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

[guitarguyvic]

Ugh I hate to say this, but I’m starting to come around a little on the Fitz criticism re: goalie. Not all of it, but some of it. Like I totally get how/why a trade hasn’t happened. What’s leaving more disillusioned is that nothing at all has been done. Why on earth is the worst if goalie in the league still in our lineup? If the issue is that you don’t trust Schmid and Daws, then why didn’t you grab a vet of some sort for insurance during the off-season? Like it just doesn’t add up at all.

And what really has me starting to look at it differently is that he’s bungled the coaching situation simultaneously. This is an underachieving team with two massive obvious flaws dragging them down, and literally not even the most nominal action has been taken to address either.

 

[glenwo2]

If I'm Fitz (which I'm not), I'd strongly consider either bringing Akira back up or bringing up someone like Tyler Brennan or even Mr. Caveman himself : Jeremy Brodeur.

We need to try ALL our Goaltenders to see who the hell can rise from the Cream of the Crap into maybe NOT-Crap.

'Cause right now, Vitek is the Definition of Crap.

 

[Bleedred]

who are these supposed goalies? Scott Wedgewood who hasnt been here in a few years? He is under .900 and has a 3.00 GAA this year btw.

Blackwood is exactly the same guy in San Jose as he was in NJ.

Wedge was fine until Oettinger got injured and DeBoer DeBoered and gave him almost every game during the time Oettinger was injured (like Hedberg back in 2013). He was like Vitek bad during that particular stretch. His overall stats are a little better than Vitek's this year, but I'm sure his stats since Oettinger got injured (he's since come back and Wedgewood has STILL been bad since he returned) are UGGGGLLLLYYYYYY.

His game against us was one of his few rare decent games since Oettinger first got injured lol.

And the one game he didn't start when Oettinger was out hurt? Matt Murray (not THAT Matt Murray lol) got a shutout for them.

I'm pretty sure Kahkonen has been better than Blackwood this year, behind the same shitty team.

Vitek will be better after this team (probably) because the guy is in such a hole and the only way he can be saved is switching teams.

He'll NEVER be good here again. And I'm sure someone out that will remember me saying this and @ me after he has like 5 or 8 game stretch of .920% or a shutout this year or something to say I was wrong. Like I was actually saying ''YEAAAHHHH!!!!! HE'LL NEVER HAVE A GOOD GAME HERE AGAIN!'' Because some people believe that if a goalie has good games sometimes that maybe they're not actually a bad goalie? There's also a contigent that believes even if a high school goalie got put in, he would get scored on by every other shot or two out of every three shots. And I don't think he would. Unless he was really short maybe. We've seen 42 year old zamboni drivers stop 8 of 10 against powerful NHL teams and a 37 year old accountant by day stop all 7 shots he faced in an NHL game in relief.

 

[JimEIV]

Ugh I hate to say this, but I’m starting to come around a little on the Fitz criticism re: goalie. Not all of it, but some of it. Like I totally get how/why a trade hasn’t happened. What’s leaving more disillusioned is that nothing at all has been done. Why on earth is the worst if goalie in the league still in our lineup? If the issue is that you don’t trust Schmid and Daws, then why didn’t you grab a vet of some sort for insurance during the off-season? Like it just doesn’t add up at all.

And what really has me starting to look at it differently is that he’s bungled the coaching situation simultaneously. This is an underachieving team with two massive obvious flaws dragging them down, and literally not even the most nominal action has been taken to address either.

I think this is too critical...in that it lacks a lot of context

1. You're simply not making coaching changes after a record setting year where your star player is seemingly happy with the coach and just put up 99 points....no change was ever going happen. And when an assistant can go and become a HC you let him go and wish him well.

2. On goaltending Fitz had gone out and got a goalie every year he has been the GM except for this one...Schmid had a good playoffs, Vanecek had good year, Daws was in the wings...you weren't going to get a goalie at the start of the season after paying Jesper and Timo and not give your existing goalies a chance to compete.

Fitz still has done a very good job especially for where we were in 2019/20 when he took over. It's night and day

 

[Emperoreddy]

It's clearly evident that Brunette, despite the f*** ups with the powerplay at times last year and not putting Meier on the wing, was the brain of this operation and steered Lindy away from making absurdly dumb decisions.

I'm not sure I agree. I think things are largely the same as last year, but various factors including injuries, alleged scumbags, guys not running as hot, roster turnover, etc have just further exposed Ruff's issues that were covered up by good injury luck and better goaltending last season.

This year looks a lot like two years ago which was a season we also all wanted Ruff tossed out. We had no goalies and Ruff's system was badly exposed.

I never bought the idea that assistants had more to do with success or failure then the head coach. It's his system end of the day.

 

[Guttersniped]

And Wedgewood was above .910+ the previous two years and had a .911 for a shitty ass Arizona team that was worse than us the same year after he left, but yeah this year matters more because of your narrative. And really? I despise the guy just as much as any other Devils fan but he has 4 games that utterly torpedo his stats on a far worse SJ team that bleeds chances more than NJ this year. Every goalie that Rogalski touches has gotten worse and that includes our prospects. Not sure why you're pining for him here.

Are you talking about 20-21 or 21-22 Wedgewood?

Because Wedgewood played 8 periods of hockey for the Devils in 21-22. Not seeing that as statistically significant.

And I think Blackwood played well for us when healthy, it’s just that “when healthy” part stopped being a thing in his last two seasons.

While I’m happy for him if he stays healthy all year, I will also be annoyed if that happens.

People always called Blackwood a gym rat when he was here and I remember reading San Jose got him to do yoga. That’s not magic but I wonder if they got him to focus more on his flexibility. Who knows.

 

[glenwo2]

He was pretty solid for much of his time in Vancouver, at least until after he became a regular (Travis Green's system is easy on goalies perhaps?!),

Careful.

Some people may think you're actually advocating for Travis here.

 

[Billdo]

If I'm Fitz (which I'm not), I'd strongly consider either bringing Akira back up or bringing up someone like Tyler Brennan or even Mr. Caveman himself : Jeremy Brodeur.
.

Thanks for clarifying

 

[BurntToast]

The critical error was trying to pass Bahl as something he is not.

The “We aren’t starting two Rookies” crap, they used to keep Nemec in the AHL.

1B. They knew about the risk of the goalies. The two best options was a terrible AHLer and Blockaid (OK AHLer)?! They were banking on zero issues?! With two rookies on defense.

Graves and Sevs aren’t playing well this year. Does that make Timo a scrub? Just because they are having adjustment issues, doesn't make them bad. They are probably running to the boards. leaving a guy in the slot alone .

Fitz risked high on goalies and defense. Plus, the Devils finally had an “Ok” PK and most of them are gone. He added Toffoli and couldn’t afford anything else. I would of taken Sharan and the cap space.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Ugh I hate to say this, but I’m starting to come around a little on the Fitz criticism re: goalie. Not all of it, but some of it. Like I totally get how/why a trade hasn’t happened. What’s leaving more disillusioned is that nothing at all has been done. Why on earth is the worst if goalie in the league still in our lineup? If the issue is that you don’t trust Schmid and Daws, then why didn’t you grab a vet of some sort for insurance during the off-season? Like it just doesn’t add up at all.

And what really has me starting to look at it differently is that he’s bungled the coaching situation simultaneously. This is an underachieving team with two massive obvious flaws dragging them down, and literally not even the most nominal action has been taken to address either.

The coaching situation I hang on Fitz more then anything. Multiple teams who felt they were underachieving have cut their coaches loose and some of them have found success as a result.

Goalie market is obviously a shit show. We aren't the old team in desperate need of it but no one has done a deal which likely means the prices are gross.

Though I don't think he deserves a full pass on that despite the market. We can't keep just trotting out what we have expecting it to magically get better. Multiple starters with similar awful numbers to Vitek have already been waived, yet we keep trotting him out there.

It's also not going to magically get better in the offseason. In fact it might get worse as some goalies will come off the market due to deadline deals, and what's left (I hear the Saros/Askarov pipe dream) is going to be even more expensive then what Markstrom or Jake Allen are commanding right now.

The only real upside to waiting until the offseason to address this is we would have an extra asset to trade in our 2024 1st. We can't trade it in season due to conditions with the Timo trade.

There is no avoiding this issue. We have nothing in the system to fully address it, and there isn't really a perfect solution out there and everything is going to be expensive.

I think the only real thing Fitz can do is bite the bullet and just get a trade done as most options available now have term ideally they would be your solution for a few years until you can develop a proper young starter.

 

[Emperoreddy]

The critical error was trying to pass Bahl as something he is not.

The “We aren’t starting two Rookies” crap, they used to keep Nemec in the AHL.

1B. They knew about the risk of the goalies. The two best options was a terrible AHLer and Blockaid (OK AHLer)?! They were banking on zero issues?! With two rookies on defense.

Graves and Sevs aren’t playing well this year. Does that make Timo a scrub? Just because they are having adjustment issues, doesn't make them bad. They are probably running to the boards. leaving a guy in the slot alone .

Fitz risked high on goalies and defense. Plus, the Devils finally had an “Ok” PK and most of them are gone. The add Toffoli and couldn’t afford anything else. I would of taken Sharan and the cap space.

Graves wasn't good last year either, and I like Sevo but we was playing on our third pair, not our first which is a big difference.

Bahl really isn't the issue on the back end. It's much more Siegs turning into a pumpkin then breaking his foot that created issues there.

Yegor was not good for this team last year either. His overall play in Calgary hasn't really been great either outside some unsustainable shooting percentage.

 

[glenwo2]

Thanks for clarifying

I mean I still have my two front teeth, you know?

 

[MartyOwns]

this year is not a great look for fitz…he made some huge gambles and they’re not paying off. if we miss the playoffs and he doesn’t make some drastic changes in the offseason, i’ll have lost a lot of confidence in him. but i still have confidence in him to make the right moves, he’s earned that much.

 

[Forge]

 

[Guttersniped]

Graves wasn't good last year either, and I like Sevo but we was playing on our third pair, not our first which is a big difference.

Bahl really isn't the issue on the back end. It's much more Siegs turning into a pumpkin then breaking his foot that created issues there.

Yegor was not good for this team last year either. His overall play in Calgary hasn't really been great either outside some unsustainable shooting percentage.

Marino/Graves pairing was capable of handling difficult minutes way better than any pairing we currently and they were fantastic on the PK.

This season the PK got worse when Smith out, he’s been fantastic on it.

 

[Emperoreddy]

So whats that mean? Talks are dead, or are they still talking?

 

[NJDevs26]

This sounds like 'serious CBA negotiations' before either party really moves at all.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

here is the video:



oh, "retention" and "trade return" hit a snag? you mean the only two things that matter lol

 

[Forge]

So whats that mean? Talks are dead, or are they still talking?

I haven't heard the hit myself, but just saw that he added this in a follow up tweet

 

[MadDevil]

So whats that mean? Talks are dead, or are they still talking?

My guess would be holding pattern until either side moves from their positions as the deadline approaches. Or until another team gets involved.

Or it's dead lol

 

[Emperoreddy]

This is so f***ed. Those issues aren't going to go away.

 

[Billdo]

here is the video:



oh, "retention" and "trade return" hit a snag? you mean the only two things that matter lol

I'd be really disappointed if they did this now and it costs Casey or our 1st.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I have zero problem trading our 2025 first for goaltending, Casey is too much though.

 

[Forge]

If you believe Markstrom talk is dead (and at best, it probably wouldn't get done any time soon), that leaves circling back to Gibson, or likely trading for a guy like Kahkonen or Lankinen and then just running it out for the year?

I really don't think they'd make a push on Allen with another year after this one

 

[Barry Tallackson]

“But Toffoli is our leading goal scorer!”

half of his goals have been in 6 games. the other half in 42 games…