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

[njdevils1982]

After a franchise record season, and more youth coming. Wild.

now do lou's isles

 

[Lou is God]

After a franchise record season, and more youth coming. Wild.

I would have never guessed Florida to be one of the youngest teams.

 

[Beastdog75]

So I looked up Cam Recchi and Will Dineen, and they are indeed nepotism invites (Mark's son and Kevin's son respectively).

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

I would have never guessed Florida to be one of the youngest teams.

Bennett, Tkachuk, Reinhart, Ekblad, Lundell, etc have been drafted after 2014 at the worst so it tracks, lol.

 

[Bleedred]

I was mildly shocked to see Vancouver is that young lol.

 

[MartyOwns]

now do lou's isles

live look at lou reviewing his roster in capfriendly’s monthly magazine

 

[NjDevsRR]

live look at lou reviewing his roster in capfriendly’s monthly magazine

 

[Blender]

After a franchise record season, and more youth coming. Wild.

So many yutes.

 

[MadDevil]

now do lou's isles

The Islanders should be sponsored by Ensure.

 

[Bleedred]

The Islanders were surprisingly younger than I thought last year. I think with the Chara and Greene retirements, they shaved quite a ton off their average age, even with Parise still there. They were like a combined age of 85 that season.

If Parise doesn't come back to play this year, they'll be even younger.

 

[Eggtimer]

Bennett, Tkachuk, Reinhart, Ekblad, Lundell, etc have been drafted after 2014 at the worst so it tracks, lol.

Who are our “old “ guys ? Smith , Miller , Palat , Toffoli ?
I thought we were 2nd youngest last season amd now we removed Severson and Tatar . Two older farts . I thought we’d be 1st or 2nd youngest

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Who are our “old “ guys ? Smith , Miller , Palat , Toffoli ?
I thought we were 2nd youngest last season amd now we removed Severson and Tatar . Two older farts . I thought we’d be 1st or 2nd youngest

Haula

 

[Eggtimer]

Haula

Ya . I thought removing Tatar Severson Graves would make us even younger but we add Toffoli and Miller . I’m too lazy to look up Millers age but it has to be around 30. Then adding Hellebuyck will bump it up very slightly

 

[Saugus]

now do lou's isles

They would do it, but then they realized if they wait a couple years they’ll be eligible for full Social Security benefits.

 

[Blackjack]

I would have never guessed Florida to be one of the youngest teams.

I’m guessing Florida has some young kids in depth roles.

A better way to answer the “who has the youngest team” question is to weight it by ice time, so your 19 year old 4th line winger doesn’t outweigh Jack and Luke.

But the best way to do it is to weight it by GSVA. That’s where you find out who has the brightest future in terms of guys already in the league.

 

[Forge]

It still cracks me up how salty some Vancouver fans are in the replies because of the luongo recapture and their lack of understanding why it was the way it was

 

[Garl]

“Hypothetically if our 22 year old prospect who has 5 points in 28 career games scores 20 goals and 40 points this year would we be happy?” lmao hm, idk let me think on that one.

6 pts in 28 games and, in games where he got more than 10 min per game his stats look way better

 

[Better Call Sal]

It still cracks me up how salty some Vancouver fans are in the replies because of the luongo recapture and their lack of understanding why it was the way it was

This is the only interview that I have ever been able to come across on record where Kovy addresses his retirement from NJ. It was from an episode of Cam Janssen's podcast about 3 years ago, they ask him about it around the 31:35 mark. He mentions that he thinks it worked well for both sides because Vanderbeek was the owner and he wasn't doing well financially. After that, he mentions how he had fun in Russia during the lockout year and it was important to him for his family to go back there.

I think we truly didn't realize how dire things were with Vanderbeek until it was too late.

 

[OmNomNom]

when did this happen? had no idea he was a scout

 

[SJinNewJersey]

Trade Mercer for futures?

 

[MB3]

I know he wasn't around long but I don't think I've ever loved a professional athlete quite the way I loved Kovy.

Most electric player I've ever seen. Until 86 came around, I thought there was almost no chance we'd see someone like him in red-and-black ever, ever again.

 

[Bleedred]

This is the only interview that I have ever been able to come across on record where Kovy addresses his retirement from NJ. It was from an episode of Cam Janssen's podcast about 3 years ago, they ask him about it around the 31:35 mark. He mentions that he thinks it worked well for both sides because Vanderbeek was the owner and he wasn't doing well financially. After that, he mentions how he had fun in Russia during the lockout year and it was important to him for his family to go back there.

I think we truly didn't realize how dire things were with Vanderbeek until it was too late.

It’s sometimes been implied that this was more of a mutual agreement or Lou asking Kovalchuk to leave now (before the recapture was higher after that year) if he wants to leave. After he expressed desire to remain in Russia after the 2012-2013 lockout ended 6 months earlier. That story seemed to be forgotten after about a week, until 6 months later when all this went down. I forgot exactly what happened, but either someone in the Russian press leaked that Kovalchuk wanted to stay behind or maybe it was even Kovalchuk himself publicly saying he wanted to stay behind. And he even stayed for the KHL all star game and came to camp a few days late. I think one other player did that, might have been Datsyuk?

Anyway, there seems to be theories that Lou pretty much encouraged Kovalchuk to go through with this and potentially for the betterment of the financial state of the team, which was currently for sale and sold about a month later. It was a roughly $80 million commitment off the books before the sale.

While this theory seems plausible for sure, Lou didn’t exactly sound at all happy with him in the media availability on the day this happened. There’s been few times he sounded that pissed off during a presser.

I remember during a press conference for another unrelated matter, I forget if it was later that same offseaeon or the next offseason, he was asked about him again and they may have asked about the possibility of him coming back to the NHL again and playing for the Devils. Lou definitely didn’t sound pissed like he did on the day it happened, but seemed annoyed and sarcastically changed the subject to the guy asking the question by telling him how great his lunch was afternoon.

 

[Bcap88]

It’s sometimes been implied that this was more of a mutual agreement or Lou asking Kovalchuk to leave now (before the recapture was higher after that year) if he wants to leave. After he expressed desire to remain in Russia after the 2012-2013 lockout ended 6 months earlier. That story seemed to be forgotten after about a week, until 6 months later when all this went down. I forgot exactly what happened, but either someone in the Russian press leaked that Kovalchuk wanted to stay behind or maybe it was even Kovalchuk himself publicly saying he wanted to stay behind. And he even stayed for the KHL all star game and came to camp a few days late. I think one other player did that, might have been Datsyuk?

Anyway, there seems to be theories that Lou pretty much encouraged Kovalchuk to go through with this and potentially for the betterment of the financial state of the team, which was currently for sale and sold about a month later. It was a roughly $80 million commitment off the books before the sale.

While this theory seems plausible for sure, Lou didn’t exactly sound at all happy with him in the media availability on the day this happened. There’s been few times he sounded that pissed off during a presser.

I remember during a press conference for another unrelated matter, I forget if it was later that same offseaeon or the next offseason, he was asked about him again and they may have asked about the possibility of him coming back to the NHL again and playing for the Devils. Lou definitely didn’t sound pissed like he did on the day it happened, but seemed annoyed and sarcastically changed the subject to the guy asking the question by telling him how great his lunch was afternoon.

There was rumblings right before the lockout ended that kovalchuk wanted to stay in Russia. He also asked Lou if he could come to camp late to stay for the all star game which was granted. I believe the Russian press leaked it. It was always kovalchuk intention to go back to Russia but everyone assumed it would be later in his career and not in the middle of his prime

 

[Bleedred]

There was rumblings right before the lockout ended that kovalchuk wanted to stay in Russia. He also asked Lou if he could come to camp late to stay for the all star game which was granted. I believe the Russian press leaked it. It was always kovalchuk intention to go back to Russia but everyone assumed it would be later in his career and not in the middle of his prime

Yeah, I remember when this all went down in January of 2013. Some people here were really worried about it, while others were saying “no way that happens! You’re interpreting him wrong!”.

I wasn’t completely freaking out over it, but I do think I was just slightly alarmed by it, if not more than slightly.

 

[Devs3cups]

I know he wasn't around long but I don't think I've ever loved a professional athlete quite the way I loved Kovy.

Most electric player I've ever seen. Until 86 came around, I thought there was almost no chance we'd see someone like him in red-and-black ever, ever again.

It happened a while ago, but it still stings lol. I was still playing minor hockey when we got Kovy. I was a HUGE Kovy fan. My minor hockey team had similar colours to the Devils uniforms, and I wore #17, had the same stick Kovy had, which was the Warrior Dolomite DD at the time (this absolute beauty):

I even went as far as using the same tape job as him with the Devils (since it worked with my team’s colours), white tape on the blade and red tape on the knob. Also asked for some black/red/white Warrior gloves for Christmas one year.

Needless to say, I was absolutely heartbroken when it happened. We’re better off now, but at the time I was crushed, especially only 1 year after Parise left.

Sad times lol.