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

[Zippy316]

Palat, Haula, Dowling, Bastian, Sprong, Lazar, Tatar, MacDermid, Cholowski, Dillon. I would get rid of all of them this summer.

Then there are some fringe guys that I wouldn't mind if they stayed but also wouldn't mind if we cut ties with like Glass and Mercer.

Clean house!

Exactly, too much dead weight up front except for Hughes, Hischier, Bratt, and Meier.

Haula can play out his contract in a useful third line utility role. Mercer and Noesen are good top nine guys with special teams utility. Cotter is the perfect fourth line winger but shouldn’t be anything more than that. Everyone else just brings next to nothing to the table.

Keefe has essentially gotten everyone’s buy in to play a structured, detail-oriented game but over half of the forward core should be playing on a fourth line or third wheeling on a third line.

Forward group next year should be:

XXX - Hughes - Bratt
XXX- Hischier - Meier
Mercer - XXX - Noesen
Cotter - XXX - XXX

The focus should be on guys who slot properly into those roles and can skate. We need to go back to when this forward group could skate circles around teams. There’s enough good skaters in this league that aren’t undersized that the Devils should target.

 

[NjDevsRR]

 

[MartyOwns]

regardless of the outcome of this series, i really like what keefe brings on and off the ice. great hire by fitz.

 

[theoptimist]

Considering our GM has not won a single trade, and our scouting department has not drafted a single useful top-6 outside of the first overall pick since Jesper Bratt 7 years ago…

Yes?

He won the John Marino trade pretty easily. Marino should have still been a Devil (with Siegenthaler being the one traded).

 

[JrFischer54]

No but he’s still a great player and would move the needle. Overall your plan is solid. Hopefully Grits can mesh with Jack and be a goal scoring threat.

you gotta take whats available and if marner is out there and only costs a contract i dont have a problem giving him one. team needs talent anywhere they can find it and he certainly has it. if there is a pure goal scorer thats out there july 1 i'm fine bringing them in too BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT i dont want to hear people complaining and crying well his defense stinks or hes slow or all he can do is score goals.

sure the trade route is an option but if fitz is getting beat out at the deadline ( he admitted as much) then i'm not sure we have the weapons capable of pulling off some trades

 

[NjDevsRR]

Marino should have still been a Devil (with Siegenthaler being the one traded).

 

[JrFischer54]

How much do we think one of these bad boys is going to cost?

View attachment 1020826

its a little late to the party with these novelty items thats fine but put some effort into it

 

[FooteBahl]

Exactly, too much dead weight up front except for Hughes, Hischier, Bratt, and Meier.

Haula can play out his contract in a useful third line utility role. Mercer and Noesen are good top nine guys with special teams utility. Cotter is the perfect fourth line winger but shouldn’t be anything more than that. Everyone else just brings next to nothing to the table.

Keefe has essentially gotten everyone’s buy in to play a structured, detail-oriented game but over half of the forward core should be playing on a fourth line or third wheeling on a third line.

Forward group next year should be:

XXX - Hughes - Bratt
XXX- Hischier - Meier
Mercer - XXX - Noesen
Cotter - XXX - XXX

The focus should be on guys who slot properly into those roles and can skate. We need to go back to when this forward group could skate circles around teams. There’s enough good skaters in this league that aren’t undersized that the Devils should target.

With 12 million in cap space, Fitz is going to have to be creative with Luke likely getting a large chunk of that. A Palat buyout will have us on the hook for nearly 2 million for 4years.

I assume Gritsyuk will take one of those wing spots for 1 million. Unless a blockbuster trade is made for Quinn, I can see one of Nemec/Casey traded for a young cost-controlled winger as well. Re-sign glass for $2 million? So if Palat is bought out, that will leave us with 16mil. Luke will get 9, grits 1, Glass 2. That will leave us around 4 to play with.

It’s going to be a tight offseason capwise, but teams have become adept at getting themselves under.

 

[theoptimist]

The St. Louis Blues have a 33% expected goal share after 2 games. They’re relatively healthy.

ExPeCtEd GoAL sHArE

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Come now, anyone can look bad in a four game series…was Tampa the worst team in the 2019 playoffs or did Columbus just ambush them?

I don’t think STL is very good and they haven’t looked very good after 2. They had that massive hot streak this year but were otherwise meh. Montreal also stinks and I would take the Devils over them even in the diminished state they’re in.

But I’m not sure what the point of saying a decimated team isn’t better than the top teams in the league. Obviously? That’s how that works.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

ExPeCtEd GoAL sHArE

Real goals too. Two games, two Ls.

 

[JrFischer54]

With 12 million in cap space, Fitz is going to have to be creative with Luke likely getting a large chunk of that. A Palat buyout will have us on the hook for nearly 2 million for 4years.

I assume Gritsyuk will take one of those wing spots for 1 million. Unless a blockbuster trade is made for Quinn, I can see one of Nemec/Casey traded for a young cost-controlled winger as well. Re-sign glass for $2 million? So if Palat is bought out, that will leave us with 16mil. Luke will get 9, grits 1, Glass 2. That will leave us around 4 to play with.

It’s going to be a tight offseason capwise, but teams have become adept at getting themselves under.

you dont buy palat out you trade him give whoever takes him a second rounder call it a day

 

[Better Call Sal]

regardless of the outcome of this series, i really like what keefe brings on and off the ice. great hire by fitz.

He has a Burns like quality to him in my eyes. I really like him as well.

 

[theoptimist]

Real goals too. Two games, two Ls.

They scored 4 goals and gave up 7 thru 2 games. We scored 2 goals and gave up 7.

If we found 2 additional goals, this series is 1-1.

 

[My3Sons]

Exactly, too much dead weight up front except for Hughes, Hischier, Bratt, and Meier.

Haula can play out his contract in a useful third line utility role. Mercer and Noesen are good top nine guys with special teams utility. Cotter is the perfect fourth line winger but shouldn’t be anything more than that. Everyone else just brings next to nothing to the table.

Keefe has essentially gotten everyone’s buy in to play a structured, detail-oriented game but over half of the forward core should be playing on a fourth line or third wheeling on a third line.

Forward group next year should be:

XXX - Hughes - Bratt
XXX- Hischier - Meier
Mercer - XXX - Noesen
Cotter - XXX - XXX

The focus should be on guys who slot properly into those roles and can skate. We need to go back to when this forward group could skate circles around teams. There’s enough good skaters in this league that aren’t undersized that the Devils should target.

realistically I think you put Grits with Nico and Meier and Glass between Mercer and Haula. I really hope they find a taker for Palat. I'm not sure who they can add to play with Bratt and Hughes but maybe someone like Roslovic for a season as he has fallen out of favor in Carolina and while he's not a two way player he can score goals and keep up with Jack and Bratt and he likely won't be that expensive. I guess that puts Noesen on the fourth line. I agree I'd like to see them add good skaters to fill any open slots.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

He won the John Marino trade pretty easily. Marino should have still been a Devil (with Siegenthaler being the one traded).

are you okay, man?

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Canes are SO cooked now

 

[Billdo]

He won the John Marino trade pretty easily. Marino should have still been a Devil (with Siegenthaler being the one traded).

You mean the who statistically was the best defensive defenseman in the entire league even with the amount of games he's missed?

 

[theoptimist]

You mean the who statistically was the best defensive defenseman in the entire league even with the amount of games he's missed?

We agree - he’s great when he’s playing! The whole team sucked after December 23rd. So we’re talking about being statistically the best defensemen from October to December? Ok.

 

[NJDevs26]

So you’d rather have Marino who would have just cluttered up the Nemec-Casey-Dougie-Kovacevic-Pesce logjam on the right by one more?

 

[NjDevsRR]

Siegs is the most important piece on pur back end for defensive purposes while Luke is the most important on our backend for transition and offense

 

[devilsblood]

This team is definitely the worst team in the playoffs right now. Give me a break. Watch other teams. There is no logical or rational argument otherwise. But let's hear it, tell me who's worse.

the team without their top forward and top 3 LHDs is the worst team in the playoffs right now, correct. Scorching hot take!

The St. Louis Blues have a 33% expected goal share after 2 games. They’re relatively healthy.

Truthfully I wasn’t considering how teams were playing in the 2nd half of the season. Was thinking strictly playoffs

In which case we are one of 3 teams down 2-0. We had a terrible game. And then a competitive loss. I really don’t want to make any conclusions off of that.

Just win game 3.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Folks like to cite their bad play with a healthy core in Jan Feb but that roster absolutely had the ability to right the ship and stabilize things. That fully healthy team definitely had at least another 3-5 wins in them which the current version could not get, even if they didn’t right the ship. I think folks here would be less paranoid if this team ended up around 100 pts and had a healthy core vs Canes. Good example is the Wild. Its a flawed team which went through the exact same trend as us this season. They lost two critical players and were even worse than us during that time. But they got healthy and are now at least in their series in round one. Wish that happened to us but it is what it is.

And no. This doesn’t excuse Fitz. The blame is all on him as to why he left this team with poor complimentary players and no depth. The onus is on him to find a winger for Jack and 3 better bottom 9 pieces that can move up and down the lineup for next season. The Palats, Lazars and Dowlings must be gone.

??? Hughes Bratt
??? Hischier Meier
??? Mercer Noesen
Cotter Haula ???

 

[Billdo]

We agree - he’s great when he’s playing! The whole team sucked after December 23rd. So we’re talking about being statistically the best defensemen from October to December? Ok.

I mean he got hurt in February but whichever way you move the goalposts I guess.

 

[Andre Palot]

Palat and Haula are like those old clunkers you got out back. You're paying a bunch of money to keep them maintained and insured when you should just be sending them to the scrap yard and getting $1000-$1200 for the both of them.

Like a 1991 Ford Tempo and a 1991 Chevy Caprice.

And then last year you just got a 1990 Silverado with a rod knock and blown head gasket. And then it just caught on fire the other night after it was struck by lightning. That's Brendan Dillon.

Palat is like a rusted up Chevy Celebrity.