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

[glenwo2]

Only thing I didn't like was that it looked like it was part of a longer video that I can't find anywhere.

 

[Bone Density]

Oh my.

 

[Camille the Eel]

He signed with the Avs for something like 6 years x 2.5

Ahahaha is the only thing I can think of saying. What a horrible deal for the Av’s. If this was the old Miles, before he lost a couple of steps - not just “a” step - the 6 year term would still have been nuts. But Miles’ wheels are gone and that was the one thing he always had going for him. Without his speed, he’s just another disrupter. Colorado is going to end up hating this deal.

Nosek at 1 million is a better player right now than Wood at 2.5.

 

[Goptor]

Ahahaha is the only thing I can think of saying. What a horrible deal for the Av’s. If this was the old Miles, before he lost a couple of steps - not just “a” step - the 6 year term would still have been nuts. But Miles’ wheels are gone and that was the one thing he always had going for him. Without his speed, he’s just another disrupter. Colorado is going to end up hating this deal.

Nosek at 1 million is a better player right now than Wood at 2.5.

There are guys that take over a year to fully recover from injuries so there is at least some thought process behind the deal.

Extremely risky though

 

[Patrik26]

It's not even a thing anymore. It's never been easier with the advent of spell check and even grammar checks to make sure your article is written in a professional manner. Yet these articles consistently look like no effort was put in and the writer had no pride in what they were doing.

Part of the work-life balance crowd.

 

[MasterofGrond]

there’s a reason “show me” deals exist

And there’s a reason they’re not 6 years long

 

[Guttersniped]

There are so many spelling and grammatical errors in that article. Yikes, do some basic editing.

He’s just “saying what you scared to say” man.

That line-up he has there is something, Tangradi-McLeod-Gabriel, LFG!

We, alas, lost 4-1, with the only goal being scored by Agostino (6) in the 1st, with an assist by Anderson, which tied the game up 1-1 before the Caps scored 3 more in the 2nd period.

While god knows we lacked talent, but that brutal roster was that brutal for two reasons.

1) We moved a bunch of guys around the TDL:
Boyle (47 GP) traded to Nashville for a 2nd used in a pick trade: 3rd (#82 Vukojevic), 4th (#118 McCarthy) & 5th (#129 Gritsyuk)

Lovejoy (51 GP) traded to Dallas for Carrick & a 3rd (#80 Clarke)

Johansson (48 GP) to Boston for 2nd (#61 Okhotiuk) & 4th (#120 Edwards)

Kinkaid (41 GP) to Columbus for 5th (#141 Hauser)

2) Just about everyone else got injured, often in bunches that season. That day these guys were all out:
Hall (33 GP) He obviously had been out since 12/23 with the mysterious knee injury then surgery.

Vatanen (50 GP) Mr Glass only missed a couple of games until 1/28 when he was concussed by Brassard:

That kept Vats out for a month. He then returned for 3 games, until this knocks him out for 9 more games:

Sami came back for one more game and then missed the rest of the season due to illness.

Bratt (51 GP) After missing the first 13 games w/ a broken jaw, Bratt also missed the last 15 games due to a LBI, starting 3/5.

Mueller (53 GP) While perhaps not the most significant loss, Mueller was technically a loss nonetheless, when he missed 11 games after this memorable nasty crash into the boards:


Zacha (61 GP) He was out for 16 games (2/17-3/19) with UBI.

Wood (63 GP) Woody missed 12 games with a foot fracture.

Hischier (69 GP) Nico had missed 4 games due in Nov with a thumb injury, and then missed 9 games in March with a UBI.

 

[Bleedred]

Rooney 2c? Agostino on the 2nd line?

Noesen on the 1st line?

WAT?!

 

[McDuffz88]

As long as we have two Hughes brothers, Bratt, Hischier, Mercer, and at least a couple of depth pieces that can skate like McLeod and even Haula to an extent, our team identity is going to remain fast and smooth skaters.

I do worry that the overall effectiveness of the bottom lines might be hampered with regard to our defensive system, but that may end up not mattering too much. Nosek is elite at getting the puck out of the zone so it's hard to say a line with him on it got worse defensively.

The 3rd line is probably where we might see this the most. If it ends up being Palat-Haula-Holtz/Toffoli then yeah that's definitely a slower line than what we were used to last year, but I could see that playing to the strengths of those players more anyway. I could also easily see Mercer, Meier, or Bratt spending a decent amount of time on the "3rd" line depending on how much they want to spread out the offense so while I definitely have some concerns about the speed element, I think it will work out ok.

Yeah I fully agree, Lindy will definitely at some point put one of Mercer or Toffoli on the 3rd line to spread the wealth. I may or may not agree with it but we all know Lindy will jumble the lines. My fear is he staples Haula to Hughes again all season. If this is the case (very likely) & McLeod can play all season long playing with an extra gear like he did in the playoffs we can have 3 nasty lines and one shut down line. If Lindy does decide to do this here is the lineup I would do
Meier-Nico-Bratt or Bratt-Nico-Tofolli/Mercer
Haula-Hughes-Tofolli or Haula-Hughes Meier
Palat-Mcleod-Mercer/Toffoli
Foote-Nosek-Bastian
Lazar, Holtz

Top 6 will be based around who Toffoli has the most chemistry with. If he is too slow or can't build chemistry in the top 6 throw him on the 3rd line for an absolutely filthy 3rd line. I know most people think McLeod is a lost cause beyond 4C but I disagree. I think he can be the player that he showcased in the playoffs. I hope/pray he finally found his next gear. If we can stick him with 2 2nd line wingers in Palat-Mercer or Palat-Toffoli & reduce his defensive responsibilities I really think he can start to produce points at a 3rd liner rate. The 4th line just let be the shut down line. Nosek-Bastian will play clutch, the big question is will Foote be good enough to be 4LW? Good thing we have Lazar as a backup & hopefully Holtz finally shows up to town.

 

[Saugus]

Ahahaha is the only thing I can think of saying. What a horrible deal for the Av’s. If this was the old Miles, before he lost a couple of steps - not just “a” step - the 6 year term would still have been nuts. But Miles’ wheels are gone and that was the one thing he always had going for him. Without his speed, he’s just another disrupter. Colorado is going to end up hating this deal.

Nosek at 1 million is a better player right now than Wood at 2.5.

I think everybody knows that there’s basically a 0% chance that he actually finishes out the contract. This has “future buyout” written all over it.

 

[Nubmer6]

Yeah I fully agree, Lindy will definitely at some point put one of Mercer or Toffoli on the 3rd line to spread the wealth. I may or may not agree with it but we all know Lindy will jumble the lines. My fear is he staples Haula to Hughes again all season. If this is the case (very likely) & McLeod can play all season long playing with an extra gear like he did in the playoffs we can have 3 nasty lines and one shut down line. If Lindy does decide to do this here is the lineup I would do
Meier-Nico-Bratt or Bratt-Nico-Tofolli/Mercer
Haula-Hughes-Tofolli or Haula-Hughes Meier
Palat-Mcleod-Mercer/Toffoli
Foote-Nosek-Bastian
Lazar, Holtz

Top 6 will be based around who Toffoli has the most chemistry with. If he is too slow or can't build chemistry in the top 6 throw him on the 3rd line for an absolutely filthy 3rd line. I know most people think McLeod is a lost cause beyond 4C but I disagree. I think he can be the player that he showcased in the playoffs. I hope/pray he finally found his next gear. If we can stick him with 2 2nd line wingers in Palat-Mercer or Palat-Toffoli & reduce his defensive responsibilities I really think he can start to produce points at a 3rd liner rate. The 4th line just let be the shut down line. Nosek-Bastian will play clutch, the big question is will Foote be good enough to be 4LW? Good thing we have Lazar as a backup & hopefully Holtz finally shows up to town.

Actually, I've been toying with the idea of spreading the wealth for quite some time.

It would be interesting to have 3 really good scoring lines that are rotated equally. I also like the idea of having pairs of players with an unterchangable 3rd linemate, so...

Haula Hughes - I don't care what some say. Haula and Hughes work well together.

Hischier Mercer - a shooter like Tofolli would fit in nicely with them.

Meier Bratt - with Jesper setting up Timo, I think ANY center would do.

4th line - take your pick of the leftovers. They'd all work.

 

[Guttersniped]

Rooney 2c? Agostino on the 2nd line?

Noesen on the 1st line?

WAT?!

That wasn’t even the worst line-up of that March. Everyone got injured.

That year’s annual ass kicking in Calgary was particularly ugly:

This is why your dislike of Blackwood clouds your memory of how great he looked that year. (Except in Calgary.)

The skeleton crew in front of him was a complete joke, with 1/3 of our AHL team playing, and Kinkaid was f***ing awful all season long.

 

[Guttersniped]

Actually, I've been toying with the idea of spreading the wealth for quite some time.

It would be interesting to have 3 really good scoring lines that are rotated equally. I also like the idea of having pairs of players with an unterchangable 3rd linemate, so...

Haula Hughes - I don't care what some say. Haula and Hughes work well together.

Hischier Mercer - a shooter like Tofolli would fit in nicely with them.

Meier Bratt - with Jesper setting up Timo, I think ANY center would do.

4th line - take your pick of the leftovers. They'd all work.

I don’t see a viable candidate for center on a Meier/Bratt line if Nico, Hughes, Haula and Mercer are all on different lines though.

I’m not putting them with McLeod.

 

[Nubmer6]

I don’t see a viable candidate for center on a Meier/Bratt line if Nico, Hughes, Haula and Mercer are all on different lines though.

I’m not putting them with McLeod.

Ya, that's kind of the problem, I guess.

 

[Bleedred]

That wasn’t even the worst line-up of that March. Everyone got injured.

That year’s annual ass kicking in Calgary was particularly ugly:

View attachment 730526

This is why your dislike of Blackwood clouds your memory of how great he looked that year. (Except in Calgary.)

The skeleton crew in front of him was a complete joke, with 1/3 of our AHL team playing, and Kinkaid was f***ing awful all season long.

Blackwood was definitely good the first two seasons.

Schneider’s .920% run to end that season was merely a market correction after being an .852% (yes! That’s an .852% people! He was an .852% in his first 9 games played) his first 9 games of that year.

He was also an .852% his first 9 NHL games of 19-20 also and that was even before he was waived. He was waived after game 6, which was also .852%.

He wasn’t that bad that year after his .852% in 9 games start either. He was actually a .935% in the 4 games he played after that and even went 3-0-1 and had a shutout and then covid stopped that season. I’m sure if that season played out normally he would have finished with a .900% or close to it. I’m sure there also would have been a few suckers still left who wanted to kick the can another year with him, just like the load of them after that 18-19 second half.

So yeah, I was a harsh critic of our 19-20 goaltending coming into that season, but not because of Blackwood.

 

[Oneiro]

During one of his pressers, Fitz explicitly spoke of it as a top 9. But do minutes ever really get distributed that way? And with the amount of double-shifting of Hughes in late game scenarios, seems like it would just be easier to displace a Holtz/Foote/Clarke on the third line if needed.

I realize Hughes-Bratt was technically the most effective pairing but to me, the most natural outcome by year end (with good health):

Bratt-Hischier-Meier
Toffoli-Hughes-Mercer
Palat-Haula-X (kiddo)
Nosek-McLeod-Bastian

Defensively fine, complementary skillsets, room to add a deadline third line wing if needed. I guess handed-ness could be annoying if that bothers you.

(Likely doesn't work cap-wise but man, I'd kill to add Buchnevich to that third line this year or the next.)

 

[FinnishDevil]

Blackwood was definitely good

Next thing he's gonna tell us to eat crow and become Bleedteal.

 

[Camille the Eel]

There are guys that take over a year to fully recover from injuries so there is at least some thought process behind the deal.

Extremely risky though

I also thought somewhat better about it last night in that there are players who can reinvent (god how I hate that term) their game and adapt to extend their careers. Wood can probably be a serviceable power forward for them and the price isn’t that bad seasonally. The term though . . . Which really makes the price higher than it’s face value as I maybe can’t see him playing in the NHL like 4 years from now.

 

[Guttersniped]

Blackwood was definitely good the first two seasons.

Schneider’s .920% run to end that season was merely a market correction after being an .852% (yes! That’s an .852% people! He was an .852% in his first 9 games played) his first 9 games of that year.

He was also an .852% his first 9 NHL games of 19-20 also and that was even before he was waived. He was waived after game 6, which was also .852%.

He wasn’t that bad that year after his .852% in 9 games start either. He was actually a .935% in the 4 games he played after that and even went 3-0-1 and had a shutout and then covid stopped that season. I’m sure if that season played out normally he would have finished with a .900% or close to it. I’m sure there also would have been a few suckers still left who wanted to kick the can another year with him, just like the load of them after that 18-19 second half.

So yeah, I was a harsh critic of our 19-20 goaltending coming into that season, but not because of Blackwood.

Those spring runs in 2018-19 and 2019-20 are what I affectionately refer to as Zombie Cory, since his game rises from the dead.

You can throw in his 2017-18 playoffs too since those pop out in the middle of his year long regular winless streak.

 

[Nubmer6]

Those spring runs in 2018-19 and 2019-20 are what I affectionately refer to as Zombie Cory, since his game rises from the dead.

You can throw in his 2017-18 playoffs too since those pop out in the middle of his year long regular winless streak.

Schneider's Final Third.

 

[Bleedred]

Those spring runs in 2018-19 and 2019-20 are what I affectionately refer to as Zombie Cory, since his game rises from the dead.

You can throw in his 2017-18 playoffs too since those pop out in the middle of his year long regular winless streak.

I was actually a very huge backer of Blackwood early on and had a conniption over him being returned to Binghamton so we could throw out a washed up Schneider and AHL Kinkaid in 18-19, which ended when the Blue Jackets sent us a 2022 (I think?) 3rd round pick for him, only to not even use him a single game, outside of sitting on the bench dressed as the backup. I think almost everyone other than Bobilly (or whatever his name was, I think it was that) was done with Kinkaid by that point. Other than him, who maintained he was a starting caliber goalie and would be better than Holtby, despite the fact that Kinkaid was actually 2.5 months older than Holtby. I guess he is better than Holtby now, as Holtby is out of pro hockey and has been for close to 1.5 years now. He was always saying Kinkaid would be a starter.

I was a heavy critic of Shero going 19-20 with those two though. I thought Cory either needed to be waived/bought out before that season or he signs someone (I wanted Lehner at the time) and Blackwood starts in the AHL, before Cory was inevitably waived anyway. Then we call up Blackwood in November of 2019 instead of…….. Louis Domingue.

I was as furious about Blackwood going back in favor of them in 2019 as I was Schmid being sent back in favor of him in March of this year.

 

[Bleedred]

Schneider's Final Third.

And this (Zacha's final third) is another example of why I don't understand why fans get so excited and fooled by surges like this and act like a player is really as good as his last stretch and that averages (the entire season) aren't a thing.

I mean, I guess I understand it a little more for someone like Zacha, because he was only like 21-22 years old at this time, but the hype and suckers and buying on Schneider's last 20 games (or whatever it was) and world championships being the real Schneider and not the first 9 games was stupid. And yeah, the first 9 games weren't the real Schneider either. He was somewhere in between, which is why he was a .903% that season and a not an .852% or a .920%.

It's players at every position, but it seems to happen with goalies a lot. I remember thinking the Matt Murray trade was STUPID from Dubas. It didn't even get as much heat as it SHOULD have. Not from the Canadian media. It was a stupid, bullshit deal, so was Mrazek the year before. Dubas gets bad grades just for that, as much as I don't have much of a problem with most of what he does. The stuff he gets heat for is probably overkill and he doesn't get enough heat for the goalie deal failures, which you could see coming were gonna be BAD.

I remember when Murray had a horrible game 1 of the regular season, then I think he got injured either after game 1 or 2 of the regular season and missed a few weeks. He came back and went on a heater (which included purposely dislodging plenty of nets) and we got the ''Is it time to admit you were wrong about the Leafs goalie situation?'' thread on the main board. After his bubble burst, the numbers started slipping down to where they've been the previous 3 years. And now they may not even be able to buy this guy out because he's not medically cleared lol.


It'll be funny if Miles Wood has 9 points in his first 10 games of this year and people are declaring ''It's not so bad!'' or ''He may be really good for them!''. You know people will be saying that shit if it happens.

 

[Classic Devil]

I'm preparing for this year's All-Time Team Challenge, getting a document ready to make it easier to search for players, and this is hard. The 2022-2023 season is not an easy season to pick a single player for. It's going to be a year that is persistently difficult to pick for going forward, like 2000-2001, because there are so many good choices.

 

[Emperoreddy]

 

[Devs3cups]

Can't remember, but has there been any announcement or specifics in regards to Ruff's contract other than Fitz saying he'll be back?