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

[JrFischer54]

I don’t know why people are more concerned about jack then say nico but that’s just me.

 

[StevenToddIves]

It has literally happen in each of his previous two season(Which is his whole career)...Really badly.....

Rookie year 1/14/2020 through March 10th 2020, 24 games - 4 points Jack Hughes 2019-20 Game Log | Hockey-Reference.com

Last year February 23rd 2021 through April 2nd 2021 - 22 games 5 points - Jack Hughes 2020-21 Game Log | Hockey-Reference.com

And it wasn't just the lack of production it was really poor play.

I always enjoy your posts, but again. If Jack Hughes' play is your noteworthy problem for the Devils? It's like being upset that your brand new Ferrari is the wrong shade of red. We can easily compare this to Joe Thornton's rookie year or Nate MacKinnon's sophomore year. And, although Jack Hughes is not the player that those two are yet, he has the talent to one day be considered one of their superstar peers. Let's give the kid a break and watch him continue to elevate his game, it's considerably more fun than nitpicking his every sub-par shift.

 

[Zippy316]

I get that we're all frustrated, but this isn't the time to strip mine the team. I firmly believe that if you took this exact forward roster and inserted an NHL average goalie we'd be right at the bubble and finish right where we expected to be this season.

I would banish Zacha and try to flip depth guys like Vesey/Kuokkanen/Boqvist (who I don't think will be here long term). Get something for Subban if you can, which seems unlikely. Other than that, do everything in your power to get a goalie - sign, trade, whatever. We're closer than you think.

I would also try to get a real veteran 3C, a big defensive guy in the mold of a Bryan Boyle but a better skater. Would help with team defense/faceoffs and free Mercer up to play wing in the top-6, which is IMO a better use of his talent.

If not at the deadline, Zacha should be dealt before next year. Can swap him for a similar forward (preferably RHS) on another team to change things up a bit.

I would hope it would also serve as a wake up call to the young core too. Basically would be the first casualty of the young core that’s been here for quite a few years now.

 

[Buck Dancer]

I totally agree. i think Fitzgerald could look like a genius just by running the exact same roster out next season. Hire a new coaching staff, bring in another quality backup or 1B goalie, have some “i believe in these players” press conference, let another prospect or two take a spot, sit back and smoke a cigar.

I strongly disagree. Our forward group needs to be upgraded, and fast. Continuing to waste valuable years off of Nico, Jack, Dougie and now Bratt's main years is not an option and if we keep this poor cast of wingers for the 2022-23 season, that's exactly what we'll be doing. I've had just about enough of Zacha dragging down Hischier, Sharangovich being a ghost when paired with our 2 best offensive forwards, Tatar being Tatar, Kuokkanen being a anchor alongside Mercer, etc.

As bad as we need a backup to give Blackwood some much needed rest and shoulder the load in a 82 game season, the need to improve our situation on the wings is almost as important. We can't expect our gems to shine when you're giving them mediocre talent to work with. Adding a solid veteran or two would also go a long way for a team that is the youngest in the league.

 

[Devs3cups]

He wasn't good against the Islanders...His line was on the ice for 2 of the 3 goal - He was late picking up the point man on the second goal (2:45) and Sharangovich did a terrible job picking up the man in front of the net.

And on the game winner both Jack and Sharangovich both went to one man leaving the center of the ice wide open for the Barzal goal (4:16)




That horrific D play coupled with 0 points is not a good game

You're absolutely right. Thanks for pointing it out. I somehow got confused with his play in the other Islanders game (december 11th), the one where he scored with the slapshot. I kind of got confused with those 2 games, and combined them somehow, maybe because they were both in the same building .

I still feel like my point stands in general though, especially the CLB game and his play in general, one lesser game doesn't affect it that much.

 

[JimEIV]

I don’t know why people are more concerned about jack then say nico but that’s just me.

Because We(By We, I mean I) know what Nico is...It's done - He is never going to be an upper echelon player that can produce at an elite level...That is determined. If Jack isn't that elite player we need we are in deep shit. So the focus is there.

 

[Bleedred]

Zacha is definitely the next one on the list after Blackwood, Smith and maybe Kuokkonen. You could argue he should be ahead of Kuokkonen on the passenger list.

He's another one just like the ''Well, Cory has a .920% in 16 games to end the season and then a .925% at the world championships'' . We had one season back there where Zacha had 20 points in 30 games to end the season after 5 points in the first 31 games. I remember the hype after that one, especially when it went to 12 points in his last 17 games, I think it was? That was actually the same year where Cory had convinced both fans and management that he had bounced back to a .920% goalie because of 16 games.

He's not as bad as his 3 points in 18 games stretch, but when (if) he gets 28 points over the last 44 games of the season or has a stretch of 25 points in 35 games or something, he won't be as good as that either, nor will he really have ever been as good as his 13 points in 20 games to start the season.

People will really get caught up in stretches and increments and just buy too much of it, while ignoring the other halves or increments. This even goes for when a really good player has a really big down increment as well. ''Well he's only got 4 points in the last 12 games, he sucks''. When it happens to Jack or Nico at one point we're gonna hear about it.

 

[NjDevsRR]

The amount of energy wasted complaining on already two good talented players like Nico and Jack who have amazing futures is stunning when most of the wingers here are dogshit.

But y’all do you. It’s entertaining.

 

[Bleedred]

I feel like Jack and Nico catch more heat here from most people than frickin Blackwood does, other than from me.

I know it just feels like this and plenty of other people are now turning on Blackwood, but he's the worst player on the team this year, he's performed worse than anybody that's actually played more than a few games, he's totally killed the team and somehow people are more concerned about Hughes and Hischier than who's gonna stop the pucks over the next few years.

It's always the ''Team's fault'' or the ''Defense's fault'' or ''Ruff's fault'' or whoever's fault for the goalie being bad, but nobody hardly ever blames the team for when those players aren't scoring enough.

That's the funny part in all of this.

Disgusting. It just drives me up a wall.

 

[Buck Dancer]

The amount of energy wasted complaining on already two good talented players like Nico and Jack who have amazing futures is stunning when most of the wingers here are dogshit.

But y’all do you. It’s entertaining.

I just think that people are expecting Nico and Jack to raise the play of their respective wingers, despite the lack of talent those wingers have. Both guys shouldn't be knocked for it because that's an impossible task to do and the person who should be getting some heat for that should Fitz, who basically added a very average UFA in Tatar and crossed his fingers that the kids would all elevate their game when we all know fully well that expecting a bunch of kids to all take that next step wasn't going to happen.

Fitz basically gambled the season by giving our 2 centers absolutely no help and we are where we are because of that. Nobody saw the Bernier injury, so I can't knock him for that and he did make some solid moves to revamp our defence. He did absolutely nothing up front and if Jack, Nico and Bratt aren't clicking... we're doomed. Dawson Mercer basically saved us from being an embarrassment when both our main options down the middle went down with an injury and the call to keep him here is basically a fluke because there's no way that Ruff or Fitz could've envisioned that he was going to be this good, or else we would've picked him 7th over Holtz.

 

[JimEIV]

I feel like Jack and Nico catch more heat here from most people than frickin Blackwood does, other than from me.

I know it just feels like this and plenty of other people are now turning on Blackwood, but he's the worst player on the team this year, he's performed worse than anybody that's actually played more than a few games, he's totally killed the team and somehow people are more concerned about Hughes and Hischier than who's gonna stop the pucks over the next few years.

It's always the ''Team's fault'' or the ''Defense's fault'' or ''Ruff's fault'' or whoever's fault for the goalie being bad, but nobody hardly ever blames the team for when those players aren't scoring enough.

That's the funny part in all of this.

Disgusting. It just drives me up a wall.

Do me favor seriously. Please. Go here: Arizona Coyotes at New Jersey Devils Box Score — January 19, 2022 | Hockey-Reference.com

It's the game log from the Arizona game

Scroll down to the Shot Chart - Look at the Arizona chart on the left....Tell me what you think? Please I am curious to know

But I will say this those 4 chances at the top of the crease for Arizona sums up everything that is wrong with this team.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

the first would be late and I don’t want anymore firsts. Are those kids amirov Robertson legit blue chip prospects? Done with first rounders. I want kids that are on the cusp on breaking into the nhl. It sounds silly but the devils don’t need anymore first round picks unless they are in the top 10. With this timeline they need former first round picks that have matured in the minors and ready to contribute at the nhl level.

I personally don't think they are, and Leafs fans have soured on them based on main board hype. I wouldn't do that trade, but I think the Leafs badly want a top 4 RHD, and basically they have 3 more chances to win a cup with Matthews under his current deal so I wouldn't be surprised to see their prospects dangled this deadline for the right players.

 

[Bleedred]

Do me favor seriously. Please. Go here: Arizona Coyotes at New Jersey Devils Box Score — January 19, 2022 | Hockey-Reference.com

It's the game log from the Arizona game

Scroll down to the Shot Chart - Look at the Arizona chart on the left....Tell me what you think? Please I am curious to know

But I will say this those 4 chances at the top of the crease for Arizona sums up everything that is wrong with this team.

I don't care.

Goals 1 and 2 were bad goals. He sucked on them. He gives up bad goals almost EVERY game.

I watch every goal on every team (other than empty nets) and Blackwood has now been worse than even Grubauer. I have a higher count on Grubauer still, but the percentage has come down.

I don't think he's been worse than Koskinen though and there's probably a few others that have been worse, but have played fewer games and have allowed fewer goals overall. He's SUCKED this year. He's like the immaculate conception of twilight Schneider and twilight Brodeur this year.

He's been exactly what you get if you say ''It can't be worse than Schneider's last few years here'' well it's certainly been for 53 games of Blackwood.

He's been the worst player on the team this year. PERIOD. He's near the bottom in the league in EVERY goalie stat you can count. He sucks this year and just about all of last. Plain and simple.

We're not gonna count Geertsen or Boqvist or those guys, they haven't played enough games and they've only been in because of covid and injuries. Well, Boqvist has. They've played Geertsen with a healthy roster.

I am really not at all interested in any more of the rationalization that this goalie has played anywhere near acceptably this year.

 

[JimEIV]

I don't care.

Goals 1 and 2 were bad goals. He sucked on them. He gives up bad goals almost EVERY game.

I watch every goal on every team (other than empty nets) and Blackwood has now been worse than even Grubauer. I have a higher count on Grubauer still, but the percentage has come down.

I don't think he's been worse than Koskinen though and there's probably a few others that have been worse, but have played fewer games and have allowed fewer goals overall. He's SUCKED this year. He's like the immaculate conception of twilight Schneider and twilight Brodeur this year.

He's been exactly what you get if you say ''It can't be worse than Schneider's last few years here'' well it's certainly been for 53 games of Blackwood.

He's been the worst player on the team this year. PERIOD. He's near the bottom in the league in EVERY goalie stat you can count. He sucks this year and just about all of last. Plain and simple.

We're not gonna count Geertsen or Boqvist or those guys, they haven't played enough games and they've only been in because of covid and injuries. Well, Boqvist has. They've played Geertsen with a healthy roster.

I am really not at all interested in any more of the rationalization that this goalie has played anywhere near acceptably this year.

You don't seem to want acknowledge how the shot came about or where it was on the ice? I am sorry if you give up 4 chance at the door step, Goals are going to be scored...It is inevitable

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

The amount of energy wasted complaining on already two good talented players like Nico and Jack who have amazing futures is stunning when most of the wingers here are dogshit.

But y’all do you. It’s entertaining.

If you have a cup or bust attitude I get it. Those two guys becoming star (superstar?) players is basically the only way a cup happens realistically. Ultimately I think in a 32 team league a cup or bust attitude will mostly generate nothing but years of frustration, and we should all just

But that makes me a loser fan that tolerates mediocrity...so...

 

[13BearerOfHope]

I don’t know why people are more concerned about jack then say nico but that’s just me.

Nico is rock solid. Only concern I have is for him blocking shots with his forehead or his wooden leg

 

[Buck Dancer]

I don't care.

Goals 1 and 2 were bad goals. He sucked on them. He gives up bad goals almost EVERY game.

I watch every goal on every team (other than empty nets) and Blackwood has now been worse than even Grubauer. I have a higher count on Grubauer still, but the percentage has come down.

I don't think he's been worse than Koskinen though and there's probably a few others that have been worse, but have played fewer games and have allowed fewer goals overall. He's SUCKED this year. He's like the immaculate conception of twilight Schneider and twilight Brodeur this year.

He's been exactly what you get if you say ''It can't be worse than Schneider's last few years here'' well it's certainly been for 53 games of Blackwood.

He's been the worst player on the team this year. PERIOD. He's near the bottom in the league in EVERY goalie stat you can count. He sucks this year and just about all of last. Plain and simple.

We're not gonna count Geertsen or Boqvist or those guys, they haven't played enough games and they've only been in because of covid and injuries. Well, Boqvist has. They've played Geertsen with a healthy roster.

I am really not at all interested in any more of the rationalization that this goalie has played anywhere near acceptably this year.

He was screened by his own man and a Coyotes player as well on the 1st goal. For the 2nd, Graves gave the puck over and 3 coyotes outworked and outmuscled 4 of our guys in the slot.

I get that we would all want Blackwood to stoping those shots but we also keep making mistakes on top of mistakes defensively, so we have to bail the guy out and help him. This system isn't helping him at all and the lack of fight around our crease is alarming. On both goals, our dman should've tied up their guy and one can say that on the tip in from the point, which was the 3rd goal if I'm not mistaken, Severson should've tied up his guy as well.

I get that Blackwood is having a hard time, but our dmen are soft as butter and that needs to stop. When I watch other games, you see guys wacking opposing players who are trying to set camp in front of their goalies... I haven't seen one of our dman do that since Volchenkov for crying out loud. We are giving up the danger area in our zone way too easily and it's costing us points.

 

[My3Sons]

He was screened by his own man and a Coyotes player as well on the 1st goal. For the 2nd, Graves gave the puck over and 3 coyotes outworked and outmuscled 4 of our guys in the slot.

I get that we would all want Blackwood to stoping those shots but we also keep making mistakes on top of mistakes defensively, so we have to bail the guy out and help him. This system isn't helping him at all and the lack of fight around our crease is alarming. On both goals, our dman should've tied up their guy and one can say that on the tip in from the point, which was the 3rd goal if I'm not mistaken, Severson should've tied up his guy as well.

I get that Blackwood is having a hard time, but our dmen are soft as butter and that needs to stop. When I watch other games, you see guys wacking opposing players who are trying to set camp in front of their goalies... I haven't seen one of our dman do that since Volchenkov for crying out loud. We are giving up the danger area in our zone way too easily and it's costing us points.

That's the problem to me as well. Some of it may be due to the recent league crack down on cross checking but they need to clear the slot better. I'm not sure how that's Jack and Nico's fault, or even the fault of the underperforming wings, but I'm sure I'm just missing that part of it.

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

i think we have our backup goalie his came is blackwood we need a starting goalie

I think that’s easy for us to say on this board, and i wouldn’t really disagree, but there’s no chance the organization is gonna give up on Blackwood as a starter after 20 bad games in a disaster clusterf*** season. And i don’t even think Fitz would fully disagree considering he brought in Crawford and Bernier to back him up. Hard to fault the GM for how those moves turned out.

And despite how his play has looked, Blackwood’s 9-9-3 despite the team being allergic to scoring and penalty killing for long stretches of this season. Guaranteed every GM in the league would be prepared to give him a long leash before changing direction in net.

 

[Darkauron]

*Sees a discussion about Hughes blowing up again*

Oh I wonder whats happening here?

Oh. Not again. Same old song and dance as usual

 

[JrFischer54]

I personally don't think they are, and Leafs fans have soured on them based on main board hype. I wouldn't do that trade, but I think the Leafs badly want a top 4 RHD, and basically they have 3 more chances to win a cup with Matthews under his current deal so I wouldn't be surprised to see their prospects dangled this deadline for the right players.

forget that then. I would be fine moving severson but it absolutely has to be for a sure fire can’t miss prospect. No more first round picks either

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

*Sees a discussion about Hughes blowing up again*

Oh I wonder whats happening here?

Oh. Not again. Same old song and dance as usual

Quinn Hughes is gonna request a trade to the Devils cuz he doesn’t like the Canucks’ new analytics hire.

 

[tailfins]

the first would be late and I don’t want anymore firsts. Are those kids amirov Robertson legit blue chip prospects? Done with first rounders. I want kids that are on the cusp on breaking into the nhl. It sounds silly but the devils don’t need anymore first round picks unless they are in the top 10. With this timeline they need former first round picks that have matured in the minors and ready to contribute at the nhl level.

What you want is the most valuable commodity in the NHL: A young, cost-controlled player that's a sure bet to make the NHL. If that player has high end potential, I don't see how any team will trade that player away.

That said, the Hawks did trade Teravainen, but Carolina picked up a terrible contract and sent a 2nd and 3rd. Many on this board thought the deal was an overpay by Carolina. Turned out to have been a steal.

But, the Teravainen deal was also nearly 6 years ago. I don't know if teams are making those kinds of cap sacrifices these days. Or if the Devils would be willing to take on the cap / salary hit involved. So far in this interminable rebuild, the Devils really haven't.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Because We(By We, I mean I) know what Nico is...It's done - He is never going to be an upper echelon player that can produce at an elite level...That is determined. If Jack isn't that elite player we need we are in deep shit. So the focus is there.

Nico is on pace for a career high in points even after a rough shooting stretch and is a significantly improved player defensively while Jack is a point per game player at age 20 while doing electric things every night. What the hell are you talking about, exactly?

 

[Zippy316]

Zacha is definitely the next one on the list after Blackwood, Smith and maybe Kuokkonen. You could argue he should be ahead of Kuokkonen on the passenger list.

He's another one just like the ''Well, Cory has a .920% in 16 games to end the season and then a .925% at the world championships'' . We had one season back there where Zacha had 20 points in 30 games to end the season after 5 points in the first 31 games. I remember the hype after that one, especially when it went to 12 points in his last 17 games, I think it was? That was actually the same year where Cory had convinced both fans and management that he had bounced back to a .920% goalie because of 16 games.

He's not as bad as his 3 points in 18 games stretch, but when (if) he gets 28 points over the last 44 games of the season or has a stretch of 25 points in 35 games or something, he won't be as good as that either, nor will he really have ever been as good as his 13 points in 20 games to start the season.

People will really get caught up in stretches and increments and just buy too much of it, while ignoring the other halves or increments. This even goes for when a really good player has a really big down increment as well. ''Well he's only got 4 points in the last 12 games, he sucks''. When it happens to Jack or Nico at one point we're gonna hear about it.

Zacha has essentially run out of excuses. There’s no reason for him to be the passenger he is. He’s now gotten chances on every special teams and finds his way being the odd man out. He’s next to Nico who has been having a solid year yet Zacha looks pedestrian.

I’d give Kuokkanen the benefit of the doubt. It’s his sophomore year which players almost always struggle. He’s also on a cheap deal for one more year, so he’s affordable. He’s also been a regular member on the PK which has rebounded very well.

Just on his QO alone, Zacha is probably going to get around 2.8-3 next year. Devils are going to start running out of cap space if they keep giving these middling forwards that much with the new extensions to the big guys.