Devils discussion (news, notes and speculation) - playoff edition

[Zippy316]

Stop it ...He was passing to Jack all season. No other forward was even close. Haula is at 93 5v5 minutes with Bratt by the way.

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Ah yes let’s completely gloss over the 579 minutes with Palat.

Aside from the blatantly obvious trolling, Bratt isn’t the problem with this team. He’s one of the few players driving play and creating offense. Cherry picking his goal scoring stats when he put up 80+ points is just comical.

This team needs depth scoring. Full stop. Hischier, Bratt, and Hughes did what they needed to do. They drove play and led the team to a top 5 PP finish in the regular season. All the other forwards were disappointments and only looked passable offensively when they rode the coattails of one of those three.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Jim in peak July/August form baiting us into dumb arguments lol

 

[Zippy316]

Looking around the league, I really hope Fitzgerald has his eyes on some mid-20s forward talent to poach from other teams.

This team has plenty of character guys, but we really need to take a few gambles on skill. Guys like Reichel, Texier, Zetterlund (if Ottawa doesn’t qualify), etc.

If trade options don’t pan out, then the focus should be on some guys like Mantha and Mangiapane in free agency who are still <30 but have had some productive seasons. See if you can find lightning in a bottle with one of them next to Hughes, Bratt, Hischier, or Meier.

 

[JimEIV]

You're right, he sucks.

alright, I call uncle.

He sucked at 5v5 goals scoring this season... Not assist....I'm not sure why people are having such a hard time with this concept and making such excuses.

He had one more 5v5 goals than Palat and Mercer and everyone wants to send those guys to the moon


The team was 26th in the league in 5v5 scoring and he didn't contribute like he should have in my opinion.

I look at this list and I see a bigger problem with 5v5 goals at 2 through 5 than I do 6 through 9. Is that really outlandish?

 

[Bcap88]

Boeser and suter over a Norris winning defensemen whose not even in his late 20’s yet


Lmao

 

[HugeInTheShire]

I'm not contradicting myself at all...Two good middle 6 wingers would increase goal production there is no doubt in mind of that....It's not hard to replace Bratt's goal production while also adding elements that are missing from our top 6.


You don't get Brady for just production...you get him because he's going stir shit up, punch someone in the mouth, crash the net and score 30 goals while being a clear leader on the ice.....you know, the things absolutely void of this team

Teams that struggle to score goals shouldn’t trade offensive weapons for inferior production. No matter how many faces they punch.

 

[RSeen]

This is what I’d like to see the d-core as going in even though it is unlikely.

Hughes Pesce
Dumoulin Nemec
Siegenthaler Kovacevic

Unfortunately Dillon sucks but is unlikely to be gone and Hamilton also needs to go but may be difficult to get rid of. Someone has to go on the right side.

And despite his solid season I’m not overly confident in Siegenthaler (and Kovacevic to a lesser extent). He just doesn’t make plays and we need our defensemen to make plays and breakout efficiently. But him and Kovacevic probably make a really good shutdown 3rd pair.

Dumoulin does not need to be resigned. The other 5 Men referenced are good enough to carry the D core. The 6th member can be a cheaper player and then you re-allocate the money.

Now if Dillon is healthy, obviously he is in that role. Dougie has to be traded but that will be tricky. Tom better not trade Nemec just because he signed 3 older RDs.

 

[JimEIV]

Boeser and suter over a Norris winning defensemen whose not even in his late 20’s yet


Lmao

I watched that Norris candidate get run over a lot this season. His edges are dazzling for sure and would help any team but we have some of what he brings and we are totally lacking in other areas...

 

[Mr Bojanglez]

I watched that Norris candidate get run over a lot this season. His edges are dazzling for sure and would help any team but we have some of what he brings and we are totally lacking in other areas...

i'm kinda with you here. We were not planning getting him. We don't necessarily 'need him'.

But he's an amazing player.

if we can get him at a discount of some kind - we gotta do that.

 

[Bcap88]

I watched that Norris candidate get run over a lot this season. His edges are dazzling for sure and would help any team but we have some of what he brings and we are totally lacking in other areas...

Quinn Hughes would be the best puck mover on the blue line and he’s not even close

Especially from a blue line that has close to zero puck movers which goes hand in hand with transition and 5 on 5 play

I would almost argue that fitz over corrected on defense and got to many of the same mold of defensemen

Dillon
Kovacevik
Pesce
Siegenthaler

Are all severely lacking in the mobility of the blue line

 

[Emperoreddy]

Idk. Im feeling the opposite of discouraged. The broken down version of this team was in every game in this series.

If we were healthy I think we are still playing right now even with the depth issues.

Metro isnt going to suddenly get much tougher next season. We make improvments we should be in very good shape.

Regular season stuff doesn't mean much to me at this point beyond getting home ice and making sure guys stay healthy.

 

[Zippy316]

Dumoulin does not need to be resigned. The other 5 Men referenced are good enough to carry the D core. The 6th member can be a cheaper player and then you re-allocate the money.

Now if Dillon is healthy, obviously he is in that role. Dougie has to be traded but that will be tricky. Tom better not trade Nemec just because he signed 3 older RDs.

It feels as if Fitz’ M.O. this past off-season was to make the defense too good to fail.

If Dillon isn’t returning, I think he wants to add another capable LD and Dumoulin fit like a glove. I wouldn’t mind giving him two years so either him or Siegenthaler play 3LD alongside Nemec & Casey moving forward.

 

[TrufleShufle]

Why is it so important to everyone that Jim knows Bratt doesn't suck?

There is no one piece that is finally going to make him "see the light," even if there was, the light would move. I can't tell who's more strange at this point.

Everything is going to be perfectly fine if someone is just wrong and it stays that way.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

They can add the new era Scott Niedermayer to their roster because of the same reason Scott left Anaheim to play with Rob and people are saying "lol nah".

Lol this place man

 

[RSeen]

It feels as if Fitz’ M.O. this past off-season was to make the defense too good to fail.

If Dillon isn’t returning, I think he wants to add another capable LD and Dumoulin fit like a glove. I wouldn’t mind giving him two years so either him or Siegenthaler play 3LD alongside Nemec & Casey moving forward.

Siegs is a top 4 Dman. He was one of the best shutdown Dmen in the entire league this past season.

I don't see why we need to prioritize Dumoulin at a $4M+ cap hit over scoring depth. We have at least 5 quality Dmen already.

 

[JimEIV]

Quinn Hughes would be the best puck mover on the blue line and he’s not even close

Especially from a blue line that has close to zero puck movers which goes hand in hand with transition and 5 on 5 play

I would almost argue that fitz over corrected on defense and got to many of the same mold of defensemen

Dillon
Kovacevik
Pesce
Siegenthaler

Are all severely lacking in the mobility of the blue line

We have Casey Nemec and Luke. There is plenty of puck moving potential there

Of course Quinn is better than anything we have... But we have needed better quality forwards for a very long time and if I'm moving Earth to fit in players I'd be suring up the top 12 forwards before any Dman at this point.

 

[Mr Bojanglez]

We have Casey Nemec and Luke. There is plenty of puck moving potential there

Of course Quinn is better than anything we have... But we have needed better quality forwards for a very long time and if I'm moving Earth to fit in players I'd be suring up the top 12 forwards before any Dman at this point.

i for one am not moving earth to get him. I think some of us are saying if you can get him on a solid deal - heck even discount - you have to do it. This isn't a HUGHES brothers thing necessarily, just the fact that the dude is an all star

he will help with the transition.

 

[JimEIV]

They can add the new era Scott Niedermayer to their roster because of the same reason Scott left Anaheim to play with Rob and people are saying "lol nah".

Lol this place man

New era Scott Niedermeyer? Wow.

Does "New era" mean 3 inches shorter, 25 lbs lighter half the defense and twice the points?

 

[McDuffz88]

Let's take the good from this. Nemec stepped up big time & showed why he was selected 2nd OA. If he can play like that consistently, We have a hit. He was one of the few who elevated their play in the playoffs. Nico did a great job & showed why he was captain. Timo playing good playoff hockey, & Bratt was fine. What we needed was depth scoring which we weren't getting. For the off season most of the bottom 6 contracts are up & I'm not renewing. This is our line up as far as contracts are concerned
Xxxx-Nico-Meier
Xxxx-Hughes-Bratt
Noeson-Xxxx-Mercer
Cotter-Glass-Palat/Haula
Ideally we need a 3rd line center. Someone who can eat defensive minutes while chipping in offensively. I would go as far to argue go after a top 6 center/winger who can win faceoffs for Hughes. I just have 0 faith in his shoulder & I would rather be prepared with center in place. As far as that 4th line it's literally perfect depending how you tinker it. Dillon should be traded if possible along with Hamilton.

 

[Killing Joke]

What's the injury to Brendan Dillon? I saw a couple of remarks on him.... but I've been off the boards for about 4 days and can't go looking through all that.

No clue. Saw rumors it was serious enough it might be a career ender. Giving how he couldn’t get up right away, Im not shocked.

 

[Killing Joke]

If we were to trade for Quinn, we would have to trade a left handed Dman the other way. If it was Nemec plus then we have Both Hughes Borthers Siegenthaler and Dillon.

Casey and Siegenthaler plus a 1st might be the trade. Dillon has a No trade clause and Vancouver would want Siegs instead.

I'd prefer to wait until Quinn is a free agent.

No. Waiting is not the way to go if Vancouver is willing to trade him now. You get 10 years of him instead of just 7 if we go the F/A route, plus he immediately improves the team now and it’s in a sweetheart deal of 7.9 while everyone in the core is locked up to sweetheart deals.

 

[JimEIV]

Xxxx-Nico-Meier
Xxxx-Hughes-Bratt

Noeson-Xxxx-Mercer
Cotter-Glass-Palat/Haula

See this, especially the top 6...I agree with this 100%. I'd imagine most people would?

But here's my rub...those top two LW spots aren't "depth scoring"...those need to be primary scoring. At least one of them needs to be.

Maybe it's just semantics....but if guys like Noesen, Mercer, Cotter, Glass, Haula and Palat are your "depth scoring", I'm of the opinion that you are in pretty good shape...but we are asking for two of those guys to be in top 6 roles.... and then there's fit....if we need one or two LW for the top 6 Mercer and Noesen don't fit... so then your shifting players good players to fit in depth players that shouldn't be there in the first place.

I don't see a depth problem at all. I see a top 6 problem completely.

 

[13BearerOfHope]

Hamilton is a good example of not needing "big" guys. But he is the counter example to "grit".

I'd like some size and grit, but these guys need to be able to skate and have skills as well. Speed to me being a significant need.

Dougie smiles when he loses. I can’t stand him

 

[13BearerOfHope]

Pius Suter is a UFA. And one of the only decent C options in free agency.

I think trading Bratt would destroy the team in some ways. Any chance of ever playing anything like a couple seasons ago would be zero. Our speed at the forward position would be terrible, our already weakened transition game would suffer.

Ok so we get Pius as UFA and we wait 2 years for Quinn. I believe Nico is not chasing the money and will stay a Devil in 2 years even if we offered the same contract again.
Building a team with patience is better anyhow. I’d just get rid of Dougie because I really can’t stand him as a player. I don’t think he adds much and we can use the cap hit for a good forward.

 

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Ok so we get Pius as UFA and we wait 2 years for Quinn. I believe Nico is not chasing the money and will stay a Devil in 2 years even if we offered the same contract again.
Building a team with patience is better anyhow. I’d just get rid of Dougie because I really can’t stand him as a player. I don’t think he adds much and we can use the cap hit for a good forward.

Suter is a good option for the Devils. He is also one of the slowest skaters in the NHL. I'm not sure if I want more slow skaters to the team.