Devils 2021 training camp thread (news, notes and speculation)

[HenriquesJawLine]

f***ING KILL ME, IS THAT TRUE? I CAN’T TAKE THIS NEWS, I’M LITERALLY HAVING A PANIC ATTACK.

CAN THIS TEAM MANAGE TO HAVE TWO f***ING FUNCTIONAL NHL GOALIES AT ONE TIME ON THE ROSTER? HOW MANY YEARS DO HAVE TO WAIT FOR THIS MIRACLE.

DON’T BREAK MY GODDAMN HEART BY RANDOMLY BEING AN IDIOT MAC. GOALTENDING CAN’T DESTROY A 3RD SEASON IN A ROW, DEAR GOD.

The last preseason had the double kick in the face of Crawford’s retirement and Nico’s secret injury after we waited 9 f***ing months for Devils hockey.

Totally normal and stable reaction here

 

[Devils731]

It’s at least good to know Jack is taking his diet seriously.

I remember learning to cook when starting to do it myself and everything seemed intimidating. Thank goodness for iron chef and the internet.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

It’s at least good to know Jack is taking his diet seriously.

I remember learning to cook when starting to do it myself and everything seemed intimidating. Thank goodness for iron chef and the internet.

Ty must be some cook that he's taking his word for it. I've asked the internet the absolute stupidest questions when it comes to the kitchen.

 

[Devils731]

Ty must be some cook that he's taking his word for it. I've asked the internet the absolute stupidest questions when it comes to the kitchen.

21 year old Ty Smith is definitely the adult of the house.

 

[Better Call Sal]

21 year old Ty Smith is definitely the adult of the house.

They each provide to the bromance. Ty knows how to cook, Jack owns a car.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Watching college age dudes with no life skills attempt to be adults is top quality content

 

[ChicksDigTheTrap]

You'd have to have the same fear for every member of the Devils and Comets you all foresee as being key pieces of the future. There will be more than 3 that need paying if and when the Devils become good again.

You have 2 of the Hughes brothers already. Nico is going to be there. What about Blackwood if he turns out the way so many think. What about Shakir? Any others in the D-Corps going to become really good? What about Bratt if he continues to improve at a pace anywhere near what he is on already.

You can't be deciding not to get better players because you have home drafted ones who are not as good. They become ammo in the trades for greater improvement, while future draft picks and the ones already in the wings come into the system as well. Fitz has seen to that already with the Hamilton and Graves acquisitions and look for that kind of thing to be a part of the continuous future. The cap is going to go up again at some point making the number of players who can be compensated for their contributions more possible and the ability to hold onto more guys than they can now. You have to consider the numbers as they are and not to cap yourself out of money, but you can't allow a curtain to be stretched across all possibilities for fear of not having enough cash.

Frugal, intelligent investment is the way to go. If you can pick up what appears to be one of the most prolific scoring D-men in NHL history, you do it if it's possible. You don't worry what that means to the career of Okhotiuk or any other rising D-man in the system. Fact is that Mukhamadullin might do that anyways. Graves and Smith aren't going anywhere soon and if Mukh is as good as it currently appears, there's your top 3 LD for the Devils for quite some time (at the moment). However, Luke is coming into play also. What if Quinn takes a contract that gets him to UFA as soon as possible while continuing to increase his scoring numbers and he expresses serious interest in the Devils as a free agent. Being a GM isn't the breeze so many see it to be. The scenario I have presented is a nightmare that most GMs wish were to happen to them.

I think you missed the point of my post again. What I said was a team in the cap era cannot carry more than 4-5 9% of cap players and field a competitive team. Is there a team that carries more than 4-5 9% of cap players that win? Why would you be discussing players like Graves - he will never be a 9% of cap player.

 

[SpeakingOfTheDevils]

21 year old Ty Smith is definitely the adult of the house.

Doesn’t he not even have a car?



The whole dynamic is both funny and endearing.

 

[OmNomNom]

Doesn’t he not even have a car?



The whole dynamic is both funny and endearing.

once luke is here, it's gonna be Three's Company

 

[swiiscompos]

Doesn’t he not even have a car?



The whole dynamic is both funny and endearing.

Since when do we need a car to be adults? I guess it's a very American thing (which makes sense being give public transportation in most of the US).

 

[My3Sons]

Watching college age dudes with no life skills attempt to be adults is top quality content

I have had a front row seat to that experience going on about 7 years now. It's funny until you have to wear a hazmat suit to clean up their room.

 

[SKNJD9]

 

[Blender]

Will love to see him take another step this season.

 

[Nubmer6]

Umm... So do we call him Sharky here now?

 

[Cheddabombs]

Umm... So do we call him Sharky here now?

It's better than anything we currently have lol

 

[AfroThunder396]

Shark-rangovich

 

[jkrdevil]

What time does camp open?

 

[Bad Goalie]

I have expressed interest in the Devils giving Pirri a PTO in
order to get him on the Comets roster.

Now seeing talk on the Vancouver HF that they might be doing just that for AHL Abbotsford. The guy is money in the bank on an AHL roster. He's a point machine.

Would still like them to bring Blandisi back to the AHL. Both are still out there. The Comets has room for another good vet.

Currently only the 3 most likely to be Utica players that are considered Veterans by the AHL are :
Chase De Leo
Brian Flynn
Robbie Russo

Other players in camp who could possibly end up on the Utica roster that would be vets are:
Frederik Gauthier - The most likely possibility.
Tyler Wotherspoon - Don't like this possibility, esp. if he is the lone unvaccinated player in camp as is being theorized.
Vesey - Never played an AHL game yet, but is currently in a poor spot to be choosy.
Jankowski - Don't see this happening, but....
Johnsson - Don't see this happening either, but he would be classified as a Veteran Exempt making it possible for the 3 already accounted for + 2 more vets.

 

[Stephen Gionta]

If Boqvist and Mercer don't look ready for 3C duties, I would love to offer Eric Staal a nice 1 year contract.

It would probably take a bit of an overpay to get him to sign here but I would do it.

 

[Brodeur]

I wonder if Pirri is still trying to stay local to Chicago/Rockford since it's close to his wife's family. He requested a trade last offseason since Vegas was moving its AHL affiliate from Chicago to Henderson.

 

[Billdo]

Have any of you internet sleuths figured out who patient x is with us?

 

[Guttersniped]

Totally normal and stable reaction here

Goaltending is very triggering for me at this point. Considering that since Hall’s MVP season in 2017-18 our only good goaltending has come from Blackwood when he’s healthy.

And not been healthy season, he’s got hurt various ways his first two seasons. He was fantastic in 2018-19 until a lower body injury on January 4th caused him to struggle for a month and then got rolling again at the end.

In 2019-20, he had a rough start to the season in October, but was fine by November. The puck to the face on Jan 7th basically ruined January for him.

And then he had a 10 game pre-COVID season and not only did he get whacked by COVID, he also had back problems, or back injury, which was the “upper body injury” that kept him out of games at the end.

I was (obviously?) kidding with the hysteria in my delivery but honestly the sentiment was very genuine, I don’t think I can take another season of bad goaltending now that I will be watching games live again. Not with expectations with being good. I don’t mind it if the whole team is sort of bad but goaltending became by far the worst thing about the team and was knee-capping us. (Though special teams we’re co-conspirators in our demise last season. And I had no real expectations last season, but the goaltending was impossibly atrocious.)

And ending up having only one NHL goalie because Blackwood was an Anti-Vax dude would have spectacularly topped Crawford’s surprise late retirement in kick in the gut disappointments by quite a bit for a number of obvious reasons. I love the guy and Wedgewood as a 1B behind Bernier is depressing concept/giant buzzkill.

And I just read how Holland had to talk Duncan Keith into getting vaccinated. Keith is going to miss a big chunk of training camp because he’s going to the US to a one dose vaccine.

As far as Keith’s situation goes, Holland said he would have preferred if he’d gotten vaccinated earlier and avoided missing nearly the first half of training camp, but the GM added that it is a “personal decision” and that he’s pleased with the outcome.
“Making the decision (to get vaccinated) for some people was easy. For some people, it’s difficult,” Holland said. “I’m happy that he’s going to be part of our team this year, fully vaccinated.

No shit you’re happy.

It would have been such a disaster if Keith quit on them after he traded for him. And his deal is back loaded, he’s making 2.1m this season and 1.5m the next so loss of salary isn’t that big a deal, with escrow and estimated career earnings of 71m.


'It’s going to be very difficult': Oilers GM Ken Holland on Josh Archibald and managing the team's vaccination issues

 

[Hisch13r]

And just read how Holland had to talk Duncan Keith into getting vaccinated. Keith is going to miss a big chunk of training camp because he’s going to the US to a one dose vaccine.


No shit you’re happy.

It would have been such a disaster if Keith quit on them after he traded for him. And his deal is back loaded, he’s making 2.1m this season and 1.5m the next so loss of salary isn’t that big a deal, with escrow and estimated career earnings of 71m.

It's a great look that the guy they brought in for #Leadership is missing part of camp because he didn't want to get vaccinated and had to get talked into it at the last moment

 

[Guttersniped]

Have any of you internet sleuths figured out who patient x is with us?

Yes, others have sleuthed and the very solid guess is PTO defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon.

It's Wotherspoon - check out this dude's Twitter - his follows and likes...it's OANtastic

I didn't even know what a Wotherspoon was until it was posted. Like, didn't even register he was one of the PTOs.

I looked through his twatter, most crypto stuff from what I saw.

Somehow I forgot to give this underrated post a like since I every time I see Wotherspoon’s name I now immediately fondly recall “I didn't even know what a Wotherspoon was..” which perfectly phrases how to think about this dude.

 

[JimEIV]

Will love to see him take another step this season.

That would be incredible...But honestly if he only duplicates the production (or is even close) over a full a season I would be happy.