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

[Zippy316]

Yeah I just don’t know how you could watch the games and come away with Hischier and Bratt were the problem.

Devils overextended the hell out of their top guys because they had no faith in anyone in the bottom six.

Every important faceoff? Hischier. Every penalty kill? Hischier first wave. Every PP? Hischier first wave

He’s undoubtedly going to be our top choice, but not having a single other guy that you can trust in situations like that is a huge issue. You look at every top team in this league and they have at least two, if not three guys they trust.

 

[FooteBahl]

I mean same here but you and me are in the minority judging by this board lol

If hockey was literally the only sport I watched then maybe I'd watch more random games, but I'd rather start paying more attention to the Mets now tbh

My attention switches to the Yankees now and how the Jets chances at drafting Arch Manning next year are

 

[JK3]

"I wasn't worried about offense with this group. We've got enough offense here."

You guys trust this dummy? I wonder what the new meta will be that he'll latch onto after the playoffs.

 

[FooteBahl]

Haula is a tricky one. If you can have him as your 4c, I think that's fine. His salary is also probably now in line with a 4c. I think Dowd just signed for 3M AAV on a two year extension and I'm not sure if they are overly dissimilar. But Haula is also fairly easy to dump if they just want to get away from him. With or without him, I think they need to get a 3c. So that would open the door to moving Haula and bringing back Glass as the 4c instead.

The Hamilton one is the very interesting one. You can move him. The injuries don't help, but the offense still plays and I think the 9M is overstated. I think there will be interested teams. The 10 team trade list doesn't help, but again, this is doable. It's not like a goalie where he can really turn a modified no trade into a full no trade. Its a lot easier to navigate around for a skater.

But I just don't know where they get the offense from on the blue line if they go that direction. Does Nemec give them that confidence that he can do it next year if they put him into bigger minutes? He doesn't have elite tools, but he does have some good offensive instincts which should do well he if curtails some of his pinching.

Are the 10 team trade lists public knowledge? Probably a really dumb question—be easy on me lol

 

[Forge]

Are the 10 team trade lists public knowledge? Probably a really dumb question—be easy on me lol

I don't think he submits it until July (he has a full no move until then, I believe) but I don't think that they are generally made public.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Making rash and irrational posts about the core when the BEST PLAYER OF THE CORE was out, never change HFBoards. Holy shit, lol.

 

[Edmonton East]

"I wasn't worried about offense with this group. We've got enough offense here."

You guys trust this dummy? I wonder what the new meta will be that he'll latch onto after the playoffs.

If 35 year old Markstrom falls off a cliff or gets hurt next season with no depth behind him, it'll be back to only blaming the goaltending.

 

[None Shall Pass]

Definitely some positives to take out of the postseason.

Nico getting 4 points in 5 games while being target of the shutdown was great work by him. He was a beast this series.

Nemec was outstanding once he started playing.

Team defense, even with the MASH lineup, was still pretty solid. We held our own 5on5 there.

Rooted for a win, expected a loss, came away happy with the effort. Matched a good Canes team without our top offensive threat, most of our NHL defense out/prematurely playing/nursing injury, and nothing in the bottom six happening at all.

With the right offseason moves, we should be pretty good next year.

 

[devsfan8]

Collinton also can be a scapregoat as far as im concerned. The power play that he ran all season was solid until when it mattered most.

 

[Billdo]

Making rash and irrational posts about the core when the BEST PLAYER OF THE CORE was out, never change HFBoards. Holy shit, lol.

Nico is more important than Jack IMO and I'll die on that hill but our best offensive player being out sucks. Losing our best offensive defenseman also sucks.

 

[JrFischer54]

Players don’t just figure out how to play in the playoffs instantly, I think it takes time. Tkachuk is a good example (5 points in his first 15 games, 34 in the next 32).

2 years ago Bratt got 6 points in 12 games, this year, 3 in 5, and I’ve seen him play with more urgency. It’s a tough environment, but that’s progression. My guess is the more he plays there, the more he grows. Nico’s a good example of that. Only had 1 more point than Bratt in 2022-2023, only has 1 more this year. It’s a progression. Hopefully they continue to get the experience and grow.

people pointing towards the points thats fine i dont remember every goal he got a point on so i dont really know how much of an impact or just a passenger he was on the play. to me he wasn't very noticeable for long stretches of the series and he definitely wasn't noticeable at all last night.

 

[FooteBahl]

Definitely some positives to take out of the postseason.

Nico getting 4 points in 5 games while being target of the shutdown was great work by him. He was a beast this series.

Nemec was outstanding once he started playing.

Team defense, even with the MASH lineup, was still pretty solid. We held our own 5on5 there.

Rooted for a win, expected a loss, came away happy with the effort. Matched a good Canes team without our top offensive threat, most of our NHL defense out/prematurely playing/nursing injury, and nothing in the bottom six happening at all.

With the right offseason moves, we should be pretty good next year.

I’m glad Nemec stepped up and showed what he could do—not for the sake of his spot next year, but potentially lowering the cost of getting Quinn. I’m not going to lie, I don’t want to wait two years for what looks like an inevitability.

Depending on Dillon’s rumored injury, if it’s as bad as “they” say, that could free up 4 million. Perhaps a buyout of someone or attaching a pick to a team to get to the cap floor would give us some decent cap space to give Luke his brinks truck, unite the Hughesly trinity and fill out the forward corps.

Other teams pull the bullshit cap gymnastics, why not us?

 

[FooteBahl]

Nico is more important than Jack IMO and I'll die on that hill but our best offensive player being out sucks. Losing our best offensive defenseman also sucks.

I’m with you. Nico clearly is the heart and soul of the team.

 

[AfroThunder396]

He started with a decent stockpile though and he's running out of trade chips. He also fills holes by then creating new ones / hurting the team's ceiling, e.g. the defense is better at preventing goals but now struggles to generate offense. There's now clear deadweight from some of his moves holding the roster back that needs to be addressed.

He will go into the offseason trying to save his job which is a recipe for disaster. He should go, give someone else the reigns and some breathing room (seems likely to be Broduer and I'm ok with that).

To me this is an issue with drafting. If you draft well you can get these players for free internally. The fact that our drafting has been so bad recently means we have to go out and spend assets in the form of cap space or trade chips to plug these holes.

Getting better doesn't always need to be a zero sum game. But we find ourselves always dealing from a position of weakness, which costs us.

Paul Castron should be on the hotseat IMO, he gained a lot of goodwill by finding Bratt so late but hasn't done much of anything since.

 

[Devils Trap]

This is my kinda "ideal" yet somewhat realistic team, I want to see next year:

1) We wont be able to replace every single forward, my hope is Grits plays up to take the top 6 role from Mercer and Mercer is fine if hes a 3rd liner.

Targeted forwards on "cap strung" teams like DAL / COL who most likely need to lose guys for cap purposes - hence acquisition cost is lower and think both Marchment / Colton are perfect pieces who can actually "play up" if we need them too

This team is under the cap by about 1.1 million, but we need 1/2 depth pieces too.

 

[devsfan8]

This same core battled back down 2-0 to the Rags also two years ago. Nico is a complete 200 ft player. Bratt makes literally everyone around him better. And Jack is our most skilled offensive player but needs to stay healthy. Timo was a pest in round 1 two years ago and this season and also scored. I really have no issues at all about our core forward group. There isn't a team in the league that has SIX top 6 players. We went out and traded depth for Tyler Toffoli two years ago for oue top 6 and how did that work out?

Build around the core 4. If you bundle Hamilton in there, he I would agree could be rhe odd man out this summer in a statement.

 

[Brodeur]

Are the 10 team trade lists public knowledge? Probably a really dumb question—be easy on me lol

Usually not made public, occasionally we'll hear a team since there'll be a blocked trade (Justin Faulk to Anaheim, Nazem Kadri to Calgary, Jacob Trouba to Columbus). I vaguely recall that Alex Goligoski's got leaked at some point and a lot of people misinterpreted how LA was on the list but Anaheim wasn't. They jumped to conclusions that LA was an awful place to live but Anaheim was fine or something.

In reality, if the player/agent is strategic they can turn a partial no trade to cover most of the league so that they can maintain control. In Goligoski's case, LA was definitely in the market for a LHD whereas Anaheim (Lindholm/Fowler) weren't. So putting Anaheim on the list would have been a waste of a spot.

 

[FooteBahl]

Usually not made public, occasionally we'll hear a team since there'll be a blocked trade (Justin Faulk to Anaheim, Nazem Kadri to Calgary, Jacob Trouba to Columbus). I vaguely recall that Alex Goligoski's got leaked at some point and a lot of people misinterpreted how LA was on the list but Anaheim wasn't. They jumped to conclusions that LA was an awful place to live but Anaheim was fine or something.

In reality, if the player/agent is strategic they can turn a partial no trade to cover most of the league so that they can maintain control. In Goligoski's case, LA was definitely in the market for a LHD whereas Anaheim (Lindholm/Fowler) weren't. So putting Anaheim on the list would have been a waste of a spot.

Dougie is a weird cat though. It will probably be the 10 teams with the best museums in the area.

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

And where was he on the PP then? Maybe if he’d played well two years ago I’d give him more of a pass this time

Waiting for the puck as Noesen did a soft ring around the boards time after time to the opposite corner where the defensmen was waiting.

 

[devsfan8]

i agree the forward group is garbage and said as much in another post. but the context here is that we went all in for this guy, and gave up solid pieces for an unimpressive result. he should be held to a high standard and didn’t meet it, in my opinion

For a team that had garbage forwards and garbage goaltending, i'd like to know what you consider the teams that didn't make the playoffs. Worse then garbage?

The overdramatic mindset of this fan base is really bizarre.

 

[Darkauron]

It really sucks because I think our D is pretty good, when healthy. But man again our bottom 6 and depth scoring is horrible.

 

[Triumph]

To me this is an issue with drafting. If you draft well you can get these players for free internally. The fact that our drafting has been so bad recently means we have to go out and spend assets in the form of cap space or trade chips to plug these holes.

Getting better doesn't always need to be a zero sum game. But we find ourselves always dealing from a position of weakness, which costs us.

Paul Castron should be on the hotseat IMO, he gained a lot of goodwill by finding Bratt so late but hasn't done much of anything since.

Yeah, the real issue with the forwards, apart from everything else, is that the Devils have not graduated a forward to the roster in 2 years. Even when they've needed guys for long stretches, it's been Chris Tierney and Justin Dowling.

 

[Nocashstyle]

Obviously I’m excited at the prospect of potentially ever acquiring Quinn, but I’m not as gung-ho as others are about doing it now or before his contract expires.

The area of least concern is defense. Quinn, while obviously would be the immediate best defenseman and maybe even player in general on the team, would be a luxury acquisition.

If the price is right, sure. But let’s fix the horrendous forward depth and figure out who the starter is beyond next year before actively focusing on acquiring Quinn.

 

[Call Me Al]

For a team that had garbage forwards and garbage goaltending, i'd like to know what you consider the teams that didn't make the playoffs. Worse then garbage?

The overdramatic mindset of this fan base is really bizarre.

i should say the depth was garbage. our top 6 is great and only needs some complimentary pieces. bottom 6 was a problem all season

 

[Clam Jensen]

What would Jersey be willing to part with for a Bryan Rust or Rakell?

If we ever trade for a pens player again we’re instituting the “Marino addendum” where you can’t come make fun of the former pen after they have a bad game lol