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

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Devils have solid goaltending good defense great top line talent and good coaching. I don’t care the cost* get rentals fix the bottom 6 best you can and see what happens in the playoffs. Making the playoffs and getting the experience will do wonders for this team imo and maybe they will actually become mentally stronger and handle some adversity

* no that doesn’t mean nemec for Nelson or sometbing like that but draft picks are fine for rentals I say

Btw rentals doesn’t mean we can’t resign them in the summer if they play well here. Everyone just assuming they will bounce but it’s still an attractive destination here
 
I think there’s a really good chance he isn’t back in 25-26. Unless there’s some kind of heater to end the season. And probably a super duper heater at that. Not because he scores 6 points in 10 games at some point.

His buyout probably isn’t that bad. Shouldn’t be too much worse than when we bought out the final year of Janne Kuokkanen 3 years ago.

Speaking of Janne, he couldn’t be worse than Haula.

4C for the rest of this year? Yes. 4C for next year? No thanks. Just let him go.
1.6 in savings in 25-26
800k penalty in 26-27

No Brainer
 
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I think there’s a really good chance he isn’t back in 25-26. Unless there’s some kind of heater to end the season. And probably a super duper heater at that. Not because he scores 6 points in 10 games at some point.

His buyout probably isn’t that bad. Shouldn’t be too much worse than when we bought out the final year of Janne Kuokkanen 3 years ago.

Speaking of Janne, he couldn’t be worse than Haula.

4C for the rest of this year? Yes. 4C for next year? No thanks. Just let him go.

It is worse than when we bought out Kuokkanen because we had plenty of cap space.

I doubt we pick up multiple centers better than Haula in the off-season.

I get wanting to launch him to the moon but someone has to play center.
 
D-pairings with Hamilton out:

L.Hughes-Pesce
Dillon-Nemec
Casey-Kovacevic

I think we need to lean on Hughes and Pesce again as a pairing.
I'll re-insert Casey back into lineup and pair him with Kovacevic. I'll also give Casey the PP1 time ahead of Luke Hughes or Nemec.
 
It is worse than when we bought out Kuokkanen because we had plenty of cap space.

I doubt we pick up multiple centers better than Haula in the off-season.

I get wanting to launch him to the moon but someone has to play center.
Didn’t we need to buyout Kuokkanen just to get under the cap that offseason with the moves we had planned to make? We didn’t sign Gaudreau which was the obvious intention, so we probably had a little more left than we had hoped for.

He has nothing left.

There’s gotta be someone better on the market, even if they cost more than Haula will next year. This has gotta be the end of him here.
 
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Sure it's been said but hold Kovy as your rental and ride it out try to make minor adds to bottom six ....Don't trade Mercer....See if this team can tough it out get in the playoffs and play spoiler and get much needed experience....
 
The Sansastark poster that I quoted has been ranting about Jack for years. So I highly doubt that.

I absolutely adore Jack, he's a Rolls Royce of a player. I lack the superlatives to really describe how good he is, when he's on. The drivel that comes out of some peoples' fingers on this board.... I cry every time.

That said...

I'm now left wondering if the kid can really ever recover from this. Three shoulder injuries, two surgeries and two seasons in a row where we've lost him. The GM might well have to make some tough decisions in the future.

I really hope he doesn't. I hope that he comes back next season and can put all this behind him. I just can't see that happening, this could be seriously debilitating for the kid and my heart aches for him.
 
This season has been harder to go through then seasons from a few years ago when we finished in the basement of the East. I get Fitz wanting to buy but I can totally understand if he doesn't. Just don't want to see any stupid trades where we give up a ton for rentals that don't make a difference.
 
At the time of the Palat contract signing there was a trend where teams were signing established veterans to these more lucrative contracts to bring them over to developing teams trying to improve. Palat, Killorn, Copp, off the top of my head and basically all of them have not aged well.

Taking a look around the league through puckpedia and Hockeyreference and looking for every teams worst contracts
1. No "Contender" is hampered with a contract as bad as Palat's except maybe Edmonton who are still paying Campbell for the next 4 years. (A few teams are lucky with LTIR)
2. There are definitely at least 10-15 worse contracts than Palat's and another dozen or so that have the potential to become far more disastrous in the future

I think it speaks volumes about the general quality of management around the league that every team better than us has mainly avoided giving out bad contracts in the last few years, and most of the teams worse than us have given out Palat level or worse contracts.

Palat is basically a 3rd liner, in terms of both ice time and production at this point making 6 million. This is already an issue. It's made worse by the fact he's getting thrown out there with Jack/Bratt and still putting up 3rd line numbers.

I do think he's still a Devil next season though. Buying him out nets us 2.4 million in cap. Not sure you get much more than a 30 point 3rd line LW with that money and that's already what Palat is anyways. So essentially you'd be just swapping the jersey name and number for the same production. I think a Palat buyout next offseason is far more likely
 
The truth, only a few guys are outplaying their contracts.

Jack, Bratt and Nico, (maybe Noe and Kovy but they have cooled off).

The rest of the team has punched at or below their contracts.

As bad as Palats contract is, Timo’s is far worse. (I love Timo, but 9mil for a mid 20s/30s goal scorer, because he is big?)

In the past, the BMW line could play up for stretches and the third line was disjointed due center depth but had scoring pop.

I guess go to a 1 line team (Nico, Bratt and Timo) and get another center to take face offs.
 
I’m frustrated too. But we have to be rational. We aren’t a contender as constructed injuries or not. We have depth issues in key positions.

That said we still do have some assets to trade. And some others that could get us other assets to bolster other deals.

We have a lot of defense that needs a shot in the league but they’re blocked by our defense. Misyul, Vilen in Utica could play on other teams for sure. Orlov, Barabosha, Karpovich, Leddy, and even Edwards could be interesting to teams looking for prospects who are close.

Bastian and Lazar could be of interest to teams needing some fourth line players or depth for a run. They won’t return much but 3/4 round picks could add to other deals. Allen would be a better choice than Vanacek for Florida. And probably others. Kovasevic would like return more.

We have 3 second round picks and 2 picks in the third. We should not trade all of those but we could trade three of them.

Haula and Palat are likely of little interest to anyone but could be salary dumped in the offseason if need be.

Gritsyuk and maybe Hameenaho could come over next year. Casey and Nemec will need to play. Daws seems fine as a backup. Malek and Big Mike seem to be developing well. Louhivaara also can’t be counted out. Lachance is actually a decent prospect, better than Stillman for our bottom six.

If Beckman and Halonen can learn the system perhaps they are options for bottom six roles in camp.

This team can still win a round in the playoffs. We lost the Dallas game due to sloppy defense not lack of offense without Jack. We need to put it all together and recommit to playing the system.
 
A day before the deadline and Jack Hughes has season ending surgery. I’m crushed as a hockey fan just like everyone else here but I hope we are buyers. Still lots of good talent on this team to make a run without Jack. Need some secondary scoring
 
The Sansastark poster that I quoted has been ranting about Jack for years. So I highly doubt that.
Because this entire franchise hinges on Jack. His health and success are the prime reasons this iteration will either fail or succeed. And he’s simply not good enough. Either due to health, the mental aspect, or just his actual play. They have all come up short for the expectations of an elite franchise 1C. And you can scream and defend all you want but the proof is in the results. We are a mid hockey team. By the numbers and by the eye test. And the core is mid by the numbers and the eye test.

We are the laughing stock of the league and yet there remains a large contingent of you knuckleheads screaming everything is fine!
 
this team being mid has nothing to do with jack you sound ridiculous.

he’s been easily the best forward his entire time here, and this year he actually leveled up his defense significantly. staying healthy is a problem but if you’re complaining about anything other than his size i can’t take your argument in good faith

no center depth and no secondary scoring and no prospects ready to step up and fill in the bottom 6 are the issues for this team, full stop.
 
Is Kadri an option?

A few options I'd be inquiring about:

Hockey trades
1. C/W Trevor Zegras for Dawson Mercer
2. C Shane Pinto for Dawson Mercer
3. C Casey Mittelstadt for Dawson Mercer
4. W Mattias Maccelli for Dawson Mercer
5. W Mikko Rantanen for Simon Nemec, Dawson Mercer, 2026 1st

Pure Rentals
1. W Kyle Palmieri for 2025 2nd
2. W Rickard Rakell for 2025 2nd and 2026 3rd
3. W Jason Zucker for 2025 3rd

Longer term holds
1. C Ryan O'Reilly for 2025 2nd and 2026 2nd
2. C/W Jared McCann for 2025 2nd and 2026 conditional 1st (if reach ECF, otherwise 2027 1)
3. W Lawson Crouse for 2026 3rd

I think if they can add (1) one of McCann or O'Reilly and (2) one of the wingers and the Devils would be in fine shape. Think they could do both and still have another 2nd to use in the draft.
Will have to add a veteran defenseman, regarding your 5th choice.
 

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