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

[TonySoprano]

Rutger would want Casey to stay here, he can have his own little crew between Him, Casey and Luke from Michigan. They can terrorize Washington Street in Hoboken like we used to Down on Frelinghuysen Avenue

 

[Mike27Devils]

I would consider 10th overall for Mcgroarty. One of the best college players last year and could play next year.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

We did make two trades with Winnipeg this year

 

[Better Call Sal]

This season’s for @Maine Fan , stay strong there sir!

No idea if your name is strictly for U of Maine or the state itself, but Maine is one of my favorite places on Earth. So whatever your affinity to Maine is, feeling is mutual.

 

[Moist ReadOnly]

Rutger would want Casey to stay here, he can have his own little crew between Him, Casey and Luke from Michigan. They can terrorize Washington Street in Hoboken like we used to Down on Frelinghuysen Avenue

Trading 10th overall for him instead of Casey is a novel idea but... would Winnipeg want that? Resetting a solid prospect back to that of a mystery box?

Id add if necessary, as McGroarty isnt a promised talent but is more proven than an 18yo, but I doubt Winnipeg moves him for anything other than a current or soon-to-be player for them

 

[britdevil]

I'm a simple man, I see @TonySoprano post and I upvote.

 

[Bleedred]

The NJD would already have Pesce if Conte hadn't made yet another typical brutal mistake by drafting Santini at 42nd overall. Look at all the talent drafted between Santini and Pesce. Jarry, Lehkonen, Carrier, Bertuzzi. Yet another Conte wrong that needs to be righted.

Could have also had Markstrom over Teds in the 2008 draft. Marty could have passed the reigns right to him instead of giving up the 9th overall for Cory 5 years later.

 

[britdevil]

Akira Schmid has proven more at the NHL level than Askarov at this stage. The fact that goalies are voodoo is reason enough to explain avoiding picking one in the top 10.

It hasn't been mentioned enough, but Markstrom is perfect mentor material for Schmid and Daws.

 

[Bleedred]

I'm a simple man, I see @TonySoprano post and I upvote.

It's one of the more underrated accounts on here. Probably because they don't post enough.

 

[glenwo2]

This season’s for @Maine Fan , stay strong there sir!

No idea if your name is strictly for U of Maine or the state itself, but Maine is one of my favorite places on Earth. So whatever your affinity to Maine is, feeling is mutual.

No doubt.

The Devils HAVE to be successful next season if only for him.

 

[Bleedred]

I’m sure this will open up a can of worms here but watching Henrique in the final right now has reminded me how much I hate that he was traded away. A reliable homegrown fan favorite 2/3 C that scored the biggest playoff goal of the last 15 years against our biggest rival. That alone should have made him untouchable. It’s not like his play degraded, he was fantastic for this team for his entire tenure here. And looking back on it, it’s kind of gross that so many of our fans seemed perfectly content to exchange him for a mid tier defenseman. Yes we needed to upgrade the defense but Ray should have found an alternative solution. If he couldn’t then oh well…Rico would have been a big value to this team over the last few years and certainly now judging by how many people recognize he’s someone we should target to bring back. Just a real shame. Shero sucked.

I meant to reply to this the other night.

I think it was for the best Henrique was traded when he was, for either of these two reasons.

My rationale for trading him at the time was that I didn't wanna give him an extension. The extension he got from Anaheim wasn't quite as high as I thought it would be, but it was close to that. I figured he'd get $6 million for 5-6 years, on a contract that was to start when he was 29 years old. He wound up getting I think $5.75? For 5 years.

My argument at the time was that he was a career 15% shooter, which shooting percentages usually drop when you get into your 30s. That's why Joe Thornton (While still being very good) never hit 20 goals again after his age 31 season. Just look at how much Kovalchuk's shooting percentage dropped from his Atlanta days to coming here. And then look what it was when he came back to the NHL that last time at 35. I even thought it was happening to Haula when he scored like 4 goals through his first 50 games in 22-23 or whatever it was. Between his finish to the season and the playoffs, he wound up finishing not too much below his career goal scoring average though.

Henrique has aged a lot better than I thought he would. He's held up pretty well for 34. His shooting percentage still never dropped. I never thought he would be this good still. And if we did keep him, he wouldn't have been much help because we were really bad, which so was Anaheim, but they were still competing when he got there/when they signed him to that deal.

And then the other reason why it was best to not sign him, same reason it was best we didn't re-sign Palmieri or Coleman when their deals were up and they were gonna be UFA. He would have been an aging vet here on a rebuilding team that was really bad for all but one year on his deal. We didn't really have any of those, other than Greene and Schneider, who were both signed by Lou before the rebuild began.

I think the deal probably looks worse than it was at the time because Vatanen aged horribly and was out of the league by 30 years old. He was signed for one more year than Henrique was at the time and I think over a year younger, so that favored us.

But I will say I was wrong that he would decline heavily into his 30s, which was my rationale for not keeping him in the late 2010s when it looked like we were maybe going to be competitive earlier than we were.

 

[Bleedred]

There was a point in 2021 or so (probably the summer of 2021) when I was starting to really have it with Zacha where my friend asked me ''Zacha for Henrique straight up, would you do it?''.And I told him that yeah I probably would.

And again, my rationale with Zacha at the time, even though he was still several years younger than Henrique was at the time we got rid of him, was that I didn't wanna give him another deal or pay him more than what we were paying him on his last deal here. And we never would pay him more than that, as he was traded that summer his deal had expired when he was still an RFA. And he got traded for a player who was only a year younger than Henrique, but he was also MUCH cheaper than Henrique. I think less than half?

 

[Captain3rdLine]

If we aren’t truly in on Pesce? No chance he gets moved. If we truly are interested though where would a spot for Marino be in the lineup?

Again I doubt we are. But I honestly think we’d go 4RD in the lineup or Nemec out of the lineup before getting rid of Marino. I think they really like Marino

 

[NJDevs26]

I also don’t think Vatanen would have been a one and done in terms of being good here if he didn’t get destroyed by Kucherov (I think) in the playoffs, that was clearly the beginning of the end for him but he was a a net positive that year

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

I really like Seamus Casey however, Winnipeg has a large need for right handed defenceman and a Casey package might be enough to get Rutger without giving up the 10th overall pick.

They need RD? Interesting. Keep in mind though, even if there's no room for Casey right now, that can very very very quickly change, and wingers are much easier to replace than RD.

Marino + in a trade for Rutger is also an option

I'd do this in an instant

Id sooner look to moving Casey+ for McGroarty because our right side is just as clogged and Im not sure paying Pesce is wise when we will need to pay Luke and Simon

Plus, I know Casey is good, but Im not a fan of his size for a player whod be behind Dougie Luke and Simon for the PP

Though odds are we keep Casey

If it's Casey, it's 1 for 1, not Casey+. He has same, if not more value than Rutger.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

I would consider 10th overall for Mcgroarty. One of the best college players last year and could play next year.

I think we all would, but I don't think they want picks

 

[None Shall Pass]

McGroarty is a RW, right? We're more than fine there. If we're trading value for anything, it's gotta be a 3C or LD.

 

[Guttersniped]

I’m sure this will open up a can of worms here but watching Henrique in the final right now has reminded me how much I hate that he was traded away. A reliable homegrown fan favorite 2/3 C that scored the biggest playoff goal of the last 15 years against our biggest rival. That alone should have made him untouchable. It’s not like his play degraded, he was fantastic for this team for his entire tenure here. And looking back on it, it’s kind of gross that so many of our fans seemed perfectly content to exchange him for a mid tier defenseman. Yes we needed to upgrade the defense but Ray should have found an alternative solution. If he couldn’t then oh well…Rico would have been a big value to this team over the last few years and certainly now judging by how many people recognize he’s someone we should target to bring back. Just a real shame. Shero sucked.

We could have got Henrique back on waivers for free in February 2021 but he got through unclaimed.

 

[Forge]

McGroarty is a RW, right? We're more than fine there. If we're trading value for anything, it's gotta be a 3C or LD.

He'll play both, but he's a left shot. He usually played Right Wing on nights when Brindley had to play Center, I'm pretty sure. Still mostly played LW I think.

But he's also got some size to him, will get in there and win some puck battles. These type of things I would certainly imagine appeal to Fitz right now.

 

[Billdo]

Why didn't Fitz just draft Askarov? Is he stupid?

I don't think we knew Blackwood would be what he turned out to be. The year we drafted Holtz instead of Askarov, Blackwood was 22-14-8 and a .915 goaltender. There was chatter of him being one of the three Canadian Olympic goalies if he kept the trajectory he was on.

 

[ndkjr70]

would you trade Mercer for McGroarty+? Mercer and McGroarty feel a little mutually exclusive. Not that more players = bad, but it’s a weird use of assets to acquire a right wing

 

[Mike27Devils]

would you trade Mercer for McGroarty+? Mercer and McGroarty feel a little mutually exclusive. Not that more players = bad, but it’s a weird use of assets to acquire a right wing

I think that would be a fair trade. You would get a cost controlled asset in McGroarty for 3 years, opening up more cap space for now and the future, while Mercer is due for a significant raise. Idk though, I love Mercer on the ice and off the ice. It would be really tough to see him go.

 

[Monsieur Verdoux]

If it's Casey, it's 1 for 1, not Casey+. He has same, if not more value than Rutger.

Agree to disagree. Only the Devils fans would say that Casey has more value than McGroarty.

 

[JimEIV]

I think that would be a fair trade. You would get a cost controlled asset in McGroarty for 3 years, opening up more cap space for now and the future, while Mercer is due for a significant raise. Idk though, I love Mercer on the ice and off the ice. It would be really tough to see him go.

What if McGroarty turns out to be something like Vesey?

 

[MasterofGrond]

Agree to disagree. Only the Devils fans would say that Casey has more value than McGroarty.

If McGroarty has more value than Casey it's based only on draft pedigree and size, not on actual performance to date. Casey had a more impressive season at a more important position.