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

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bossram said:
Bjorkstrand is a really interesting target to me. I think Trotz has basically said he doesn't want to trade ROR.


Keefe is such a dramatically better systems coach than Ruff, it's not even funny. That quote from the Athletic article is hilarious. I've been maybe the top Ruff hater since he was hired, so I'll take shamelessly take some vindication.
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I like Bjorkstrand too but the concern is he still doesn’t fix the 3C problem. If we’re keeping Hughes - Bratt together, there’s also the issue he isn’t a great fit there with his lack of size.

We would need to add another forward as well and I don’t think we’d have the cap space to add what we need.
 
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Zippy316 said:
Looking at the trade market I can’t help but think Fitzgerald is likely going to be going off the board with his trade targets.

The rental market looks bleak. The prices are a bit crazy and the Devils don’t have cap space or assets to be in on some of these guys.

Fitzgerald loves his cheap depth guys with term (Cotter, Lazar) so I wonder if he’s scouring that market again. I feel like the forward addition is also going to be someone with some term (McCann, O’Reilly, Rakell, Bjorkstrand).

Tatar being a part of a deal for cap reasons just seems like a given at this point. I also wonder if Bastian gets moved in a lateral deal for a similar player. It seems like both he and Lazar have fallen off hard but Lazar at least provides faceoff utility.
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Bjorkstrand has scored 20+ goals in 5 of his last 6 seasons and is on a pace to easily do it again. He is a really solid, underrated hockey player. Feels like Bjorkstrand has been around longer (maybe it’s because he has seemingly tortured us for so long with Columbus) but he’s only 29. I see he makes 5.4m per year and is a UFA after the 25-26 season. Could we even make the cap gymnastics work?

I do agree that in a vacuum I’d rather target a center.

Another guy on my wish list is Zucker. He’s quietly having a great year on a bad Sabres team. Set to be a UFA, why wouldn’t Buffalo deal him?
 
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None Shall Pass said:
Siegs being out should inform us what Kovacevic really is.

I think CJ tweeted the other day how Kovacevic's numbers took a bigger dip than Sieg's did when they were broken up. Wonder how that will end up looking. Could inform a lot about Dougie and Nemec's future as well.
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Silver lining...I like it.

I'm a big fan of Hatakka and wouldn't mind if he gets the nod tomorrow night, but I think the right move is to go with Nemec.

Nemec has been hot lately in Utica and can play on the PK. Better off throwing him in the mix and having one defenseman play his offhand versus tossing in a cold Hatakka that hasn't seen any live action since the pre-season. Use the 4 nations break to get Hatakka some games in Utica to get up-to-speed and keep him up as the 7th defenseman the rest of the season. Maybe he even takes over Siegenthaler's spot after 4 nations if he's still injured depending on how things go.

From a cap perspective it may also be better to keep Hatakka's cap hit on season-opening IR through the 4 nations break. That's a $161,458 cap hit versus $775,000 if he gets activated, as Nemec would surely be sent back down to Utica to get more playing time whereas we can't risk waiving Hatakka (particularly with the lack of LD depth and having already lost DeSimone to waivers). Very minor consideration overall, but the team is certainly chasing every dollar of cap space for the TDL.

I just think overall Nemec is the better option for the next two games and it also doesn't hurt to toss our top prospects a bone here and call him up given some of the frustration he expressed a few weeks ago.
 
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I've thought that Zucker was a target for a while now. We've been in on him before. It's over for Buffalo so they must be trying to play the buyers on price.

I don't think one move, regardless of what it is, is enough. I'd ideally like to see two forwards added, which involves some salary going back on top of retention. And none of this shakes up the room. Writing on the wall is that the depth guys haven't done enough, none of them should be safe.
 
HBK27 said:
Silver lining...I like it.

I'm a big fan of Hatakka and wouldn't mind if he gets the nod tomorrow night, but I think the right move is to go with Nemec.

Nemec has been hot lately in Utica and can play on the PK. Better off throwing him in the mix and having one defenseman play his offhand versus tossing in a cold Hatakka that hasn't seen any live action since the pre-season. Use the 4 nations break to get Hatakka some games in Utica to get up-to-speed and keep him up as the 7th defenseman the rest of the season. Maybe he even takes over Siegenthaler's spot after 4 nations if he's still injured depending on how things go.

From a cap perspective it may also be better to keep Hatakka's cap hit on season-opening IR through the 4 nations break. That's a $161,458 cap hit versus $775,000 if he gets activated, as Nemec would surely be sent back down to Utica to get more playing time whereas we can't risk waiving Hatakka (particularly with the lack of LD depth and having already lost DeSimone to waivers). Very minor consideration overall, but the team is certainly chasing every dollar of cap space for the TDL.

I just think overall Nemec is the better option for the next two games and it also doesn't hurt to toss our top prospects a bone here and call him up given some of the frustration he expressed a few weeks ago.
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I think for they gotta go Nemec right now too. No point in making him disgruntled after what he expressed a couple weeks ago. Really not worth it when he has been playing well, has proven he can hang in nhl when healthy, and there’s a spot open for him now.
 
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Zippy316 said:
I like Bjorkstrand too but the concern is he still doesn’t fix the 3C problem. If we’re keeping Hughes - Bratt together, there’s also the issue he isn’t a great fit there with his lack of size.

We would need to add another forward as well and I don’t think we’d have the cap space to add what we need.
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I'd prefer to add a top-nine forward and a 3C option, if possible.

There's fewer centers available. My top choice was Gourde, but it seems like he'll be injured until at least the deadline. Idk if UTA will be a seller, but there's someone like Bjugstad and his cap hit is pretty low.
 
So I take it Hatakka has been the extra D for the last little while? I remember he started skating again, but I don't recall seeing he came off IR.
 
Bleedred said:
So I take it Hatakka has been the extra D for the last little while? I remember he started skating again, but I don't recall seeing he came off IR.
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He did not come off IR yet and Keefe had said that he would get a few games in Utica first - though that could change given the injury to Siegs. He's been skating with the team since 1/21, though not sure how long he's been "good to go".

I don't think the Devils have had an extra D on the roster for some time in order to increase their cap space. With MacDermid on the roster, if by some freak chance a defenseman got injured during warmups, MacDermid could slide in on D...as scary as that may be.

Ideally, I think NJ wanted to keep Hatakka on IR through 4 Nations to accrue more cap space. He'd get his 3 games in with Utica over the break and be activated after. I guess we'll see how things play out over the next 24 hours, but I think Nemec gets the call-up.
 
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Zajacs Bowl Cut said:
I really don't think its going to be Nemec. I think it is more likely they play MacDermid than play someone on their off side.

Not saying that is what I would do, but yeah.
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Unless I missed it, MacDermid’s never played defense for us.

He did it in Colorado but he averaged 7:12 minutes there in 3 seasons and that was down to 5:05 in 23-24 before the trade.

They managed that by having Makar and Toews even play even more minutes than their average ~24 in games with MacDermid.

We don’t have anyone averaging over 20 minutes this season, I don’t see them planning on riding 5 defenders like that.

Misyul played 12:23 in his one game. Hatakka averaged 14:39 in his 12 games last season.

I guess they could try to muddle through shorthanded for 2 games but if another defeseman goes down that game will get very ugly.

I can’t even believe imagine what MacDermid looks like on defense at this point and I don’t want to see it lol.
 
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