Devils discussion (news, notes and speculation) - offseason part II

[RSeen]

DeBrusk, Joshua, Trenin, Foegele….yes please.

Trade Targets
Ehlers: I read that while he has not demanded a trade out of Winnipeg, he’d prefer a change of scenery. Has only 1 year before becoming UFA.

Bennett: If Florida intends to keep Reinhart, they are going to have to shed salary. 1 year away from UFA. I was super impressed by this player in the Rangers series. There’s your 3C and one that would be amongst the tops in the league.

EDIT
Buchnevic: I didn’t realize just how good the 29 year old’s stats have been over the years. We are light at LW and would look awfully nice with Hughes. Once again, another player that is only one year away from UFA.

I'm all for Joshua, Trenin and Foegele and Bennett if that were ever a possibility. Would all add an edge to our roster that we need.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

If we wait for complementary pieces to develop internally we might be waiting forever.

We can get those pieces now. Why would we wait until Nico, Luke, and Nemec are all on the cusp of needing new contracts?

That's exactly why the window is tighter, because we can afford to pay more for complimentary players right now.

 

[My3Sons]

The hard reality (for some) is that this team is NOT that far away from being VERY good.

They have 2 unquestioned 1st line centers, with one of those being a legitimate superstar. They have a 40 goal power forward. They have another ppg winger.

They have the 2 best U-21 DMen in the sport. They have another legitimate top pairing DMan in Hamilton

They need a goalie. We all know this. They need another guy on the backend that can defend and kill penalties. We all know this. They need probably 2 middle 6 forwards. That really is NOT that much, and can easily be acquired all within the next few months. There are tons of teams who would kill to be in our position.

Mercer is not a first line center

 

[RSeen]

I don't know how many times it needs to be said to you that Luke and NEmec this past year were better than Sevs and Graves were in 22-23. They are already legitimate top 4 DMen. at 20 years old.

They won 50+ games with this same core literally a year ago.

Don't you get tired of doing this?

There is absolutely no way Luke and Nemec were better than Graves and Severson.

Graves and Severson this past season may have not been better but the year before, they both played at a high level.

 

[My3Sons]

There is absolutely no way Luke and Nemec were better than Graves and Severson.

Graves and Severson this past season may have not been better but the year before, they both played at a high level.

It’s a bit of apples and oranges though. They were slotted correctly and didn’t have to carry their pairs the way Luke and Nemec were often asked to do as rookies. If you look you can find rule 420 which states that a rookie being forced to play with Smith is a war crime punishable by having to watch the Islanders play the Canes to a 1-1 draw while saying “this is good hockey”.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

There is absolutely no way Luke and Nemec were better than Graves and Severson.

Graves and Severson this past season may have not been better but the year before, they both played at a high level.

Graves was terrible for the second half of the year and also in the playoffs. Severson played sheltered third pairing minutes.

 

[BostonDevil]

Mercer is not a first line center

In Boston he is

 

[MadDevil]

In Boston he is

How dare you besmirch #1 center Pavel Zacha like that!

 

[theoptimist]

Yea he sucks. Trade him.

 

[JimEIV]

It’s a bit of apples and oranges though. They were slotted correctly and didn’t have to carry their pairs the way Luke and Nemec were often asked to do as rookies. If you look you can find rule 420 which states that a rookie being forced to play with Smith is a war crime punishable by having to watch the Islanders play the Canes to a 1-1 draw while saying “this is good hockey”.

We didn't really have a Dman that carried a pair or need to in 2023.

Marino Graves and Siegenthaler Hamilton were balanced and worked well together. Having Severson available when Marino was injured showed the depth we had.

Maybe you argue that Hamilton carried Siegenthaler but I really don't think that was the case in 2023.

But we lost so much since then...Gone from the playoff team were Severson, Graves, Vitek, Wood, McLeod, Sharangovich, Tatar, Boqvist.

People making believe that's insignificant just aren't being honest. On top of that that team wasn't all that playoff competitive to begin with.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

We didn't really have a Dman that carried a pair or need to in 2023.

Marino Graves and Siegenthaler Hamilton were balanced and worked well together. Having Severson available when Marino was injured showed the depth we had.

Maybe you argue that Hamilton carried Siegenthaler but I really don't think that was the case in 2023.

But we lost so much since then...Gone from the playoff team were Severson, Graves, Vitek, Wood, McLeod, Sharangovich, Tatar, Boqvist.

People making believe that's insignificant just aren't being honest. On top of that that team wasn't all that playoff competitive to begin with.

Absolutely insane. I cant even believe someone could even think this.

 

[Forge]

It feels like some people would be absolutely miserable in here if the devils are good

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

It feels like some people would be absolutely miserable in here if the devils are good

I did happen to notice that a certain someone(s) was noticeably way more absent last year.....

 

[Triumph]

Luke Hughes was unquestionably better than Graves, the problem was that the Devils paired Hughes with Brendan Smith, an atrocious pairing. Hughes was excellent away from Smith.

 

[Bcap88]

Ah f***

Our defensemen are young

Let’s rebuild!!!

We didn't really have a Dman that carried a pair or need to in 2023.

Marino Graves and Siegenthaler Hamilton were balanced and worked well together. Having Severson available when Marino was injured showed the depth we had.

Maybe you argue that Hamilton carried Siegenthaler but I really don't think that was the case in 2023.

But we lost so much since then...Gone from the playoff team were Severson, Graves, Vitek, Wood, McLeod, Sharangovich, Tatar, Boqvist.

People making believe that's insignificant just aren't being honest. On top of that that team wasn't all that playoff competitive to begin with.

I mean who tf is carrying Edmonton on defense ? lol

 

[Saugus]

Luke Hughes was unquestionably better than Graves, the problem was that the Devils paired Hughes with Brendan Smith, an atrocious pairing. Hughes was excellent away from Smith.

Hughes also fell off somewhat toward the end of the season. He hit a rookie wall from playing more games than he ever had before. As he adjusts to the length of the season, that will become less of a problem.

 

[Bleedred]

But we lost so much since then...Gone from the playoff team were Severson, Graves, Vitek, Wood, McLeod, Sharangovich, Tatar, Boqvist.

Most of those players either aren’t very good or hardly matter.

Severson was probably a loss. Having him on the bottom pair was a real luxury. We did the right thing in no re-signing him though.

Graves was meh, Vitek sucks, Wood is better than a lot of the 4th liners we ended the season with, but Wood at 6 years for anything sucks. 23-24 McLeod was better than 22-23 McLeod and a huge loss in 23-24. However, he wasn’t that good in 22-23 and was probably going to get overpaid because of what he did for 60 games last year. Guy is a rapist, so f*** him anyway.

Sharangovich had a pretty good season last year and was good for us in 22-23, but he was no longer a regular by probably a little over halfway into the season from what I remember.

22-23 Tatar was the best we realistically were ever going to get out of him at this point in his career. He clearly wasn’t as good the year before that, nor was he anywhere near as good last year for two different teams.

Boqvist was never of too much consequence here. Produced like a good borderline 3rd liner his last two years here. We probably could have used him this past year.

Severson may have been the biggest loss. McLeod from the playoff year was nothing special, he was a bigger loss last year. McLeod from the playoff year was definitely better than a lot of the 4th liners we had in the lineup by the end of the year in 23-24 though. And so was Miles Wood. Maybe Boqvist.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

Luke Hughes was unquestionably better than Graves, the problem was that the Devils paired Hughes with Brendan Smith, an atrocious pairing. Hughes was excellent away from Smith.

I wouldn't say "unquestionably better". Graves in his last year in NJ, was better defensively than Luke Hughes last year. Graves also played a key role on PK.

However, I expect Luke Hughes to continually to get better on defense. He is certaintly not a finished product yet.

 

[None Shall Pass]

Yeah having Luke and Nemec as 1/3 of our defense for a majority of the season was not good. They're talented rookies and they will continue to grow, but growing pains are a thing and we got to experience them this past season. Luke was downright brutal to watch for like half the season.

I hope a new coach and a smarter system will help them.

 

[njdevils1982]

Yeah having Luke and Nemec as 1/3 of our defense for a majority of the season was not good. They're talented rookies and they will continue to grow, but growing pains are a thing and we got to experience them this past season. Luke was downright brutal to watch for like half the season.

I hope a new coach and a smarter system will help them.

yeeah!





also... no need to watch it all (obviously) but 1:52 Leonardo DiCaprio?!

 

[Guadana]

Are people making me agree with Jim?



We made the playoffs once with this group and won 1 round.

We don’t even know what we have, what they can do, or what they need to get better.

I actually need to actually get to the competitive/ reliably making the playoffs part before I can jump to the Cup Contenders/ disappointed by playoff results part.

Playing better, maturing, making the playoffs are the next goals.


I think we have a lot of the pieces obviously, not sure all the additions are available right now.

You can’t just take whatever you can get now, so all those spots are filled up, because then you could be locked in with some weak ass shit with term.

I just want Fitz to be smart about team building rather than desperate. (And less of a blabber mouth.)

No, let’s trade all of our picks and prospects for aged players who will play well for 2-3 years with 7 years on their future deals. Who cares about 23 yo Nemec and 24 yo Luke.

 

[NjDevsRR]

 

[Forge]

I mean who tf is carrying Edmonton on defense ? lol

I'll stand for no Cody ceci slander in here!

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

We didn't really have a Dman that carried a pair or need to in 2023.

Marino Graves and Siegenthaler Hamilton were balanced and worked well together. Having Severson available when Marino was injured showed the depth we had.

Maybe you argue that Hamilton carried Siegenthaler but I really don't think that was the case in 2023.

But we lost so much since then...Gone from the playoff team were Severson, Graves, Vitek, Wood, McLeod, Sharangovich, Tatar, Boqvist.

People making believe that's insignificant just aren't being honest. On top of that that team wasn't all that playoff competitive to begin with.

Nah, they ran into the worst stylistic match up for them in R2 in 2023.

 

[njdevils1982]

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