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

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I don't think Fitz is silly enough to jeopardize the future for the present... yet.
You could argue he did that with the Meier and Markstrom trades, but a hopefully low first and Kevin Bahl shouldn't be franchise changing.
 
Kinda sucks the relationship seems a bit soured already with Nemec. Kid is gonna be a stud.

Maybe he feels bad about how his comments were perceived.
 
Why would Dougie waive off a contender mid-season? Why would the Devils move him before they have to pay Luke? Why would the Devils break up this defense core mid-season?
The Dillon-Hamilton pairing can be broken up into something new. Its clearly our weakest pairing. The other two pairings, you don't touch.
 
I mean Nemec can complain all he wants, he f***ed his shoulder playing for Slovakia in games the Devils could've told him not to play in and then he got outplayed in camp/preseason/regular season. Not sure why he's mad at the organization, Casey's down there too and he outplayed Nemec. Come back stronger with an angry mentality and he's going to be a regular next year. Simple as that
 
If we move Hamilton I think we lose a big voice in the locker room

Idk if we want to jeopardize it during a soon to be playoff run
Exactly why I think he won’t be moved at any point during the rest of his contract. Team is still super young you don’t go and trade your veteran leader esp during the middle of the season in a playoff run when he hasn’t done anything to warrant being trade except he might in the future not live up to his contract. That’s some minority report shit
 
Moving on from Dougie after the season just makes too much sense. It's also sort of necessary in the long run. I love the dude and he's an overall good player but I'm not losing out on Nemec/Kovacevic for the future in order to keep a declining Dougie for 2-3 more years.

The core will be fine without Dougie's voice. Veterans have gone to other teams in the last few years, including Severson after 2022-2023.
 
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Nemec isn’t going anywhere, JT Miller is not coming here. If anyone gets moved it’s probably Mercer at this point. Or Leni and picks or something.

The team needs to get their heads out of their ass and start playing better. The answer is in the room, as they say.
 
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Exactly why I think he won’t be moved at any point during the rest of his contract. Team is still super young you don’t go and trade your veteran leader esp during the middle of the season in a playoff run when he hasn’t done anything to warrant being trade except he might in the future not live up to his contract. That’s some minority report shit

With how this core talks about losing, they wouldn't care about moving on from Hamliton
 
3 year deal is partially to waiver-proof him. Otherwise a team can claim him for emergency toughness the way we did last year. But I do agree they keep him and play him for certain games. He seemed useful to have around in the last game vs Rempe.

It is not to waiver proof him. Please stop inventing reasons why a team might sign a player for 3 years. It's because they want him for 3 years. Ross Johnston, one of the only similar players left in the NHL, was claimed on waivers with 3 years left on his deal. The Devils traded for MacDermid, they did not claim him on waivers (they did claim Mason Geertsen on waivers, which is what you might be thinking of).
 
We played this game so many times it's nauseating.

Holtz is a sniper and Ty Smith is a great defenseman too. Joey Anderson et all is the deepest our forward prospect group has been in 20 years... it's tiring

Joey Anderson:
73rd Pick in 2016 Draft
37th in Goals in 2016 Draft, 7 players drafted after him with more, including Bratt.
44th in Points in 2016 Draft, 9 players drafted after him with more, including Bratt.
45th in Games Played in 2016 Draft, 9 players drafted after him with more, including Bratt.

Not sure what you’re going on about lol.
 
I think people are reading too much into the Nemec stuff. Of course he's frustrated that he's not in the NHL right now. Any player in his position would be. I don't think that means the relationship between him and the organization has soured.

Unfortunately for him there's just no spot open right now. I think Kovacevic was probably looked at as being more of a depth guy when they brought him in, but then he and Siegs became one of the best shutdown pairings in the league. They have 3 set pairings that all work (although Dillon/Dougie can be an adventure sometimes) and they've all been healthy since Luke and Pesce came back.

They do have a tough decision to make this offseason though. I don't think moving Dougie is as easy or likely as people seem to be assuming it is, and Fitz is obsessed with tall defensemen so I think between Kovacevic and Nemec, he might choose Kovacevic. Which for the next couple years might be fine, but with Dougie only getting worse from here, you might end up needing another top 4 righty in a year or two anyway, which would presumably be Casey I guess.

On the other hand, Nemec has pretty good trade value, so if you are going to make a big move, he might be the piece for it.

It is nice to have this kind of "problem" though when you consider some of the bluelines we've iced in the last decade.
 
I think people are reading too much into the Nemec stuff. Of course he's frustrated that he's not in the NHL right now. Any player in his position would be. I don't think that means the relationship between him and the organization has soured.

Unfortunately for him there's just no spot open right now. I think Kovacevic was probably looked at as being more of a depth guy when they brought him in, but then he and Siegs became one of the best shutdown pairings in the league. They have 3 set pairings that all work (although Dillon/Dougie can be an adventure sometimes) and they've all been healthy since Luke and Pesce came back.

They do have a tough decision to make this offseason though. I don't think moving Dougie is as easy or likely as people seem to be assuming it is, and Fitz is obsessed with tall defensemen so I think between Kovacevic and Nemec, he might choose Kovacevic. Which for the next couple years might be fine, but with Dougie only getting worse from here, you might end up needing another top 4 righty in a year or two anyway, which would presumably be Casey I guess.

On the other hand, Nemec has pretty good trade value, so if you are going to make a big move, he might be the piece for it.

It is nice to have this kind of "problem" though when you consider some of the bluelines we've iced in the last decade.

I think everyone is about 6 months too early, most likely.

I wouldn't rule out trading Nemec, but they aren't going to do it before they have Kovacevic in hand, and even in the interview with Fitz, he flat out said that process hadn't started yet.

“Not yet,” Fitzgerald replied when asked if contract talks had begun with Kovacevic. “Just getting back from our scouting meetings in Florida. Wanted to get this meeting out of the way before calling.”

Even if they do re-sign Kovacevic, you still have the off season to try and move off Dougie.

So it's interesting to chat about it because we may as well, but if they were going to move him, I don't think they really look at that until the off season when they have a better idea on where everyone stands
 
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Think I might try to switch up the D pairings a little before making other, bigger moves. Mostly, I want to see Kovacevic play with some other dudes before I worry about what happens with Dougie and Nemec. The offense coming from our back-end is feeling a little lackluster.

Something like:

Siegs - Dougie
Luke-Kovacevic
Dillon-Pesce

Would be interesting to me.
 
Think I might try to switch up the D pairings a little before making other, bigger moves. Mostly, I want to see Kovacevic play with some other dudes before I worry about what happens with Dougie and Nemec. The offense coming from our back-end is feeling a little lackluster.

Something like:

Siegs - Dougie
Luke-Kovacevic
Dillon-Pesce

Would be interesting to me.

We have two very good D pairings. I'm not interested in giving Dougie more minutes and breaking up those pairings just to try to get a couple of more goals.

The glaring problem with this team is the bottom 6 and trying to get a lot better there at the trade deadline and in the offseason which unfortunately means Dougie probably needs to go.
 

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