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

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Boqvist ... to date has not proven that he should be a regular player. He has some flashes of ability but can't put it all together and I'm not signing up for a 10 point guy. Glad we moved on.

he had 21 and 23 points the last 2 years lol he is not "a 10 point guy"

 

[Hisch13r]

I don’t know how anyone could possibly argue again a league min Boqvist. He’s a useful bottom 6er

 

[Andre Palot]

View attachment 728504

MERCER MADNESS, DIG IT!

 

[Classic Devil]

I don’t know how anyone could possibly argue again a league min Boqvist. He’s a useful bottom 6er

He'd be a good 13th or 14th forward, yeah. But clearly either we were looking for a different skillset in that spot, or he was looking for a bigger opportunity elsewhere.

The Miller acquisition certainly speaks to that, as well. He's a perfect placeholder for the 3rd RD spot. And if Nemec blows everyone away during training camp and earns the spot, it's a win-win.

Yep. Let the kid earn his spot. If he doesn't and has to spend some of next year in Utica while Hughes adjusts to the NHL, that's okay.

I know they probably won't do it, but I would be tempted to throw Luke and Nemec together and just give them a bunch of offensive zone starts.

I would not be opposed to Hughes and Nemec being the blueliners on the second powerplay unit.

 

[Call Me Al]

boqvist clearly wanted an opportunity elsewhere and signed league minimum for his best chance to prove he’s a player. he’s a fine skill set but he’s absolutely replaceable, he was serviceable in his opportunities but never took advantage of it enough to keep him in the lineup. hardly worth worrying about

 

[Hischier and Hughes]

I don’t know how anyone could possibly argue again a league min Boqvist. He’s a useful bottom 6er

Clearly youre wrong though because Hes gone. Boqvist is a top-6 playstyle without top-6 skill

Another advanced stat darling bites the dust, go figure

 

[Better Call Sal]

I'm personally looking forward to the internal camp battle of Foote, Holtz and Clarke to see who can take the available spots. I still wouldn't be surprised to see us bring in a veteran on a PTO or fill one more winger spot somehow, but it's always good to see a healthy competition in camp.

 

[RememberTheName]

Now that Boqvist is gone I believe we only have one player left in the organization from the 2017 NHL draft, and that is our beautiful Nico.

Looking back on that draft, I think we did solid. Definitely not amazing by any means, but definitely good enough. We made the right choice going with Nico of course. After that, we took Jesper Boqvist with our next pick. Not an amazing player by any means, but he has been serviceable enough. Other notable players from that round were Jason Robertson (3 picks later), Eetu Luostarinen, Mario Ferraro (the Mirco Mueller pick lmao), and Maxime Comtois. Only really missed out on one player that round, so I can't really complain too much. Fabian was the next pick, and again, nothing really notable came out of that round either aside from Morgan Geekie. We also took Riley Walsh that round, who in the grand scheme of things, turned out to be a nothingburger.

Round 4 was Popugayev. There were actually a couple solid NHLers taken a bit later in this round, but I think Pops was still a good pick given what he had showed earlier in the season and the fact that most outlets had him pegged for the 2nd round. Other noteable players were Mikey Anderson (Joey's brother, 5 picks later), Jeremy Swayman, Emil Bemstrom, and Drake Batherson. Pops was a fine risk to take, unfortunate it didn't work out.

Rounds 5-7 produced approximately 3 low end NHLers total, which were Sebastian Aho (NYI), Noah Cates, and Morgan Barron. So nothing to write home about with what we missed there. Got some games out of Studs and Senn, so that I guess is fine.

Either way, we did good with what was available in the 2017 draft. Nico is our boy, and Fabs helped us to get Timo Meier. Think it worked out well for us overall.

 

[Classic Devil]

Now that Boqvist is gone I believe we only have one player left in the organization from the 2017 NHL draft, and that is our beautiful Nico.

Looking back on that draft, I think we did solid. Definitely not amazing by any means, but definitely good enough. We made the right choice going with Nico of course. After that, we took Jesper Boqvist with our next pick. Not an amazing player by any means, but he has been serviceable enough. Other notable players from that round were Jason Robertson (3 picks later), Eetu Luostarinen, Mario Ferraro (the Mirco Mueller pick lmao), and Maxime Comtois. Only really missed out on one player that round, so I can't really complain too much. Fabian was the next pick, and again, nothing really notable came out of that round either aside from Morgan Geekie. We also took Riley Walsh that round, who in the grand scheme of things, turned out to be a nothingburger.

Round 4 was Popugayev. There were actually a couple solid NHLers taken a bit later in this round, but I think Pops was still a good pick given what he had showed earlier in the season and the fact that most outlets had him pegged for the 2nd round. Other noteable players were Mikey Anderson (Joey's brother, 5 picks later), Jeremy Swayman, Emil Bemstrom, and Drake Batherson. Pops was a fine risk to take, unfortunate it didn't work out.

Rounds 5-7 produced approximately 3 low end NHLers total, which were Sebastian Aho (NYI), Noah Cates, and Morgan Barron. So nothing to write home about with what we missed there. Got some games out of Studs and Senn, so that I guess is fine.

Either way, we did good with what was available in the 2017 draft. Nico is our boy, and Fabs helped us to get Timo Meier. Think it worked out well for us overall.

Any time you can turn draft picks from round3-7 into games played + more draft picks, you're probably doing well.

 

[542365]

Hey, fantasy hockey question and I didn’t know where else to put it. Is Toffoli likely to play with Hughes and on the top PP unit?

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Hey, fantasy hockey question and I didn’t know where else to put it. Is Toffoli likely to play with Hughes and on the top PP unit?

Your guess is as good as anyone’s with the lines. He’s probably just as likely to play with Nico. I think we’d want his right shot on the PP but then that would probably knock Bratt off PP1. Hard to say what the lineup will look like.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Your guess is as good as anyone’s with the lines. He’s probably just as likely to play with Nico. I think we’d want his right shot on the PP but then that would probably knock Bratt off PP1. Hard to say what the lineup will look like.

Nico will probably start with Timo and Mercer especially the latter to keep the continuity of that Tatar-Nico-Mercer line that was arguably our best one last year.

 

[Triumph]

Clearly youre wrong though because Hes gone. Boqvist is a top-6 playstyle without top-6 skill

Another advanced stat darling bites the dust, go figure

lol, Boqvist was never 'an advanced stat darling', he was just 'a player who is decent who people thought he wasn't because they don't know what it means to get 4th line ice time'

He didn't bite the dust, he went to one of the smarter organizations in the game.

 

[Nocashstyle]

boqvist clearly wanted an opportunity elsewhere and signed league minimum for his best chance to prove he’s a player. he’s a fine skill set but he’s absolutely replaceable, he was serviceable in his opportunities but never took advantage of it enough to keep him in the lineup. hardly worth worrying about

Yeah I get the feeling like this was maybe Fitz more doing Boqvist a favor than actually wanting to move on from him.

 

[theoptimist]

He does give 10 pt vibes tho....just saying

 

[Saugus]

I don’t know how anyone could possibly argue again a league min Boqvist. He’s a useful bottom 6er

I think keeping him at that price would have been fine. But losing him is also fine too.

I guess Fitz's idea is to see if we can find a role player who is a better use for that roster spot, and to give Boqvist an opportunity to catch on elsewhere instead of being stuck as a tweener here. We've seen repeatedly that Fitz tries to do right by players if he can, and this may be an example of that.

Not pointing at you with this, but I don't think there's a need to get worked up about it either way, or claim that it proves or disproves anything about advanced stats. Sometimes a guy just isn't a fit for what you're trying to do, so you cut him loose and wish him luck.

 

[Forge]

Ok maybe I'm overrating Boqvist and/or evaluating him more based on his "potential" and not what he is. His previous (21-22) 0.4ppg season also affects my judgement. Weird that a 0.4ppg as a 23 year old, with excellent skating, isn't worth anything.

I don't understand the love that some people had over him, I think he's just a guy, but he's definitely an NHL player and to get him at the league minimum by Boston is a solid job.

Hey, fantasy hockey question and I didn’t know where else to put it. Is Toffoli likely to play with Hughes and on the top PP unit?

i think it ultimately depends on where the team wants to play him. When he was in Vancouver, Drance said that Toffoli played net front on the PP. I would love it if he plays there for New Jersey on the first line. I don't like that spot for either Nico or Timo.

 

[Brodeur]

Hey, fantasy hockey question and I didn’t know where else to put it. Is Toffoli likely to play with Hughes and on the top PP unit?

PP1 could use another RH shot but no idea what they're considering. It was a work in progress once we got Meier, so I imagine they're going to test out some different configurations. It'd probably be Toffoli/Bratt/Meier for two spots with Hughes/Hischier/Hamilton.

For even strength, I'd think they'd stick with X-Hischier-Mercer to start so that would probably mean Toffoli would have the inside track to be on the Hughes line.

 

[Rhodes 81]

I said this early in the offseason, but it does remain a little bit of a concern for me that removing a number of fast forwards and replacing them with Toffoli, Foote, and Holtz may jeopardize the defensive speed that worked so well for us last year. Not like falling out of the playoffs levels of concern, but we may not be the possession monsters again in quite the same way we were.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

I said this early in the offseason, but it does remain a little bit of a concern for me that removing a number of fast forwards and replacing them with Toffoli, Foote, and Holtz may jeopardize the defensive speed that worked so well for us last year. Not like falling out of the playoffs levels of concern, but we may not be the possession monsters again in quite the same way we were.

Probably why the upgrade in goal would help but Vitek did more than enough to begin with in the regular season. Also we're getting faster with Luke in for Graves but the overall sentiment is fair.

 

[Hischier and Hughes]

I said this early in the offseason, but it does remain a little bit of a concern for me that removing a number of fast forwards and replacing them with Toffoli, Foote, and Holtz may jeopardize the defensive speed that worked so well for us last year. Not like falling out of the playoffs levels of concern, but we may not be the possession monsters again in quite the same way we were.

good point!

i can see the defensive speed difference

but maybe Tofolli and Foote help our zone possession time?

both can grind pretty well from what ive seen

 

[Triumph]

I said this early in the offseason, but it does remain a little bit of a concern for me that removing a number of fast forwards and replacing them with Toffoli, Foote, and Holtz may jeopardize the defensive speed that worked so well for us last year. Not like falling out of the playoffs levels of concern, but we may not be the possession monsters again in quite the same way we were.

I'm not that concerned at forward because I think the Devils have upgraded there, plus Meier never really settled in until the playoffs. Tatar is definitely a loss if he ends up going elsewhere, but everyone else is pretty negligible - Boqvist, Sharangovich, and Wood were never really possession experts.

Defense is obviously much trickier but I don't think we should lose a lot at ES.

 

[Nocashstyle]

I said this early in the offseason, but it does remain a little bit of a concern for me that removing a number of fast forwards and replacing them with Toffoli, Foote, and Holtz may jeopardize the defensive speed that worked so well for us last year. Not like falling out of the playoffs levels of concern, but we may not be the possession monsters again in quite the same way we were.

I look at it the opposite…last year, if teams figured out how to stop them from generating off of the rush, they had difficulty maintaining any type of offensive pressure. Some of the new guys might help add to sustained pressure and more of a cycle element.

 

[Mgd31]

I said this early in the offseason, but it does remain a little bit of a concern for me that removing a number of fast forwards and replacing them with Toffoli, Foote, and Holtz may jeopardize the defensive speed that worked so well for us last year. Not like falling out of the playoffs levels of concern, but we may not be the possession monsters again in quite the same way we were.

Yea I'm not too worried about the defense speed. I have no idea how Miller/Nemec compare to Severson in terms of speed but obviously Luke > Graves, so it probably nets out.

But will be interesting to see the forward look. Wood, Tatar, Boqvist, Sharangovich versus Toffoli, Foote, Lazar Holtz/Clarke is a big drop in speed.

But at least we know the engines of all the lines (Hughes, Hischier, Haula, McLeod) can skate and Bratt, Meier.

 

[Guadana]

Boqvist made strange impression on me, when the top-6 doing well, he looked like a solid depth player, when top-6 were buried by opposition, boqvist looked lost and unimpressive too when Devils fans and stuff would ask little bit more from bottom six liners.
Overall I think he is good depth nhler who should build his career around defensive game. Fitz is eugenicist who is trying to built some kind of perfect roster, I believe not every gm would not let Boqvist or Kuokkanen for nothing in the air, both are just not good enough for Fitzy standarts. I`m happy Jesper found a gob in NHL, and I hope we will find depth players to protect tihird line if we need to, because for now it doesn`t look like we have good enough center to make it happen. Lazar and Mcleod are worthless in the third line role. Will see, but I`m not a biggest fan of letting him go, I'm not too upset.