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

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I would agree with this, my only concern though is that Marks looks bad. Like real bad. And our next option is a career backup who is also pushing 40.

I like how the team has come together the last few games, but it doesn’t change the questionable roster construction. Fitz better hope this geriatric goalie duo he spent assets on holds up for one more year.

34 is "pushing 40"?

damn, I might have one foot in grave then!
 
34 is "pushing 40"?

damn, I might have one foot in grave then!
For some reason I thought they were older. Regardless, Marks is 35 with a lot of miles on him, that’s not young at all especially for a goalie. Every new injury is going to make him a riskier bet for being reliable going forward.
 
I would agree with this, my only concern though is that Marks looks bad. Like real bad. And our next option is a career backup who is also pushing 40.

I like how the team has come together the last few games, but it doesn’t change the questionable roster construction. Fitz better hope this geriatric goalie duo he spent assets on holds up for one more year.
Markstrom has looked bad post injury, but looked good prior to the injury.

Allen has looked good of late and his season numbers are good.

Daws looked good in his handful of games. As per his Utica numbers, his save % has gone down every year he's been there, from a very promising .916 his first year as a pro, to a now dreadful .892(at 2nd glance it's slightly better then last years but I'll stick with the narrative) but I lay this much more on the team in front of him then on Daws himself. He's 24, turns 25 in Dec.

Not that I love this trio, but I'm not hating it. Especially since the group has posted good numbers aside from this stretch from Markstrom post injury.
 
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Anyone jumping on Keefe today is simply just dumb or doesn't understand hockey, his goalie couldn't make a glove save on Kevin Hayes from the top of the circles + 2 goals were in direct responsibility of guys not making a proper outlet and in Bastian's case on the Karlsson 5-3 goal, he didn't clear the zone properly on the PK.

Monday is basically going to be make or break, chances are the Rags lose tomorrow to the Oilers. If they win on Monday then they'll be pretty much cruising towards the playoffs. If they lose, it'll be a white knuckle finish to the end.
I’ll wait to see if Keefe makes the decision to start Markstrom on Monday. If he does then I’ll join in on shredding him.

I suspect he WON’T start him, but I remember being quite shocked a few times over the years at goalie starts, when it seemed a given that they wouldn’t start that game based on the last game.

I’m pretty sure it’s Allen on Monday.
 
I would agree with this, my only concern though is that Marks looks bad. Like real bad. And our next option is a career backup who is also pushing 40.

I like how the team has come together the last few games, but it doesn’t change the questionable roster construction. Fitz better hope this geriatric goalie duo he spent assets on holds up for one more year.

This is one of those takes that frustrates me because yes it sucks to have old goalies but the alternative to old goalies at that price point is UFAs (bad) or unreliable or injury-prone goalies (also bad). Logan Thompson would've been nice. They've tried to draft and develop but Blackwood fell apart, Daws is what he is and Schmid is presently a backup on the Vegas AHL team.
 
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This is one of those takes that frustrates me because yes it sucks to have old goalies but the alternative to old goalies at that price point is UFAs (bad) or unreliable or injury-prone goalies (also bad). Logan Thompson would've been nice. They've tried to draft and develop but Blackwood fell apart, Daws is what he is and Schmid is presently a backup on the Vegas AHL team.
McKenzie Blackwood is top 10 in just about every goaltending category this season.

He Is top 10 in Games played, Wins, Saves, Save%.

He's just outside of the top 10 in shutouts with 3... a whole bunch of guys have 3 and 12 goalies have 4 or more.

He fell apart to the tune of a 5 year 5.25 million dollar contract with the Avalanche.
 
McKenzie Blackwood is top 10 in just about every goaltending category this season.

He Is top 10 in Games played, Wins, Saves, Save%.

He's just outside of the top 10 in shutouts with 3... a whole bunch of guys have 3 and 12 goalies have 4 or more.

He fell apart to the tune of a 5 year 5.25 million dollar contract with the Avalanche.
Surely you must appreciate Devil players that rank in the top 10 of other major categories.
 
McKenzie Blackwood is top 10 in just about every goaltending category this season.

He Is top 10 in Games played, Wins, Saves, Save%.

He's just outside of the top 10 in shutouts with 3... a whole bunch of guys have 3 and 12 goalies have 4 or more.

He fell apart to the tune of a 5 year 5.25 million dollar contract with the Avalanche.

Blackwood fell apart in New Jersey, both from injury and terrible play. The Devils were lucky to get a 6th round pick for him and they traded him to the worst team in the league. He's having a star season now, his first one in 5 years. He was not the answer here.
 
Surely you must appreciate Devil players that rank in the top 10 of other major categories.
Yeah but if you are top 10 in one category and literally 99th in another....it just doesn't mean as much to me.

The Bobbsey Twins

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Yeah but if you are top 10 in one category and literally 99th in another....it just doesn't mean as much to me.

The Bobbsey Twins

View attachment 993634

genuine question....how many goals would Bratt have to have for you to stop this nonsense? 25? 30? 40?

if he had 29 goals and 50 assists instead of 19 and 60 would that be a huge difference? Now, keep in mind that Bratt is not just racking up meaningless secondary assists. The only players in the league with more primary assists than Bratt this year are Mackinnon, Kucherov, McDavid, Marner, and Pastrnak.
 
Yeah but if you are top 10 in one category and literally 99th in another....it just doesn't mean as much to me.

The Bobbsey Twins

View attachment 993634
To me it’s the clutch element or timeliness of the scoring. If the team scored a total of 164 goals but won every game 2-0 or 2-1 and nobody on thr team had more than say 20 goals at the end of the year that would be an amazing season. Less about the gross number without context. Just my view. I understand your point even if I see it differently.
 
Blackwood fell apart in New Jersey, both from injury and terrible play. The Devils were lucky to get a 6th round pick for him and they traded him to the worst team in the league. He's having a star season now, his first one in 5 years. He was not the answer here.
My point was really no goalie at that time would've been the answer here while we played "look out" defense...you know , the defense just yelling to the goalie "look out here they come"
 
The bottom-6 needs a MAJOR facelift this offseason. If Haula is a healthy scratch today then I suspect he's not long for them team, either we'll dump him to someone for future considerations or buy him out at the end of the year.

Palat should be bought out. Tatar and Bastian are both UFA and should walk.

I'm fine giving Glass a 2-3 year extension to be our 3C for the immediate future. Gritsyuk will take one winger spot. Sign three other guys in UFA and make a trade if necessary. Glass + Gritsyuk on the 3rd line is a good start. Cotter should be on the 4th line. Have Dowling compete with a couple other dudes in camp and go see what happens.

I'm pretty agnostic on Mercer, keep him as a 3rd line winger or trade him for whatever you can get, I don't really care tbh.
Oh my goodness! Did you say buyout?! No way! Just let those guys play 4th line! Oh the horror of a buyout!

But seriously, I don’t think we’ll be lucky enough to buyout Palat, but that’s probably coming after next year. At the very least we can’t have another year of his corpse getting regular time in the top 6 or with Hughes and Bratt. We just can’t. Maybe we can cap dump him? There is some hope I have.

Haula is a definite buyout, unless you think we can cap dump him. Giving him the third year was a mistake. It had been several years before we got a hold of him that he had lasted two whole seasons with the same team.
 
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To me it’s the clutch element or timeliness of the scoring. If the team scored a total of 164 goals but won every game 2-0 or 2-1 and nobody on thr team had more than say 20 goals at the end of the year that would be an amazing season. Less about the gross number without context. Just my view. I understand your point even if I see it differently.
It's not necessarily just gross numbers it's more what you are doing in relationship to the rest of the league in my opinion. Looking at it from a team perspective this team has been very mediocre offensively.... And really the difference isn't much...very little is separating us from mediocre to maybe 7th or 8th in offense as opposed to 14th.

Carolina is currently in 8th with 217 goals we are in 14th with 204....5 or 6 goal shortfall from 2 key players is literally the difference in mediocre or being among upper echelon.

I blame Meier and Bratt mostly for this
 
It's not necessarily just gross numbers it's more what you are doing in relationship to the rest of the league in my opinion. Looking at it from a team perspective this team has been very mediocre offensively.... And really difference isn't much...very little is separating us from mediocre to maybe 7th or 8th in offense as opposed to 14th.

Carolina is currently in 8th with 217 goals we are in 14th with 204....5 or 6 goal shortfall from 2 key players is literally the difference in mediocre or being among upper echelon.
Yes. It’s been frustrating but at least they haven’t lost the playoff spot and if they pick it up for this last stretch they can salvage what seemed pretty hopeless when they first lost Hughes. Fingers crossed. Glass has helped. Losing Hamilton hurts more than many might want to admit because it’s why Nemec is playing.
 

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