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

[JimEIV]

Dude ....

https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-jersey-devils/latest-news/new-york-devils-best-ninth-round-draft-picks-of-all-time

That has to be done on purpose to trigger us.

I always felt bad for Modry...he was behind a murderers row of defensemen in New Jersey

 

[Better Call Sal]

Dude ....

https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-jersey-devils/latest-news/new-york-devils-best-ninth-round-draft-picks-of-all-time

Yikes lol.

Must not have much to write about to begin with if we're diving into a history of draft picks from a round that hasn't existed in what, 20 years now?

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Dude ....

https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-jersey-devils/latest-news/new-york-devils-best-ninth-round-draft-picks-of-all-time

very topical content!

 

[MartyOwns]

People are talking as if drafting goalies is any more of a sure thing than drafting skaters and like Askarov is already some proven asset (granted, nobody develops goalies like Nashville so he'll probably hit), he's had three starts in the NHL and been okay in the AHL so far - granted he's still ridiculously young but our own guys we've drafted who've already seen a lot more of the NHL are still fairly young too.

Goalies are voodoo, he didn't want to draft one with a top seven pick for the same reason he doesn't want to go shopping at Neiman Marcus for mostly okay-ish 'proven' options, especially when at the time we had ****ing Blackwood at 23 who was coming off of two solid years to start his career on crap teams. Amazing yet not surprising how quickly that timeline is forgotten given how badly Blackwood's career turned right after that.

What would be the narrative here if Askarov was still in Utica with meh numbers on a bleh AHL team while Holtz was popping in 20+ goals elsewhere in an organization not looking at him to be Jere Lehtinen?

it's bad enough to not recognize we needed a stud goalie prospect in 2020, but to say fitz made the right call even with the benefit of hindsight is really something else.

 

[Saugus]

Yikes lol.

Must not have much to write about to begin with if we're diving into a history of draft picks from a round that hasn't existed in what, 20 years now?

That feels like a GPT-generated article that wasn't fact checked before hitting Publish.

Bizarre factual errors, nonsensical topic, and irrelevant players included in the list.

 

[Better Call Sal]

This isn't relevant to this year's team of course, but man, I've been rewatching some of the clips from 22-23 and it's wild how much Vitek plummeted in terms of his game. He had some really brilliant moments in a number of games where his sheer determination/battling was getting him some saves that didn't seem possible.

I suppose it was just when he started to let more pucks in that his confidence deteriorated and he couldn't overcome it. Still feel for the guy, seemed like a gem of a human. Hope he does alright in San Jose.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

That feels like a GPT-generated article that wasn't fact checked before hitting Publish.

Bizarre factual errors, nonsensical topic, and irrelevant players included in the list.

It's real bad.

 

[RANDOMH3RO]

This isn't relevant to this year's team of course, but man, I've been rewatching some of the clips from 22-23 and it's wild how much Vitek plummeted in terms of his game. He had some really brilliant moments in a number of games where his sheer determination/battling was getting him some saves that didn't seem possible.

I suppose it was just when he started to let more pucks in that his confidence deteriorated and he couldn't overcome it. Still feel for the guy, seemed like a gem of a human. Hope he does alright in San Jose.

It’s crazy to think that it’s up there for best goalie season by a devil for anyone not named Brodeur. But even during his great moments, vanacek seemed like a high wire act of a goalie. Lots of scrambling in the net, but like you said he had the determination and battled to get the saves at the right time. He was the one who was hurt most by losing guys like Graves and Severson. A lot of dangerous chances that would have been cleared out of the crease in 23 did not happen in 24 and vanacek got the worst of it. Could have done more to help himself though certainly.

 

[JimEIV]

it's bad enough to not recognize we needed a stud goalie prospect in 2020, but to say fitz made the right call even with the benefit of hindsight is really something else.

Why?

It wouldn't surprise me if there is a general philosophy to not to draft goalies in the first round in our organization. Or just too high in general...


The 2019-20 season was a pretty demoralizing year coming off of a playoff appearance..it was obvious the team was full of holes...we fired the GM, the coach and reworked the front office...we had a fire sale trading Hall, Greene, Coleman, Vatanen...

If I'm the GM I'm not thinking goalies are the priority...I'm thinking I need to replace 75% of the skaters.

 

[glenwo2]

Dude ....

https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-jersey-devils/latest-news/new-york-devils-best-ninth-round-draft-picks-of-all-time

That has to be done on purpose to trigger us.

I always felt bad for Modry...he was behind a murderers row of defensemen in New Jersey

Yikes lol.

Must not have much to write about to begin with if we're diving into a history of draft picks from a round that hasn't existed in what, 20 years now?

very topical content!

That feels like a GPT-generated article that wasn't fact checked before hitting Publish.

Bizarre factual errors, nonsensical topic, and irrelevant players included in the list.

It's real bad.

I didn't even read the article because of the title of it.


I mean New YORK Devils?

F*** OFF with that shit!!

 

[MartyOwns]

Why?

It wouldn't surprise me if there is a general philosophy to not to draft goalies in the first round in our organization. Or just too high in general...


The 2019-20 season was a pretty demoralizing year coming off of a playoff appearance..it was obvious the team was full of holes...we fired the GM, the coach and reworked the front office...we had a fire sale trading Hall, Greene, Coleman, Vatanen...

If I'm the GM I'm not thinking goalies are the priority...I'm thinking I need to replace 75% of the skaters.

weren't you complaining about the price of markstrom? i'm assuming you understand that filling a goalie hole is much more difficult than literally any other hole on the team. we had 3 picks in the first round and had every opportunity to draft the best goalie prospect since carey price. daddy fitz blew it, it's ok to admit that.

 

[NJDevs26]

Why?

It wouldn't surprise me if there is a general philosophy to not to draft goalies in the first round in our organization. Or just too high in general...


The 2019-20 season was a pretty demoralizing year coming off of a playoff appearance..it was obvious the team was full of holes...we fired the GM, the coach and reworked the front office...we had a fire sale trading Hall, Greene, Coleman, Vatanen...

If I'm the GM I'm not thinking goalies are the priority...I'm thinking I need to replace 75% of the skaters.

Blackwood at 42 or wherever he was drafted was the highest goalie prospect since I dunno when...Lou wasting firsts on Ahonen and Damphousse? (answer was actually Jeff Frazee with a slightly higher two, but before that those were the last first-round goalies we drafted)

And that was Shero picking, almost every year under Fitz they've drafted a mid-round goalie

2020 - Nico Daws third round
2021 - Jakub Malek fourth round
2022 - Tyler Brennan fourth round

Shero had his own share of fourth and fifth-round picks after Blackwood but yeah I think people just forget how much Blackwood was looked on as the future then, especially being a semi-high pick himself.

 

[JimEIV]

weren't you complaining about the price of markstrom? i'm assuming you understand that filling a goalie hole is much more difficult than literally any other hole on the team. we had 3 picks in the first round and had every opportunity to draft the best goalie prospect since carey price. daddy fitz blew it, it's ok to admit that.

How did he blow it? Objectively he crushed it. Askarov has played 2 NHL games.

We were a team that needed bodies.

Mercer 246, Holtz 110 and Muk 3 combined for 359 NHL games to Askarov's whopping 2.

 

[NJDevs26]

it's bad enough to not recognize we needed a stud goalie prospect in 2020, but to say fitz made the right call even with the benefit of hindsight is really something else.

I'm not saying it looks like the right call now, I'm saying you guys are acting like this was some slam dunk in 2020 when it really wasn't. And it still isn't btw, sure we could use Askarov more now that Blackwood busted and Schmid regressed with Holtz stagnating and it could have possibly saved us next year's first on Markstrom (I think Fitz probably still makes that trade anyway) but there's still no guarantee he'd develop and play well here.

At least with the stupid Brunette discourse the last two years he has SOMEwhat of an actual track record to point to and debate. We're STILL complaining over a guy that for all intents and purposes is still a prospect.

 

[MartyOwns]

How did he blow it? Objectively he crushed it. Askarov has played 2 NHL games.

We were a team that needed bodies.

Mercer 246, Holtz 110 and Muk 3 combined for 359 NHL games to Askarov's whopping 2.

we needed bodies, so we drafted a guy 2 years away from playing. makes sense.

the games played argument must be a joke, i’m assuming? surely you know that teenage goalies need more time to fill 1 of 2 available spots on a roster.

how did he blow it? fitz has criticized holtz PUBLICLY. you think he would make the same decision in hindsight?

 

[britdevil]

The tough love shown by Fitz on Holtz is pretty bizarre.

Plenty of players were dogging it this year, not just the 21 year old Swede. Weird.

 

[NJDevs26]

The tough love shown by Fitz on Holtz is pretty bizarre.

Plenty of players were dogging it this year, not just the 21 year old Swede. Weird.

Like one of my off board friends said it's almost like he wanted to draft someone else (Askarov) and was talked out of it and is now getting passive aggressive every chance he gets. Or perhaps he was the one banging the table for Holtz and feels embarrassed he's not living up to expectations. But the former is her theory, I just think because he can't trade his worthless ass his only recourse is to hope one of his public rants gets through eventually. Even loose lipped Fitz has to know if you did have a hope in hell of trading him, constantly dogging him in public isn't exactly upping his value. Unless of course he has no value to other teams to begin with.

But even aside from all that it just looks bad when you only rag on guys like Schmid and Holtz as if 90% of the whole ****ing team wasn't underachieving twats this year.

 

[britdevil]

Like one of my off board friends said it's almost like he wanted to draft someone else (Askarov) and was talked out of it and is now getting passive aggressive every chance he gets. But that's her theory, I just think because he can't trade his worthless ass his only recourse is to hope one of his public rants gets through eventually. Even loose lipped Fitz has to know if you did have a hope in hell of trading him, constantly dogging him in public isn't exactly upping his value. Unless of course he has no value to other teams to begin with.

Weird theory, and if actually true, unprofessional at best.

Pouting in public because you didn't get what you want? Can't see it.

Go watch the draft vid, Fitz was pumped to draft Alex. Though, I guess you could argue he was just psyched as it was his first ever pick as a GM?

Just an odd situation. It's becoming similar to Shero with Zacha, although that was conte and Lou's last f*** you.

 

[NJDevs26]

Yeah I added in my own addendum that perhaps it could have been the other way around and Fitz was the one who wanted the guy bad over his scouts recommendation and now he's embarassed it didn't work out. But I don't even think that's why he's ripping him in public if that is the case.

 

[Better Call Sal]

The thing is, Fitzgerald also said last summer that they believe Holtz will become one of the pillars of the team for the future. So I believe that he has high expectations for him based on when he was drafted.

While I think he was on the harsher side when he spoke about him in that press conference everyone is alluding to, he was asked about him directly and I feel as though it's probably been a pain point for management for the past two seasons where the things they have likely preached for him to address are still looming large. None of us know what is being said privately behind the scenes, but you have to figure there is frustration if he continues to be unable to figure out how to do the things away from the puck that is likely being asked of him. Otherwise, yeah, he likely will not amount to anything more than a bottom 6, PP2 specialist.

 

[NJDevs26]

It's not just in that press conference where Fitz singled out Holtz, it was last year's ending presser too, maybe even one other occasion. If last year was a one-off I could see arguing 'well he was asked about him' as a defense, but it's not the first time he's taken him to task publicly.

 

[JimEIV]

Weird theory, and if actually true, unprofessional at best.

Pouting in public because you didn't get what you want? Can't see it.

Fitz behavior actually makes sense in my opinion... if the organization structure is "decision by committee". You might want to highlight when you were the minority in the process.

This is why decisions by committee are toxic and lack real accountability.

 

[Better Call Sal]

It's not just in that press conference where Fitz singled out Holtz, it was last year's ending presser too, maybe even one other occasion. If last year was a one-off I could see arguing 'well he was asked about him' as a defense, but it's not the first time he's taken him to task publicly.

Are we talking about last year like the season that just ended or 22-23? I'm just making sure I'm following along.

To me, I think the fact he stated they feel he can be a pillar of the future says all there is about his expectations for him as a player. And I think it's easy to see that he still hasn't done enough to be relied upon in the top 6 consistently due to his deficiencies in other areas. I won't be shocked either way if he's moved or not, but I'd like to see what Keefe can get out of him if he sticks around.

 

[NJDevs26]

It was after the playoff year when they said next year's a big year for him, he's gotta improve his skating yadda yadda yadda.

 

[Better Call Sal]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1805269802375581937

Take this for whatever it may be worth.