Devils 2021 training camp thread (news, notes and speculation) - Part III [MOD warning in OP]

[Triumph]

Oliwa had surprising skill for a guy of his profession. He was a decent straight-ahead skater. I wonder if he came to hockey later in life than most Canadians/other European players. I think the Devils very occasionally gave him time on the power play - he did register a power play goal in 99-2000.

This might speak more to the team quality but in 1999-2000, he had 15 ES points in <466 minutes, which is very close to 2 points/60.

 

[Nubmer6]

I hope they don't flip the switch and start scoring only 1-2 goals in the regular season like that one year they had Drew Stafford and were scoring a ton of goals in the preseason.

Hey... We don't get to play the Rags EVERY night

I think today will be a better test, seeing our kids play against a frustrating Isles team. Im interested in seeing if they have the discipline to do well against them.

 

[njdevils1982]

Hischier was horrible so far. He has really to prove this season that he is the real deal. After all these years he showed nothing but being out of gas after a couple of shifts. He looks like a weaker version of RNH. If he doesn’t start progressing he should be waived or demoted to the Ahl and call him a bust. I am tired of all these excuses for his poor play.
Imo he doesn‘t even have the right to play center on the second line.

well its been a blast…..good to know ya

 

[Classic Devil]

Oliwa had surprising skill for a guy of his profession. He was a decent straight-ahead skater. I wonder if he came to hockey later in life than most Canadians/other European players. I think the Devils very occasionally gave him time on the power play - he did register a power play goal in 99-2000.

This might speak more to the team quality but in 1999-2000, he had 15 ES points in <466 minutes, which is very close to 2 points/60.

Oliwa was definitely the team tough guy, but he was more than that. Between him and McKenzie the Devils had a bunch of good, tough players with skill in that era.

 

[RangerDoggo]

Didn’t he start MMA fighting a few years back?

 

[Classic Devil]

That is a significant downgrade than the lineups other people have been posting.

Sharangovich-Hughes-Holtz
Tatar-Hischier-Bratt
Zacha-Mercer-Kuokkanen
Wood-Mcleod-whoever

I like this balance way more.

"Whoever" right now is probably Vesey, but Tyce Thompson could fit there too.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

It's preseason guys, Mercer, Holtz, Vesey, Jankowski etc are playing for their careers. Most vets are just preparing for an 82 game grind.

With THAT SAID, Nico bashing based on preseason games is idiotic, but Mercer surpassing him at some point isn't unthinkable. A bunch of development curve busting outcomes like that turn the Devils into cup contenders.

 

[RangerDoggo]

Hischier also played to one of his traditional strengths in drawing penalties (two last night). He did much better.

 

[NJ Fan 12]

Just curious who you think those players are that have spots based on contracts?

There are a couple of players in today's lineup who immediately come to mind.

In fairness, haven't seen them much yet this preseason so if they've improved and are ahead of some of the new players they probably deserve to be in the lineup.

We shall see.

 

[Triumph]

Oliwa was definitely the team tough guy, but he was more than that. Between him and McKenzie the Devils had a bunch of good, tough players with skill in that era.

McKenzie had that hat trick for Phoenix, but I don't think he was anywhere near as skilled as Oliwa. He wasn't Tony Twist, but most enforcers around his age had around that level of skill.

Although as I'm looking around, there were a lot of much worse players - Baumgartner, Grimson, and so on were clearly worse. So glad these days are behind us.

 

[Guttersniped]

Was

I hope they don't flip the switch and start scoring only 1-2 goals in the regular season like that one year they had Drew Stafford and were scoring a ton of goals in the preseason.

We had the 15th best offense in 2017-18. We came out of the gate scoring as well, we had 67 goals in first 20 games, which is 3.35 G/GP.

Gibbons contributed a lot to the early scoring, scoring 12 goals in 30 games, then not scoring in 29 games before getting injured.

Bratt scored one goal in his last 30 games after scoring 12 goals in 44 games.

Boyle scored 11 of his 13 goals in his first 30 games.

Stafford did in fact score 8 of his 15 points in his first 14 games

Butcher was also shot out of a cannon, scoring 11 of his 44 points in his first 10 games.

A lot of the early fringy scoring by committee went away, that’s why Hall’s big playoff surge was so key.

Palmieri only played 62 games that season but he actually another big contributor to the second half push, he missed a lot of games early and scored 26 of his 44 points after January.

Zajac also only played 63 games but he also ended strong, scoring 19 of his 26 points in his last 30 games.

Nico was pretty steady through the year and finished strong with 21 points (10 goals) in his last 28 games. Wood was sort of steady until he petered off a bit at the end.

There were a couple other guys who got hot late: Coleman had a little scoring run late, with 10 points (7 goals) in his last 16 games. Noesen scored later in the year.

Our offense didn’t underperform, other than Palmieri missing 20 games really was a blow. Just because we scored 9 goals against Ottawa in the preseason, with Mike Condon in goal, or had two 4-1 wins against Washington, when Trotz isn’t working on winning games in the pre-season, didn’t change that we didn’t have much there beyond Hall, Palms and just the start of this youth wave that’s now maturing and gotten more populated.

I’m not worried about the offense 5v5, even though I’m not sold on Ruff’s systems until I see them in a real season. Hamilton and Tatar should help the power play but we likely have a bit of a lower offensive ceiling until our younger guys really start figuring out how to cash in on the power play.

I’m real concerned about the PK, but pretty sure we’re just f***ed there this season. No one wanted to jettison Nasreddine more than me, he simply benefited from having great personnel for the PK rather than arriving from the AHL as some PK savant we have to keep.

Lovejoy was an elite PK defenseman in 2016-17, and it’s him and Greene that were the heart of that unit.

Lovejoy was the best PK defenseman in 2018-19, leading in GA/60 shorthanded (with more than 150 minutes) even with ghastly goaltending in NJ. And his CA/60 was 1st overall, and completely bonkers. His xGA/60 was 5th overall. The dude was a PK god.

Greene was 10th in GA/60 shorthanded, his xGA/60 was 26th and his CA/60 was 34th in 2018-19. Which is really good but not Lovejoy good.

The best seasons by PK forwards in GA/60 (75 minutes minimum TOI) since 2017-18:

Brian Gibbons (165 minutes) 2017-18: - 0.434
xGA/60: -0.13
GF/60: -0.062
xGF/60: -0.13
CF/60: -3.47
CA/60: +0.81

Blake Coleman (155 minutes) 2019-20: -0.413
xGA/60: -0.245
GF/60: 0.098
xGF/60: 0.331
CF/60: +2.66
CA/60: -2.35

Pavel Zacha (132 minutes) 2018-19: -0.167
xGA/60: +0.446
GF/60: -0.124
xGF/60: -0.244
CF/60: -3.1
CA/60: -3.62

Kevin Rooney (78 minutes) 2018-19: -0.109
xGA/60: +0.055
GF/60: -0.153
xGF/60: -0.091
CF/60: -2.66
CA/60: +0.72

Travis Zajac (193 minutes) 2019-20: -0.107
xGA/60: -0.24
GF/60: -0.212
xGF/60: -0.099
CF/60: -2.31
CA/60: -7.79 (!)

Yegor Sharangovich (95 minutes) 2020-21: -0.082
xGA/60: +0.478 (go figure)
GF/60: -0.045
xGF/60: -0.105
CF/60: -1.82
CA/60: -0.36

Travis Zajac (214 minutes) 2018-19: -0.08
xGA/60: -0.599 (I’m really blaming Kinky then lol)
GF/60: +0.1
xGF/60:+0.035
CF/60: +1.61
CA/60: -7.18

Travis Zajac (79 minutes) 2020-21: -0.045
xGA/60: +0.882 (what a PK that season. sigh.)
GF/60: -0.243
xGF/60: -0.324
CF/60: -5.12
CA/60: +5.5

Pavel Zacha (132 minutes) 2019-20: -0.026
xGA/60: +0.166
GF/60: -0.036
xGF/60: +0.03
CF/60: -1.58
CA/60: +5.29

Kevin Rooney (102 minutes) 2019-20: -0.016
xGA/60: +0.119
GF/60: -0.047
xGF/60: -0.158
CF/60: -2.41
CA/60: +5.7

Travis Zajac (145 minutes) 2017-18: +0.067
xGA/60: +0.14
GF/60: -0.103
xGF/60: -0.143
CF/60: -0.03
CA/60: -7.79

Jesper Bratt (78 minutes) 2017-18: +0.152
xGA/60: -0.218
GF/60: -0.091
xGF/60: -0.144
CF/60: -2.28
CA/60: -2.25

Blake Coleman (169 minutes) 2017-18: +0.169
xGA/60: -0.122
GF/60: +0.086
xGF/60: +0.118
CF/60: -1.18
CA/60: -0.8

Brian Boyle (92 minutes) 2018-19: +0.226
xGA/60: -0.121
GF/60: -0.123
xGF/60: -0.237
CF/60: -3.83
CA/60: +0.25

Blake Coleman (206 minutes) 2017-18: +0.23
xGA/60: +0.141
GF/60: -0.004
xGF/60: +0.058
CF/60: +2.72
CA/60: +1.29

Mikey McLeod (80 minutes) 2020-21: +0.457
xGA/60: +0.122
GF/60: -0.122
xGF/60: -0.13
CF/60: -2.48
CA/60: +3.94


edit: I hit post accidentally while I was still typing crap in so I didn’t actually make a conclusion here. *shrug*

My point was going to be that defensemen are really the heart of the PK and the loss of Lovejoy and then Greene were huge blows. And Zajac and Coleman, while varying in results, were the heart of forward unit. PK is a personnel and the more you do it by committee, the more people there are to screw it up. Ideally, you do want big minute top PK guys.

Who the hell even knows which defensemen are going to carry the load this year, Vatanen and Kulikov were our best PKers last season. Obviously Graves will play PK.

 

[Classic Devil]

So, what are the collective thoughts on the future of Jesper Boqvist? If Mercer really takes and runs with the 3C slot, he could be there for a long time. McLeod seems to have 4C locked down. Obviously we need depth for injuries and potential trades, and Mercer could end up a top-6 RW at some point, but it seems like Boqvist is being squeezed out.

 

[Classic Devil]

It's preseason guys, Mercer, Holtz, Vesey, Jankowski etc are playing for their careers. Most vets are just preparing for an 82 game grind.

With THAT SAID, Nico bashing based on preseason games is idiotic, but Mercer surpassing him at some point isn't unthinkable. A bunch of development curve busting outcomes like that turn the Devils into cup contenders.

Will also quickly wreck our cap structure, but that's just the price you pay.

 

[Darkauron]

So, what are the collective thoughts on the future of Jesper Boqvist? If Mercer really takes and runs with the 3C slot, he could be there for a long time. McLeod seems to have 4C locked down. Obviously we need depth for injuries and potential trades, and Mercer could end up a top-6 RW at some point, but it seems like Boqvist is being squeezed out.

Ive never really been impressed by Boqvist overall. He is still young and could develop more, but yeah he is quickly being pushed out and there is not much place for him on the main team. He is definitely trade bait for me unless something else changes.

 

[My3Sons]

Lovejoy was an elite [] defenseman in 2016-17,

Lovejoy was the best [] defenseman in 2018-19,

Greene [] is really good but not Lovejoy good.

Well duh. No shit Sherlock.

 

[RangerDoggo]

So, what are the collective thoughts on the future of Jesper Boqvist? If Mercer really takes and runs with the 3C slot, he could be there for a long time. McLeod seems to have 4C locked down. Obviously we need depth for injuries and potential trades, and Mercer could end up a top-6 RW at some point, but it seems like Boqvist is being squeezed out.

It’s looking increasingly likely that his future isn’t with us.

 

[My3Sons]

Will also quickly wreck our cap structure, but that's just the price you pay.

That’s ok. You just have to identify your core guys and move on from the complementary players that you’d have to overpay. Hopefully guys take roughly market value. Maybe a guy or two get a little more and maybe a guy or two get a bit less and you can ice a solid team.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

 

[GameSeven]

So, what are the collective thoughts on the future of Jesper Boqvist? If Mercer really takes and runs with the 3C slot, he could be there for a long time. McLeod seems to have 4C locked down. Obviously we need depth for injuries and potential trades, and Mercer could end up a top-6 RW at some point, but it seems like Boqvist is being squeezed out.

I've been rooting for him for a couple of seasons but I'd like to see him start to move the needle in offensive output. I do think he's at risk off getting squeezed out, here, but I'd love for him to show some numbers that could help us turn him into some assets if he's not going to be a mainstay in the lineup.

 

[GameSeven]

Will also quickly wreck our cap structure, but that's just the price you pay.

Could lead to hard decisions down the line, although we still have some big dollars to come off the cap soon too.

But it could be a good problem to have several players worth bigger deals rather than what we've had in the past with guys on reclamation contracts and the like.

 

[Devs3cups]

Anyone knows if the game is televised today? Or on the radio at least?

 

[GeNeXt]

I've been pessimistic about Tatar, but after last night I don't really know how he winds up a healthy scratch for MTL and even Vegas a few years ago. He's got a great set of wheels.

Honestly, it's been many years since I've seen one of our forwards control a power play like Tatar did last night, in his four minutes of power play time. He just looks so poised with the puck, slowing things down, and is a scoring threat. I think he's likely to be the biggest catalyst for PP success this year, along with Dougie.

 

[Devs3cups]

Edit: It seems the game will be on NJD TV.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Not surprising. I have not been impressed with #81 at all.

I liked the way Groleau played last night. He took on that rags scrub kid goon that was trying to make a name for himself.

 

[MVP Zacha]

I liked the way Groleau played last night. He took on that rags scrub kid goon that was trying to make a name for himself.

I thought the same thing.