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

[Cheddabombs]

John Vanbiesbrouck… top 3 NJ backup goaltender of all time?

Hedberg #1 for sure

 

[NJDevs26]

Cue the panic

 

[R8Devs]

Boqvist to Boston for league minimum, not a big loss or anything but would have been fine with the Devils bringing him back around that price as cheap depth. Although when they didn't qualify him they did say they had interest in bringing him back and he signed for the lowest amount that a team could offer him so maybe he himself just found a place where he had more potential to be a regular.

But with that the Devils have 11 forwards on the roster -- Foote is probably going to be on the roster just because of waiver reasons, Holtz probably makes it too. Clarke as next callup.

Maybe they'll go with 13 forwards and 8 defenseman or they sign someone like Pius Suter.

 

[NJDevs26]

They really didn't have interest though...you didn't hear stuff about them trying to re-sign him the way you did with McLeod and Bastian and he was a free agent a lot longer. Maybe they said they had interest to not tank his value elsewhere.

 

[Rhodes 81]

PDB was only following precedent set by ATL coaches. All of them worked his minutes. Hartley, Anderson...They realized he is a horse and worked him like one. I always remember that TGulitti fireice blog post commenting about how everyone was amazed Kovy barely broke a sweat from some crazy drill session and he was off the ice like nothing happened. Either PBD had commented or his teammates commented everyone was dead but Kovy walked off like nothing happened.

Wish I could find the old post on some archive.

He was an absolute machine, and forced to be one because a lot of those ATL teams couldn;t win without him playing 25 minutes and scoring twice. Playing the full 2 minutes on the PP for his whole career definitely helped inflate the average, though. Particularly in those years right after the '05 lockout when they were calling every damn thing and there were 10 powerplays a game or whatever.

 

[Unknown Caller]

Boqvist to Boston for league minimum, not a big loss or anything but would have been fine with the Devils bringing him back around that price as cheap depth. Although when they didn't qualify him they did say they had interest in bringing him back and he signed for the lowest amount that a team could offer him so maybe he himself just found a place where he had more potential to be a regular.

But with that the Devils have 11 forwards on the roster -- Foote is probably going to be on the roster just because of waiver reasons, Holtz probably makes it too. Clarke as next callup.

Maybe they'll go with 13 forwards and 8 defenseman or they sign someone like Pius Suter.

He reminds me of Jacob Josefson in a lot of ways. A perfectly capable bottom 6 forward who is just kind of there and doesn’t do anything really valuable or well enough to stick around over other options.

Both had the potential and skill set to be so much more than what they developed into. You see flashes from time to time, but neither could put it all together consistently.

 

[Cheddabombs]

Wow Fitz couldn't match that?? Embarrassing

 

[Bcap88]

Zetterlund, Boqvist Told It's Time To Find a Place to Live | FEATURE

Never forget !!

 

[Ripshot 43]

Zetterlund, Boqvist Told It's Time To Find a Place to Live | FEATURE

Never forget !!

“It’s time to find a place to live…. In another state”

 

[Darkauron]

BQ is not really anything to be concerned about. Glad he is getting a chance in Boston. He has a lot more chance to move up and down the line up there fowards wise. We are pretty stacked now and im guessing having a tougher bottom 6 is more important too

 

[Better Call Sal]

I think he likely pursued a new opportunity. Tough to fault him, not that he didn't get his chances here but the chance was there to hit free agency earlier and see what was out there. I appreciate that Fitz draws his line in the sand on guys who would essentially be 4th liners and what he was willing to pay, hence why he didn't just qualify a guy on the roster that could potentially go to arbitration.

All the best to Boqvist, I liked him a lot. You can do worse than him in the bottom 6.

 

[theoptimist]

Good luck Jesper

 

[Andre Palot]

I couldn't stand this player one bit. He was one of my most unfavorite Devils forward prospects (that actually played over 100 NHL games) ever.

Like most people, I wanted Carlson over him in the 2008 draft, but I got over that and gave him a chance. He looked very impressive upon his first NHL call up as a 20 year old first year North American, who had only played a few AHL games at the time he was first called up.

He came on strong and looked like he was going to be pretty good. He was maybe one of the best players on the team under MacLoser, which may or may not be an accomplishment.

He progressively dropped off as the year went on. He didn't produce as much under Lemaire, and he didn't produce hardly anything under DeBoer. He got worse and worse the more games he played in the NHL. He got A LOT of breakaways, but rarely scored on them. He was able to impressively dangle through guys, but had not much finish, save for his first 20 or 30 games in the league. I think a huge percentage of his total NHL points scored came in his first 30 games (he played 120) in the league. I went through this before, I just forget my actual findings.

I took a TON of shit for not believing in this player, maybe as much as I did over the Schneider bounce back that I guaranteed would never happen, as well as the Blackwood stuff.

There were a lot of people that thought he was a sure-fire NHL player, even as of 11-12 and that he just needed some more time in the minors and needed to play with good players.

The problem with him was that he was an offensive player that just wasn't good at scoring/producing offense beyond his first 30-ish games in the league. His AHL production wasn't bad, but certainly wasn't anything worth bragging about either. It's easy to see why he took his stick and went back home to Europe for good at age 24 and hasn't been heard from since.

I looked up the Tedenby splits again just for clarification. He had 30 points (10 goals, 20 assists) in 120 career NHL games. He had 14 points and 7 goals in his first 31 games. So he had only 3 goals and 16 points in his final 89 games in the league. So almost half of his total points came in his first 31 games and 70% of his total goals came in his first 31 games in the league.

I was so convinced we were going to pick Carlson. Lou typically loved hometown hero stories like that. Tedenbust had a little bit of speed and that's it.

 

[Saugus]

Sucks to lose Boqvist, but he wasn't that special, and clearly he didn't fit into our plans. I hope he does well in Boston and rekindles a beautiful friendship with Zacha.

I'm surprised that Bahl still isn't re-signed, however. Makes me wonder if Fitz is waiting to complete another move first, so that he'll know how much room there is for Bahl's new contract.

 

[Classic Devil]

Sucks to lose Boqvist, but he wasn't that special, and clearly he didn't fit into our plans. I hope he does well in Boston and rekindles a beautiful friendship with Zacha.

I'm surprised that Bahl still isn't re-signed, however. Makes me wonder if Fitz is waiting to complete another move first, so that he'll know how much room there is for Bahl's new contract.

This is my gut feeling. We’d like to take the opportunity to sign Bahl to a long-term contract, but that would make him cost a little more next year so we’re waiting to see how our goaltending situation shakes out first.

 

[KovalchukFistPump]

He reminds me of Jacob Josefson in a lot of ways. A perfectly capable bottom 6 forward who is just kind of there and doesn’t do anything really valuable or well enough to stick around over other options.

Both had the potential and skill set to be so much more than what they developed into. You see flashes from time to time, but neither could put it all together consistently.

Hey, remember when Josefson was gonna step up with added responsibility? Good times.

 

[Devilsfan92]

So you expect worse than 2021-22 goaltending?

I expect some kind of set back, I just dont know what it'll be yet. Everything just seems too much in place for success so quickly, theres always a wrench. I'm kinda wondering is the new wave of good teams gonna come up faster than in previous years and who could that potentially be.

 

[Triumph]

He reminds me of Jacob Josefson in a lot of ways. A perfectly capable bottom 6 forward who is just kind of there and doesn’t do anything really valuable or well enough to stick around over other options.

Both had the potential and skill set to be so much more than what they developed into. You see flashes from time to time, but neither could put it all together consistently.

People insisted on making this comparison over and over but Boqvist can score goals; it's probably his best attribute. He has over double the scoring rate of Josefson and he never played on the power play with any regularity.

Josefson's problem was he couldn't score, put the two guys together and you've got a solid NHL player.

 

[Hisch13r]

I expect some kind of set back, I just dont know what it'll be yet. Everything just seems too much in place for success so quickly, theres always a wrench. I'm kinda wondering is the new wave of good teams gonna come up faster than in previous years and who could that potentially be.

Buffalo’s the only one that can make a jump like we did. You’re expecting WAYYYYYYY too much of a step back

 

[Brodeur]

I'm surprised that Bahl still isn't re-signed, however. Makes me wonder if Fitz is waiting to complete another move first, so that he'll know how much room there is for Bahl's new contract.

RFAs aren't as urgent in the summer. CapFriendly lists 70 RFAs waiting on contracts. The RFA D who played in the NHL last year: Vince Dunn, Evan Bouchard, Ty Smith, Jamie Drysdale, Tim Burni, Calen Addison, Logan Stanley, and Kevin Bahl.

I can only imagine they've floated a couple offers of varying length towards Bahl.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

Hall’s Hart year is the best single Devils season ever.

I would still take Kovy's 2011-12 season ahead of Hall's MVP season

 

[Hisch13r]

I would still take Kovy's 2011-12 season ahead of Hall's MVP season

I really don’t get this. It was a similar scoring era and Hall had 10 more pts and 2 more goals in 2 fewer games while having much less help. People love to say Kovy had really improved his defense but they only think that because of his PK work. He still sucked defensively at 5v5 while Hall was driving play to an elite level at both ends. It was definitely Hall. 01 Elias, 09 Parise, and this years Jack (would’ve been last year too if he stayed healthy) are all also over 2012 Kovy.

These numbers with that super mediocre QoT and still facing pretty touch QoC is hilarious

 

[TrufleShufle]

I really don’t get this. It was a similar scoring era and Hall had 10 more pts and 2 more goals in 2 fewer games while having much less help. People love to say Kovy had really improved his defense but they only think that because of his PK work. He still sucked defensively at 5v5 while Hall was driving play to an elite level at both ends. It was definitely Hall. 01 Elias, 09 Parise, and this years Jack (would’ve been last year too if he stayed healthy) are all also over 2012 Kovy.

These numbers with that super mediocre QoT and still facing pretty touch QoC is hilarious

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Given our lack of center depth I can't say I understand letting Bo go when he could have been had for the league min. The team really didn't like him. I get not wanting to commit much to such a replaceable player, but league min for a year? Not sure why they decided not to do that.

 

[kiwidevil]

Does Bahl have a fancy microstat player card thing?