Devils team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - 2023-24 season part II

[Saugus]

I don’t want any rentals, I just want a real goalie.

I don’t think I’m likely to have my wish granted though.

 

[Devs3cups]

Have the Devils put you in a coma for the last 23 hours?

Watching last night’s highlights put me right to sleep. Just woke up lol!

 

[Devs3cups]

 

[NjDevsRR]

View attachment 812399

Vitek no longer last?

Edit: Pretty sure he was near -14/15 in total xG on the season? He actually has been pretty good lately, serviceable at least which is what we’ve been asking. Maybe he is finally getting closer to his last season form. One can hope. The only game I would pin him on the loss in the last month would be Tampa 1. Last night was his best performance of the season IMO. He was fantastic and the only reason it was a game

Edit 2: So much for the people always pointing to Wedge this season to rip on our team. I see he is 7th worse.

Edit 3: Samsonov rising the charts too

Edit 4:

Spoiler

@Guttersniped is rubbing off on me with posts like these

 

[awegrzyn]

Holy shit, that piece of garbage was with Nike.

Oshawa Generals player.

Player 1 and Player 2 shared room together. May not mean anything, but there were only 2 players from the 5 that took LoA that played for the same team back then and happened to be 1998. One was a Devil.

Nike Rep was hanging out with Player 1 and praising him. It would mean Player 1 is Dube and Player 2 is the Devil kid if you follow year of birth and shared room.

 

[Mgd31]

I'd like to get an LD with NHL experience, if we could. We need to start pushing Bahl and Luke down the lineup with Siegenthaler out, and when he comes back that will allow us to sit one of them for a game or two to watch and learn after they make another stupid pass. Plus when Smith returns that pushes him down the lineup too. Win-win.

Yea I wish there was a guy like Kulikov (when we acquired him a few years ago) around that we could acquire for cheap and just bring him in as a stop gap and stabilize the defense a bit.

 

[Louskoolaid89]

So if we relived poor Lindy of his coaching duties today and brought in say Graig Berube. We could have a mini training camp until Thursday? Or by CBA rules are team is still on vacation as they were Saturday night?

 

[Call Me Al]

could be wrong but i think i the all star break piggybacks on the mandated bye weeks so the team is completely off until next monday

 

[Louskoolaid89]

could be wrong but i think i the all star break piggybacks on the mandated bye weeks so the team is completely off until next monday

If that's the case hopefully they benefit from it. I think they will!

 

[HBK27]

Fitz is in a tough spot. I'm as frustrated at Ruff as a lot of the rest of you, but we're still talking about a coach that was a runner-up for the Jack Adams award last season and coached a 40+ year franchise to their best season ever. Not to mention the injuries and lack of goaltender, the later of which to some degree is on Fitz.

If you make an in-season coaching change you are very limited on options. 32 Thoughts podcast discussed this on the most recent episode. So, are you going with an interim guy so that you can still interview a wider pool of candidates this offseason or do you go with someone like Berube because he's one of the limited options available right now?

Also a bit disgusting that some posters are seemingly actively rooting for the team to miss the playoffs this season to guarantee that Ruff is fired, as if Fitz can't see the same things we're seeing (though understanding the overall game/system impact at a higher level). If this team manages to squeak into the playoffs and maybe even win a round, I don't think that automatically saves Ruff's job and even if this clearly isn't "our year", getting this young core more playoff experience can only be a good thing.

 

[njdevil26]

could be wrong but i think i the all star break piggybacks on the mandated bye weeks so the team is completely off until next monday

Yeah the whole team is off. I saw on IG the Toffolis are in St John USVI... my fav spot haha

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

could be wrong but i think i the all star break piggybacks on the mandated bye weeks so the team is completely off until next monday

they are all off this week completely. No practices or meetings.

Most guys looked like they were ready to be anywhere but playing hockey in the 1st/2nd period of the TB game to be honest....

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

If this team manages to squeak into the playoffs and maybe even win a round, I don't think that automatically saves Ruff's job

it 100% does

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Fitz is in a tough spot. I'm as frustrated at Ruff as a lot of the rest of you, but we're still talking about a coach that was a runner-up for the Jack Adams award last season and coached a 40+ year franchise to their best season ever. Not to mention the injuries and lack of goaltender, the later of which to some degree is on Fitz.

If you make an in-season coaching change you are very limited on options. 32 Thoughts podcast discussed this on the most recent episode. So, are you going with an interim guy so that you can still interview a wider pool of candidates this offseason or do you go with someone like Berube because he's one of the limited options available right now?

Also a bit disgusting that some posters are seemingly actively rooting for the team to miss the playoffs this season to guarantee that Ruff is fired, as if Fitz can't see the same things we're seeing (though understanding the overall game/system impact at a higher level). If this team manages to squeak into the playoffs and maybe even win a round, I don't think that automatically saves Ruff's job and even if this clearly isn't "our year", getting this young core more playoff experience can only be a good thing.

My biggest gripe with Ruff is he was absolute shit pre Brunette and it looks like he's fallen back into that hole. We had lineup issues/gripes last year as well and that was with Brunette being here and toning him back a bit. Fitz took everything away from him from his stupid ass lineup decisions and he's doubled down on it without playing Holtz, putting Mercer at center, consistently picking the worst goalie (you can put this on Fitz and I wouldn't blame you here). It just seems to me he's just winging it at this point because he knows he has a get out of jail free card for this year when he's contributed to it heavily as well where we are. Also, not to mention the consistently shitty starts this team has even when they were healthy.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

 

[Triumph]

Fitz is in a tough spot. I'm as frustrated at Ruff as a lot of the rest of you, but we're still talking about a coach that was a runner-up for the Jack Adams award last season and coached a 40+ year franchise to their best season ever. Not to mention the injuries and lack of goaltender, the later of which to some degree is on Fitz.

If you make an in-season coaching change you are very limited on options. 32 Thoughts podcast discussed this on the most recent episode. So, are you going with an interim guy so that you can still interview a wider pool of candidates this offseason or do you go with someone like Berube because he's one of the limited options available right now?

Also a bit disgusting that some posters are seemingly actively rooting for the team to miss the playoffs this season to guarantee that Ruff is fired, as if Fitz can't see the same things we're seeing (though understanding the overall game/system impact at a higher level). If this team manages to squeak into the playoffs and maybe even win a round, I don't think that automatically saves Ruff's job and even if this clearly isn't "our year", getting this young core more playoff experience can only be a good thing.

I will say that I can imagine Fitzgerald could be hesitant to change coaches in-season because of the complicated d-zone scheme. He might want whoever comes in next to have a full training camp to implement what they want to do, or alternately, hire an interim coach from the existing staff but then leave the scheme alone.

I will also say from where the team is now, there's no way that Ruff would be fired after winning a playoff round. The team is so far away from that at present, to get them to that point would be quite impressive.

 

[OmNomNom]

it's what i've said (and others have said) - without mcleod, we need a bottom 6C. ducks suck, we should be able to snag him

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

it's what i've said (and others have said) - without mcleod, we need a bottom 6C. ducks suck, we should be able to snag him

Hopefully the fact that we don’t require retention could drive the price down, if that’s something they care about.

 

[Cheddabombs]

Fine, Ruff for Henrique. No trade backs

 

[longislanddevil]

With our lack of center depth, I think Henrique would be a tremendous add (at the right price). I’m not too interested in adding pure rentals though and he is UFA this summer. Ideally, I’d like an extra year but of course the price would be higher.

3rd plus B prospect? I have a feeling it will take a 2nd rounder.

 

[The Grinder]

How many times has a player been traded for that same team to later trade for that player?

Would love it.

 

[OmNomNom]

With our lack of center depth, I think Henrique would be a tremendous add (at the right price). I’m not too interested in adding pure rentals though and he is UFA this summer. Ideally, I’d like an extra year but of course the price would be higher.

3rd plus B prospect? I have a feeling it will take a 2nd rounder.

i could see us sending graeme clarke + pick. we haven't even been good to clarke

 

[Devils731]

Obviously Bastian would have to go in a trade for Henrique to ensure the number 14 is available.

They were even both waived at one point so they go together.

 

[njdevil26]

Henrique has a modified no trade. I wonder if he would truly want to come back here... but yeah we could really use him and with his contract expiring at the end of the season, I don't think it would be expensive to get Anaheim to retain.

 

[Devils731]

In Simon Nemec, the Devils believe they have a foundational piece

It’s crazy when guys can do so well in a visual medium only to realize they were hampered by bad vision.