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

[longislanddevil]

I'm surprised it hasn't happened much this season under Keefe. From what I can see, when Jack played briefly with Timo and Mercer, they dominated possession in the mere 21 minutes they played together. 4 GF, 0 GA, 20-8 shots for/against, 64.8% CF%

Are Bratt or Mercer capable of playing LW though? I think the reason we don’t see it is that Keefe would have to separate Jack and Bratt, which he clearly has no real interest in doing.

 

[longislanddevil]

I want Zetterlund back so bad. Huge mistake.

I won’t play revisionist history as I loved the trade at the time. I do find it somewhat ironic that Zetterlund and Meier have the same amount of goals this season. I’m sure Z gets way more PP time and by no means am I suggesting he’s a better player than Meier. It’s just interesting…..and Z is a helluva lot cheaper. Hahaha

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

I won’t play revisionist history as I loved the trade at the time. I do find it somewhat ironic that Zetterlund and Meier have the same amount of goals this season. I’m sure Z gets way more PP time and by no means am I suggesting he’s a better player than Meier. It’s just interesting…..and Z is a helluva lot cheaper. Hahaha

Issue with Timo is we bought absurdly high on him, him scoring 50 was always a pipe dream elsewhere when he was playing PP1 and getting every chance to play in San Jose pre-trade. I highlighted that before. I'm still ok with the trade because the Devils needed a Timo Meier, he was our best player in the Carolina series out of Jack. He's not an issue nor will he ever be one regardless of this fanbase's annoyance of his price tag. Does he need to score more? Sure, but so does the entire roster besides Nico/Jack/Bratt/Noesen this year. The issue is their bottom 6 got depleted because of that trade + their fixation on getting heavier. Fitz was already molding them to get heavier pre Timo, it went into advanced overdrive after that Carolina series happened and we brought on bozos like Nosek, Lazar, Cotter, etc. Haula falling off a cliff was probably predictable considering he was a journeyman his entire career. A lot of Fitz's doing to where this roster is especially on the forward side.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Armia isn’t very appealing to me. Not sure what problem he solves. Moderately better than Paul Cotter?

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Lol this idiot GM has a hard on for 6'7 dmen and grit offensively, I'm inching closer to him needing to be fired by the day

 

[MadDevil]

Lol this idiot GM has a hard on for 6'7 dmen and grit offensively, I'm inching closer to him needing to be fired by the day

Which is kind of funny considering how much some people bitched about them being too small and soft to win in the playoffs.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Which is kind of funny considering how much some people bitched about them being too small and soft to win in the playoffs.

He did exactly what this fanbase wanted and that same portion of this fanbase is now pissed because the bottom 6 is a bunch of cement skating/slow f***s while Jack and Bratt are in their 2018 Taylor Hall phases.

 

[Oneiro]

Yeah, that was a pretty good PDOcast episode today that hit on this subject, among many others for us.

I wouldn't go back and change what we did this summer. I don't think we overcompensated, it's just hard to address everything at once. The system, defense and crease needed major work. We got it done.

Depth forwards are the easiest part of roster construction but you can make a lot of dumb mistakes, as we did with Palat. I hope Fitz is smart this summer, but an NHL GM that sees how close a group is often gets an itchy trigger finger.

 

[jkrdevil]

Most disheartening thing is the team did not “reset” over the break whatsoever. Hard to justify being buyers this deadline just to maybe win a round in the playoffs. We shouldn’t be expelling any assets unless somebody is coming back with term at a good caphit.

Hard to justify being buyers is a bit extreme. The team showed earlier this year when they were getting depth contributors that they can be one of the best teams out there. Being a buyer and transforming the depth goes a long way to how one would view this team. It isn’t like they have been blown out a lot during this stretch. They are losing a lot of 1 goal games and have the 2nd best GA in the last 25 games.

In many ways they are more like the early ‘10s Kings teams that needed deadline additions of Carter (in 2012) and Gaborik (2014) to move them from fringe to contender in an instance. I don’t think they even need that level player. They just need someone who can contribute from the bottom 6.

 

[Bleedred]

So fun having to watch the out of town scoreboard between the Jackets and Red Wings. That pretty much sums up how the last two months of our season have went. This is now where we find ourselves.

 

[jkrdevil]

So fun having to watch the out of town scoreboard between the Jackets and Red Wings. That pretty much sums up how the last two months of our season have went. This is now where we find ourselves.

Root for Detroit. They can’t pass us by rule.

 

[NJDevilsFan21]

Timo has to better, plain and simple. This team cannot be Jack and Bratt 100% of the time. He's getting paid $8.8M. In theory Timo-Nico-Mercer should be a great line, but when two of three aren't playing well...

I still have hope that Timo-Nico-? could be a great line. Just need to figure out that ?.

 

[Bleedred]

Root for Detroit. They can’t pass us by rule.

And in regulation.

 

[jkrdevil]

And in regulation.

Goes without saying. One never should root for a 3 point game that their team isn’t involved with.

 

[Oneiro]

Nico probably needs a winger too. Like Barkov, he's capable of sticking in that 80 pt range through most of his prime, but he needs some help.

 

[Bleedred]

Utah game is definitely looking like a must win at this point.

They’re the last humpty shit, loser team we’ll play for quite a while.

 

[Bleedred]

At the very least we’re almost definitely in a race to the end of the season with some team on our ass like we were with the Panthers right to the very end of 17-18.

 

[JrFischer54]

Jackets are def going to catch the devils. That game the 11th will be huge

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Yeah, that was a pretty good PDOcast episode today that hit on this subject, among many others for us.

I wouldn't go back and change what we did this summer. I don't think we overcompensated, it's just hard to address everything at once. The system, defense and crease needed major work. We got it done.

Depth forwards are the easiest part of roster construction but you can make a lot of dumb mistakes, as we did with Palat. I hope Fitz is smart this summer, but an NHL GM that sees how close a group is often gets an itchy trigger finger.

This summer? Probably not. The year after making that absurd jump in 22-23? Yes, Fitz arguably pushed all the wrong buttons that summer besides the Toffoli for Shara trade.

So fun having to watch the out of town scoreboard between the Jackets and Red Wings. That pretty much sums up how the last two months of our season have went. This is now where we find ourselves.

Couldn't care less. If the Devils miss the playoffs, it'll be by their own undoing, not because of someone else in the East beating them to it. The Rangers will probably catch the Red Wings more so than us. CBJ is probably gonna make it at this rate.

 

[Nubmer6]

Camp Grenada?

I can neither confirm nor deny that's where I'm headed.

 

[Bleedred]

This summer? Probably not. The year after making that absurd jump in 22-23? Yes, Fitz arguably pushed all the wrong buttons that summer besides the Toffoli for Shara trade.



Couldn't care less. If the Devils miss the playoffs, it'll be by their own undoing, not because of someone else in the East beating them to it. The Rangers will probably catch the Red Wings more so than us. CBJ is probably gonna make it at this rate.

The only consolation will be someone getting flushed down the toilet.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

I think we should raid the Predators to solve our forward depth issues.

Mercer, 2nd, 2nd for O'Reilly, Nyqvist (50% retained), Evangelista

Gets us a legit 3C that is contracted for 2.5 years and can chip in offensively. He is good defensively and a beast on faceoffs.

A veteran top six winger that will allow us to push one of Palat or Noesen down to 3rd line. Rental that they can walk away from at end of the season.

A young winger on a cheap contract that still has upside that can fill the role of the departing Mercer long term. He will need a new contract next season but we should easily be able to afford him.

Tatar and/or Bastian could be added to the deal to open up more cap space for another deadline deal for a LD/depth defenseman.

 

[Emperoreddy]

So fun having to watch the out of town scoreboard between the Jackets and Red Wings. That pretty much sums up how the last two months of our season have went. This is now where we find ourselves.

You are the one choosing to worry about things that don't need to be worried about

 

[Bleedred]

You are the one choosing to worry about things that don't need to be worried about

Why? With how bad we’ve been it’s at the very least time to be worried.

We don’t win enough not to be.

If we won enough it wouldn’t matter what they did because they’re several points behind us.

But they were many points behind us at one point.

 

[None Shall Pass]

I'll make a "Custom title" bet with anyone that CBJ doesn't pass us. (Custom title, in case you don't know, is the thing I have under my username that says "Dano moisturizes". You have this too.)

Bet is called once it is no longer possible for one team to pass the other. Loser switches to whatever the winner says and has to keep it until the 2026 Playoffs start.