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

[Hisch13r]

Bastian is in top-50 in GA per 60 from playerss with 400 5 on 5 min. Top-40 in SA.
TOP-20!!!!! in xGA.

People are absolutely nuts that they are think that we will find better fourth line winger for neutralizing tasks. If we will find a player who will score 6-10 more goals but will do nothing to prevent 15-20 GA it will not help. He is a good part of our PK too.

So no. Every fan who is waiting to through him on the market and call him as replaceable, should watch hockey more closely. As a 4th liner he is very good and its just fact. Even with less hits. 13 hits per 60 is a good result still.

Nate's still good defensively but acting like you couldn't find an upgrade for him is crazy talk. If he's dirt cheap then maybe bring him back as an extra forward but Nate is not a very good 4th liner anymore and should not be a regular.

 

[The Grinder]

Yea it’s gonna be pretty apparent that if Dougie is dealt (I’m thinking around the draft) then we know what the plan is. You can’t obtain Quinn then be in a position to have to deal Dougie to be cap compliant. Teams WILL bend us over in that scenario. If f***ing Trouba can be traded without retention and without a sweetener I have to think Dougie is tradable and we can get some “value” back, even if it’s for draft picks or depth pieces .

 

[forceten]

Vancouver should get something for Quinn Hughes if they can, and not ride it out for two years in a rebuild to lose him for nothing. Teams know where he wants to be and unless they’re willing to rent him …

Nemec is a 2OA, which in draft stock is a reasonable ask. He’s younger and in the playoffs may have been our best defenseman over the last few games.

Mercer may not interest them. But what about adding Topias Vilen? He looks to me like a guy who has grown at every level and is blocked here. Another young player and you basically give Vancouver two young defensemen on cheap contracts with a long time in team control.

Add to that a Hamilton asset in a three team swap, and maybe we eat Demko for them somehow (either straight up or we swap one of Daws or Poulter to VAN if they retain half his final year).

We could add picks - we have some extra 2/3/4 picks and may not need to do the 1st from 2026.

It’s not great to lose a superstar but it’s a nice haul as compared to nothing

 

[Guadana]

Nate's still good defensively but acting like you couldn't find an upgrade for him is crazy talk. If he's dirt cheap then maybe bring him back as an extra forward but Nate is not a very good 4th liner anymore and should not be a regular.

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He is dirt cheap and you cant find better defensive forward for this amount of money.

He is good fourth liner and advenced stats is showing it closely - much better than percentages of Jfresh. SA, GA, xGA. Number where there, you can fing it and they are factual. He is very good to make nothing on the ice. And its exactly what you need from your 4th liner - make sure that he will not create more problems for your team. With absolutely net positive Nico, Jack, Timo and Bratt it makes their life much easier and help to win games easier. He is good and cheap 4th liner and should be regular.
The problem is our third liner center are fourth liners for good teams and part of our top-6 complimentary wingers are not good enough as complimentary wingers for top-6

 

[Hisch13r]

Yea it’s gonna be pretty apparent that if Dougie is dealt (I’m thinking around the draft) then we know what the plan is. You can’t obtain Quinn then be in a position to have to deal Dougie to be cap compliant. Teams WILL bend us over in that scenario. If f***ing Trouba can be traded without retention and without a sweetener I have to think Dougie is tradable and we can get some “value” back, even if it’s for draft picks or depth pieces .

Dougie moving really doesn't signal anything in terms of Quinn. We need to move Dougie just to get the space to be able to fix this roster. Trouba had more teams he could be dealt to, only a year and a half left on his deal compared to 3, and I think Trouba's probably well liked by GMs are around the league while Dougie's always been looked down upon. I really don't think Dougie at 9 mil for 3 years is going to have much value given his protections. All I care about with Dougie is just getting off without retention. Just accomplish that. I don't even give a shit about getting any value back.

 

[Saint Beaurivage]

Great game in Dallas last night. It just goes to show you how important special teams are in the playoffs.

There isn't any single dominant team that cannot be beaten this year, even Florida isn't the same.

Tom "Elite GM" Fitzgerald dismantled and gave away a young fast team that knew how to win for a bunch of slow overpaid over-the-hill coasters that never show up on the scoreboard.

We should have been the elite team today considering how we looked 2 years ago, with or without Jack Hughes.

 

[Guadana]

He is dirt cheap and you cant find better defensive forward for this amount of money.

He is good fourth liner and advanced stats is showing it closely - much better than percentages of Jfresh. SA, GA, xGA. Number where there, you can fing it and they are factual. He is very good to make nothing on the ice. And its exactly what you need from your 4th liner - make sure that he will not create more problems for your team. With absolutely net positive Nico, Jack, Timo and Bratt it makes their life much easier and help to win games easier. He is good and cheap 4th liner and should be regular.
The problem is our third liner center are fourth liners for good teams and part of our top-6 complimentary wingers are not good enough as complimentary wingers for top-6

Bastian has better GF% than Wood and Drury from Colorado, Tampa 4th liners, better than Boqvist and close to Samoskevic from Florida, better than Janmark and on the level with Henrique from Oilers etc.

with
top-50 in GA per 60 from players with 400 5 on 5 min. Top-40 in SA.
TOP-20!!!!! in xGA.

So yeah, he is doing good. And for his money it will be hard to find something better for the same money. And we need money now until Dougie and Palat will left the building.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

Someone here said it best, you don’t trade Quinn Hughes before you can even start negotiating a new contract. He’s not coming here for a year minimum, best to ignore the noise JR spews from his mouth.

 

[NJDevs26]

This idea the Devils ‘knew how to win’ two years ago is silly, they ended that season the exact same way this one ended - getting punted in five by Carolina

 

[NJDevs26]

Someone here said it best, you don’t trade Quinn Hughes before you can even start negotiating a new contract. He’s not coming here for a year minimum, best to ignore the noise JR spews from his mouth.

Right and even if Quinn has told him he’s not resigning and he’s coming here, two years is a long time not to change your mind or have it get swayed

 

[Saint Beaurivage]

Bastian has better GF% than Wood and Drury from Colorado, Tampa 4th liners, better than Boqvist and close to Samoskevic from Florida, better than Janmark and on the level with Henrique from Oilers etc.

with
top-50 in GA per 60 from players with 400 5 on 5 min. Top-40 in SA.
TOP-20!!!!! in xGA.

So yeah, he is doing good. And for his money it will be hard to find something better for the same money. And we need money now until Dougie and Palat will left the building.

I respectfully disagree regarding Bastian. I feel he is another one of those guys that needs a change of scenery for chemistry reasons alone.

I can't see one positive attribute this player offers other than delivering a nice hit once every 5-10 games. He seldom connects with that needed breakout pass, stick handling is below average, skating is very average and has never contributed more than 16 points in 7 seasons.

The 4th line is a very important one and Devils fans who have been around long enough to see Peluso-McKay-Holik's Crash Line will tell you good 4th lines win Stanley Cups.

 

[Hisch13r]

This idea the Devils ‘knew how to win’ two years ago is silly, they ended that season the exact same way this one ended - getting punted in five by Carolina

The whole “know how to win” idea is silly. 2 years ago did we “know” more about winning than Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Guentzel, Rust, Dumoulin, Carter or were we just a better team which is why we made it and they missed the playoffs.

 

[Guadana]

I respectfully disagree regarding Bastian. I feel he is another one of those guys that needs a change of scenery for chemistry reasons alone.

I can't see one positive attribute this player offers other than delivering a nice hit once every 5-10 games. He seldom connects with that needed breakout pass, stick handling is below average, skating is very average and has never contributed more than 16 points in 7 seasons.

The 4th line is a very important one and Devils fans who have been around long enough to see Peluso-McKay-Holik's Crash Line will tell you good 4th lines win Stanley Cups.

He is cheap defensive player who is making defense and prevent dangerous situation until big guys will return to the ice. Thats what he is doing. What he is on the ice for. Not for passes and breakouts. He needs to give a rest for big guys and big guys should return to the ice without nerving about one more missed goal.
For his money he is doing it quite nice how we can see from entire league stat.

 

[Saint Beaurivage]

This idea the Devils ‘knew how to win’ two years ago is silly, they ended that season the exact same way this one ended - getting punted in five by Carolina

What is so silly about it? NJ won a round in the playoffs against our biggest rival compared to winning 1 single game this year. 2022-2023 season was also a 112 point season.

 

[NJDevs26]

What is so silly about it? NJ won a round in the playoffs against our biggest rival compared to winning 1 single game this year. 2022-2023 season was also a 112 point season.

Having a better regular season when nothing was expected and coming back once they flopped in the first two games against the Rangers and expectations were down again before being outclassed in the second round doesn’t mean you ‘know how to win’. Knowing how to win is doing it consistently for a 4-5 year stretch and when people are expecting it

 

[Saint Beaurivage]

Having a better regular season when nothing was expected and coming back once they flopped in the first two games against the Rangers and expectations were down again before being outclassed in the second round doesn’t mean you ‘know how to win’. Knowing how to win is doing it consistently for a 4-5 year stretch and when people are expecting it

My point was they were a better team. Read my post.

 

[glenwo2]

I just feel empty right now.

That we are now reduced to once again focusing on the offseason and whatever dumb rumors that are out there.

It's even worse because the actual offseason doesn't begin until the Finals are done.

sigh.....

 

[longislanddevil]

Looking into my crystal ball in a few years:

LD
Quinn
Siegs
Luke

Where does Silayev fit?

RD
Pesce
Kovocevic
?

That left side is absolutely filthy!! I have absolutely no interest in trading our Russian unicorn. How does he get worked in without Luke playing his off hand? I think from a skillset perspective, Simon rounds out the group better than Casey. How would the latter even crack the PP? Obviously a lot can change in a few years and this is a great problem to have.

 

[Andre Palot]

I'm more than okay with failing Fitz keeping Bastian as dirt cheap injury depth.

I don't know if I want him around as a regular though.

 

[Better Call Sal]

What is so silly about it? NJ won a round in the playoffs against our biggest rival compared to winning 1 single game this year. 2022-2023 season was also a 112 point season.

It’s silly because it’s a cliche. That team knew how to win in 2022-2023 but had the same goaltending tandem from that postseason return and proceed to forget how to stop pucks.

The players Fitz moved or let go of at forward were in and out of the lineup in the playoffs (Sharangovich, Wood, Boqvist) and almost everyone unanimously agreed to move on from Severson and Graves. There’s no one that can convince me that the players we lost would have made any dramatic difference in these past two seasons. In turn, his big move was to bring in Toffoli who is clearly a player who knew “how to win” given his prior success in LA.

We can make the argument all day that Fitz overcorrected, but almost everyone also agreed that we weren’t going to be competitive long term with the style we played in 22-23 and it’s exactly why Ruff was let go of when we couldn’t replicate that success.

 

[Triumph]

Down Goes Brown revealed something fun recently, which I thought was probably true when I read the headline but wasn't sure of - the 2022-23 Devils had the worst playoff goal differential of any Devils team, despite winning a round, and despite the fact that the Devils have lost in the first round 11 times. Still true after this season, as well.

 

[Triumph]

As for Bastian, I'd like to keep him, but I think it's really difficult for a player his age to accept a huge pay cut. I'd take him back at $1M, but I suspect he would go elsewhere rather than take that, even if he ends up being paid less.

 

[devilsblood]

Vancouver should get something for Quinn Hughes if they can, and not ride it out for two years in a rebuild to lose him for nothing. Teams know where he wants to be and unless they’re willing to rent him …

Nemec is a 2OA, which in draft stock is a reasonable ask. He’s younger and in the playoffs may have been our best defenseman over the last few games.

Mercer may not interest them. But what about adding Topias Vilen? He looks to me like a guy who has grown at every level and is blocked here. Another young player and you basically give Vancouver two young defensemen on cheap contracts with a long time in team control.

Add to that a Hamilton asset in a three team swap, and maybe we eat Demko for them somehow (either straight up or we swap one of Daws or Poulter to VAN if they retain half his final year).

We could add picks - we have some extra 2/3/4 picks and may not need to do the 1st from 2026.

It’s not great to lose a superstar but it’s a nice haul as compared to nothing

I don't know Van's RHD situation, but if they trade Quinn, that would open up PP1 which Ham's could fill.

Contracts are pretty close, and we could retain a little to make it evens on the contract front.

And Quinn being a LHD, along with Luke means we are locked in in terms of top 4. Which means no room for Silayev.

Thus: Hams and Silayev for Quinn. I think that is an enticing deal for Van. They get a now player in Ham's while they wait for a the future piece in Silayev.

Is that too much for us to give up? If so they can send something back.

 

[Bleedred]

Down Goes Brown revealed something fun recently, which I thought was probably true when I read the headline but wasn't sure of - the 2022-23 Devils had the worst playoff goal differential of any Devils team, despite winning a round, and despite the fact that the Devils have lost in the first round 11 times. Still true after this season, as well.

That’s not a surprise considering who played only about a third of the minutes, yet still allowed 3 more goals than the goalie who played almost 2/3rds of the minutes and had 2 shutouts.

Vitek’s 2023 playoffs made some of Brodeur’s greatest playoff clunkers (2001 SCF, 99, 08, 10) look competent.

 

[Bleedred]

Bastian isn’t as bad as a lot of people here claim.

But I don’t think I want to keep him, unless it was a short term deal and for similar or less money than he got on this deal.

Again, I can’t remember the last UFA aged non-goon 4th liner that was retained in the post-Lou era.