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

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Triumph said:
They cannot have that much control. Absolutely nobody maintains an on-ice save percentage of 96%. Bergeron is a great defensive player, who has played almost exclusively in front of excellent goalies, on a team that overcounts shots against, and he has a 92.6% on-ice save percentage.



The problem is that Miles Wood just doesn't fit into this calculus of defensive sticks/rush coverage/etc. I do not think he is strong defensively.
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Good defensively or not, he filled a role in that line. You don't get that kind of linestats if you don't play your part. To me he reminded of Greenway in the Wild line mentioned. While Eriksson-Ek 2-way game was probably the main reason why they dominated the goals% three years in a row Greenway did bring the corner fight potential and hard worker attitude to the line and it really worked well.

I'm not saying it's worth paying Wood 15M like Av's did, but I do have a soft spot for hard working team 1st players that get next to no recognition.
 
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Aurinko said:
Forwards can have control of the amount of high danger chances. The reason why Bergeron's lines have been on top of the goals% over a decade isn't as much the offensive side, but the fact that Bergeron makes sure that forwards play the right way.

I've followed a good 20 years purely defensive centers play. I don't care about points at all, all I care is the defensive sticks, rush coverage, back/forecheck of the forwards. Unlike other major sports, hockey is a team sport where the defensive coverage is much more important than what general fans belive. Teams with offensive minded star forwards often end up with situation where they are top heavy, and while the stars might be playing >50% hockey and outscoring some their defensive deficiencys, its not enough since they can't afford quality depth to do the same with bottom line players.
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The poster you are trying to engage with has a track record of misunderstanding / misapplying data and statistics. Plus, never admits when they are wrong. I wouldn't bother.
 
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Blackjack said:
I just looked this up, and there are two types of bonuses that are available. “A” level are for pretty attainable things like (for a defenseman) scoring 10 goals or 25 assists as a defenseman, all rookie team, top four in ice time among the team’s defensemen.

“A” level bonuses are worth a maximum of $850k total.

“B” level bonuses are for things like being top 10 in the league in goals or assists, winning the Hart, Selke, Norris, Conn Smythe, etc.

If you hit any of the requirements, you get a flat $2 million, and you don’t get any more if you hit more than one.

We have $422,500 in carryover bonuses from last year, which I’m pretty sure went to Dawson Mercer. I think it’s pretty unlikely that Luke and Nemec combine for more than that.
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It seems like Luke has a shot at hitting quite a few of the A level. Either way, I think having 1.5m cap space isn't a bad idea.
 
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Triumph said:
The reason why they had such a high goals percentage is their on-ice save percentage, which forwards don't have much control over, if any. So yeah, they were at 50% xG and 58% High-Danger Chances, both of which are solid numbers for a 4th line, but the reason why they were +6 in that time is that the goalies stopped 96.2% of the opposing shots.
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Wood’s always been lucky with on ice shooting % I guess. (He played 3 games in 2021-22 so that’s meaningless.)

445B0552-DAC7-4C94-B02B-0A5E523EC0CA.jpeg
 
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Devils 4th line was meaningfully and markedly worse than every other line we rolled out last year.

Now, it’s got our worst players so you’d expect it to be, somewhat, but every other line crushed and that one barely treaded water. Wood was a big part of that!

He’s just not good. Maybe coloraod knows how to fix him, or maybe they made a bad deal. Good management still makes mistakes.
 
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Forge said:
How are people feeling if this is the roster we go into the season with (assume Holtz and Foote take up spots 12 and 13 in the forward grourp)
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Think we need one more body up front so we have some depth in case of injury and don’t have to gift Holtz a top 9 spot. No interest in seeing McLeod playing on the third line outside of spot duty if we’re in a pinch. I’m kind of surprised we’re not bringing Boqvist back given the lack of cheap external options
 
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Aurinko said:
Good defensively or not, he filled a role in that line. You don't get that kind of linestats if you don't play your part.
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I disagree. I think plenty of poor defensive players have maintained an on-ice save percentage above that for a longer stretch of time. It comes down to luck - sometimes the puck, for whatever reason, just doesn't go in the net. Obviously the better defense you play, the less likely it is that the puck goes in, but players only have so much control over that, and the rest is ineffable.

I think that line is okay, it was a good 4th line, but it was also expensive.

Aurinko said:
To me he reminded of Greenway in the Wild line mentioned. While Eriksson-Ek 2-way game was probably the main reason why they dominated the goals% three years in a row Greenway did bring the corner fight potential and hard worker attitude to the line and it really worked well.

I'm not saying it's worth paying Wood 15M like Av's did, but I do have a soft spot for hard working team 1st players that get next to no recognition.
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I think Wood got tons of recognition, maybe not here, but certainly among Devils fans and in the media. Maybe he never got recognition for his defensive work.
 
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Not sure where to ask this, but does anyone know when the single game tickets go on sale?
 
Lots of great line combinations available for the top 9 next year, assuming Holtz is part of that group.
Hischier / Hughes / Palat / Meier / Bratt / Toffoli / Haula / Mercer / Holtz

Meier - Hughes - Bratt
Palat - Hischier - Toffoli
Haula - Mercer - Holtz

OR

Bratt - Hughes - Toffoli
Meier - Hischier - Mercer
Palat - Haula - Holtz

OR

Meier - Hughes - Toffoli
Bratt - Hischier - Holtz
Palat - Haula - Mercer

OR

Haula - Hughes - Toffoli
Meier - Hischier - Bratt
Palat - Mercer - Holtz

OR

Bratt - Hughes - Holtz
Meier - Hischier - Toffoli
Palat - Haula - Mercer

OR
OR
OR

LOVE IT
 
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Bleedred said:
McLeod has officially become a player that sometimes people have extreme opinion of in either direction. There is not much middle ground with him.

There's people arguing that he's this defensive god that prevents a significant number of goals against from happening over an entire year, and then there's people that make him out to be not much different or better than someone like Stephen Gionta or god forbid Rod Pelley.

I prefer to take the middle ground with him.
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You always end up middle of the road on players. Go back and look at all the posts I had to ask you to explain your views on Blackwood since you were always so wish washy but we could just sense you were holding something back.
 
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BigDevs93 said:
Lots of great line combinations available for the top 9 next year, assuming Holtz is part of that group.
Hischier / Hughes / Palat / Meier / Bratt / Toffoli / Haula / Mercer / Holtz

Meier - Hughes - Bratt
Palat - Hischier - Toffoli
Haula - Mercer - Holtz

OR

Bratt - Hughes - Toffoli
Meier - Hischier - Mercer
Palat - Haula - Holtz

OR

Meier - Hughes - Toffoli
Bratt - Hischier - Holtz
Palat - Haula - Mercer

OR

Haula - Hughes - Toffoli
Meier - Hischier - Bratt
Palat - Mercer - Holtz

OR

Bratt - Hughes - Holtz
Meier - Hischier - Toffoli
Palat - Haula - Mercer

OR
OR
OR

LOVE IT
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Presumably the first domino will be whether they keep Mercer at RW or shift him to 3C. Because then that slots Haula as well. And they build around that. I would think Haula is 3C at least in their mind to start - if indeed that ends up being the case, I like option #2 of what you have there (on paper at least)
 
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