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

[dgibb10]

Salary cap allocation is a thing and it involves estimating how much you roughly should spend on each position. You can google it, I didn’t invent it myself.

Teams like San Jose and pre-Zito Panthers are examples of teams that were sunk by spending too much on defense. You just don’t see successful teams spending +35% on defense.

32% is not 36.5%
32% of 92.5m is 29.5m
36.5% of 92.5m is 33.76m
4.26m is quite a bit considering that could pay for several forwards.
And 32% is a bit too much for defense.

I’ve said my points:
1) Good f***ing luck moving Palat.
2) Hamilton’s contract, along with the 4 other defensemen’s deals, make a long term deal for Luke difficult. I definitely don’t see how keep Kovacevic on top of that.

Your proposals either have a very thin forward core, or an unlikely fantasy trade, or both. Not loving a thin forward core and not optimistic about the fantasy trades.

But this is Fitz’s problem, not mine. I don’t know what solution he’ll come up with but that’s his job.

Presumably he had plan when he gave out the UFA deals this off-season and I doubt that plan involved counting on a miracle Palat trade.

"should" and "roughly". Doesn't make it a hard rule.

Currently NJD has an incredible dcore where all 3 pairs are excellent, along with a quality PK group and an excellent set of PP dmen. They all handle around 20 minutes a night and all do well.

We can basically run back the exact same core of the currently excellent team if we want with only changes being Daws in for Allen and Grits in for Tatar. Even with giving luke and Kovy 12+ mill combined

Now beyond that, if you want to change things to try and UPGRADE, you have to make decisions yes.

If you want to bridge Luke, sure you can do that to fund more forward depth. It would be stupid but you could.

If you want to dump palat to try and improve depth at forward, there are paths to do that. It may get more pricey than you'd like, but it can be done.

If you want to move off hamilton, you can do that. It may decimate the PP, but it's an option.

If you want to let kovacevic walk, you can do that.

If you want to ship out prospects and picks to buy a bunch of retention and fund cheap depth that way, also an option (similar to the cotter trade getting a league minimum 3rd liner).

But all of those are options if you want to try and CHANGE things. NJD is able to run back the status quo if they want.