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

[Guttersniped]

If you are talking about throughout his career...sure. No question about it. If you are talking about his rookie season.... You might be revising history more than just a bit. Most of his time was with Brylin and a broken down Claude...he elevated their play and made things happen. He got little help and still succeeded. Brylin has 9 goals that year and Claude had 17....Gomez still managed 50+ assist. You're spinning bullshit if you are trying to say Gomez had good wingers his rookie season.

“Broken Down” Claude scored 27 goals in 1998-99 and his 51 points was 3rd most on the Avs, who had the 4th best record and the 6th best offense (239 Goals For) in the NHL that season. Pepe also scored 14 points in 19 playoff games, the 4th most on the Avs, when they lost to the Dallas Stars in WCF in 7 games.

In 1998-99 the Devils had the 2nd best offense, with 248 Goals For (3.02) so Gomez wasn’t exactly joining an offensively challenged team the next season. (And we had the 2nd best record in the NHL.)

In 1999-00 we scored 251 goals (3.06G/GP), again having the 2nd best offense in the NHL and the 4th best record in the NHL.

Gomez didn’t play with Brylin that much in regular season, the only points they share are two Gomez assists for Brylin. It was Lemieux and Nemchinov mainly. (Brylin only played 64 regular season games and only got bigger minutes for less than half of them, then got reduced minutes in the rest.)

Lines are fluid though and things likes like power play count and he did begin to play with Mogilny after he arrives at the TDL. He scored points with a good chunk of forwards on the team. 9 points with Arnott, 6 points with Elias, 6 points with Holik, 5 points with Sykora, 3 points with Rolston, 2 points with Mogilny. He did play with a lot of talented forwards.

And then 2001-02 we had the top offensive in NHL, with 295 Goals For (3.60), we had 111 points and were 3rd in the NHL.

The point here is that Gomez is was a very talented young center that got added to a dominant contender with a number excellent wingers. He was an excellent playmaker, so he did make others better, but wasn’t carrying the team or anything, he was always more of a high-end complimentary pieces, though an essential one because centers are so valuable.

Claude kept plugging away for two more years. He had 10 goals in 46 games in Phoenix the following season, which is not all that far off from 17 goals in 70 games in NJ.

 

[britdevil]

Extreme disappointment doesn’t even begin to describe this for me. What a complete fool.