nico but I don't see the team wanting to rattle their cage. If they want to send a message to any group on the team I'd suggest getting a goalie that can play and play well. Getting a shooting wing that can score more consistently than Shara or Tatar would probably make more of a difference for the team than just shipping out Zacha but of course that's easier said than done. A 3C so they can put Mercer with Hischier makes sense as well.

 

[glenwo2]

Blackwood, Kuokkanen and GEERTsen off COVID list.

Still no Bratt? . Thankfully we still have another day.

EDIT: Nevermind, Bratt and Severson came off on Friday, I just didn't notice.

You're not the only one as I did not see any tweet posted here that said as such.

 

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Who is a Bratt comparable? William Nylander?

Tough to find similar age, production and trajectory.

Buchnevich? Though he is couple years older than Bratt.

 

[JrFischer54]

How do we prevent Severson from hitting open market? Its not possible. Its fantasy thinking unless you want to overpay the guy. We need him to sign a hometown discount to keep him & that isn't gonna happen. Lets just be realistic here. Severson has been stuck on a losing team his entire career. This is his chance for his big pay day. He has never tested the open market. Not only can he get paid alot more on open market but the guy can choose to go to a winning team. Like I said its fantasy that he won't test FA without an overpay.

you get a guy to sign early by giving a little enticing him. maybe go full term and this way he has piece of mind in case he suffers a season ending injury. dont Nickle and dime him

 

[JrFischer54]

I am pretty sure he's on record with saying he had no idea how good he had it in NJ.
He was always going to "get paid" was it enough? That's can be argued. He didn't win anything elsewhere and you cant say him staying in NJ would not have helped them win. You can definitely say the teams he played for, did not.

of course gomez is going to go on and say that. you think he would be saying that if he went to the rangers and won two cups? or wasn't a giant running joke? the #1 priority for players is getting paid they figure if teams are going to spend big bucks to get them then they must be worth it and thus be able to help their new team win. sometimes it happens sometimes it doesn't. parise wasn't signing with the wild because he thought they weren't going to contend. same with severson he isn't going to leave the devils to sign with someone he doesn't think is going to be the piece to help put whoever over the top.

 

[Blender]

Who is a Bratt comparable? William Nylander?

Tough to find similar age, production and trajectory.

He is a unicorn, there are really no comparables for how he's developed.

 

[Smitty426]

of course gomez is going to go on and say that. you think he would be saying that if he went to the rangers and won two cups? or wasn't a giant running joke? the #1 priority for players is getting paid they figure if teams are going to spend big bucks to get them then they must be worth it and thus be able to help their new team win. sometimes it happens sometimes it doesn't. parise wasn't signing with the wild because he thought they weren't going to contend. same with severson he isn't going to leave the devils to sign with someone he doesn't think is going to be the piece to help put whoever over the top.

No, not of course. He had no incentive to do that. Yes he got paid, could have just did the gracious "I loved my time there" routine. No I don't think he would just say that, but that's the point, all things being equal (no cup) he can speak to it. Parise wanted to play at home (Dad sick etc) and used the offer Lou gave him to strong arm Minnesota (btw, I hate him for that, wanna leave, just leave). He just Captained a team to the SCFs, LL opened up the bank vault, Parise just walked. And his curse followed him to Long Island!
We'll just disagree on this one.

 

[glenwo2]

He is a unicorn, there are really no comparables for how he's developed.

Devils really lucked out in what could've been a disastrous draft back then when they drafted McLeod.

Once again Credit goes to the scouting team and Castron for finding Bratt (whom I'm assuming you are talking about with the Unicorn GIF).

 

[KovalchukFistPump]

Right now the core would seem to be Dr. Evil, Hughes, Hischier, and maybe Bratt depending upon how he finishes the season. I doubt they blow that up. Mercer is too young for a team to consider a core player but I'm sure they expect him to be a core player long term and won't move him either absent some sort of massive overpay. Pretty much every other player is a complementary player and can be moved if the team likes what they are getting back.

Why is Dougie Hamilton Dr. Evil?

 

[KovalchukFistPump]

No, not of course. He had no incentive to do that. Yes he got paid, could have just did the gracious "I loved my time there" routine. No I don't think he would just say that, but that's the point, all things being equal (no cup) he can speak to it. Parise wanted to play at home (Dad sick etc) and used the offer Lou gave him to strong arm Minnesota (btw, I hate him for that, wanna leave, just leave). He just Captained a team to the SCFs, LL opened up the bank vault, Parise just walked. And his curse followed him to Long Island!
We'll just disagree on this one.

I can't say I know what was going on in the Parise world, but the publicly available knowledge says that JP Parise didn't get his cancer diagnosis until 2014 or so. So at the time of the contract signing, that likely was not a factor. Just plain old going home, but really money was probably the biggest factor.

Reason I hated Zach Parise for years is that the contract he signed with the Wild included a stupid signing bonus of 10 million right before a likely lockout. There was no way the cash-strapped Devils would have been able to match that not knowing when or if there would be a season the next year. So he got to play at home but he also got a hugely bloated contract to do so.

I think there may have been a bit of a jealousy thing with Kovalchuk too, which is why he demanded a crazy-long contract himself. I think I heard ZP didn't like what happened to Langenbrunner either. Which is fair as Langs was a big influence on him, but come on, it's not a coincidence the 2010-11 team started playing better immediately after he got traded.

Would love for there to be a tell-all on some of the stuff that's happened in Devils' locker rooms and why certain seasons got torpedoed, but that's not coming out until Lou is gone from this Earth.

 

[njdevils1982]

Why is Dougie Hamilton Dr. Evil?