While we're on the topic of New Jersey music, I can't believe none of you guys know The Wrens. They're brilliant and from Secaucus of all places. I mean, these are Devils threads, right? Their best album is called The Meadowlands for f**k's sake. For me, one of the top ten rock albums between 2000-2005, right up there with The Strokes, Radiohead and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Devils team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - 2023 offseason part II
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glenwo2
JESPER BRATWURST
The Jonas brothers are also from Jersey. 
I love going down the rabbit hole of the origins of rock and roll. This song in this arrangement with some distortion on the guitars and different mixing would play very well in a Bruce Springsteen set. Like many things the story of rock may seem like an overnight sensation but it is much more of a slow evolution. Take a listen to this if you haven't before. Zep added the distorted electric elements with the greatest drums this side of Neil Peart (RIP) but you can hear the rock and roll in this if you listen through the old timey mixing.
and of course don't get me started on Robert Johnson.
njdevils1982
Hell Toupée!!!
Forge
Blissfully Mediocre
Since this was a few years before my time as a fan, I was always confused why Lou didn't match. When I was looking up info several years back, I was surprised to learn that there was no option to match Group I RFAs. A team could match Group II/III/IV offer sheets. Free agency was a bit of a new concept in every sport in the late 80s/early 90s, so there were some growing pains. Some interesting ones to look back on:
Troy Crowder does well in a couple fights against Bob Probert. Then he signs a Group I offer sheet with Detroit. Fresh off the Stevens decision, Lou has the nerve to request Probert back as compensation. While Crowder was a pure fighter, Probert could take a regular shift so that was a bit of an unreasonable request. The arbitrator sided with Detroit and we were given Dave Barr and Randy McKay.
Teams probably didn't like this process and Group I and II were merged in the 1995 CBA. You left a lot in the hands of an arbitrator who might not necessarily be hockey savvy. The Rangers signed Adam Graves to a Group I offer sheet. They offered Troy Mallette as compensation while the Oilers requested Steven Rice and Louie DeBrusk. The arbitrator admitted that he had no idea how to value Rice/DeBrusk since they had limited time in the NHL. On paper, Mallette seemed close enough to Graves so he sided with the Rangers.
Teemu Selanne signed a Group IV offer sheet with Calgary in the summer of 1992 as an unsigned European draft pick. Selanne would receive a 1.5 million dollar signing bonus and a 400K salary for three seasons. Winnipeg begrudgingly matched and they would have received no compensation if they hadn't.
A year later, Peter Forsberg and Markus Naslund went to court in order to get the same ability as Selanne. This led to possibly my favorite non-trade. Quebec was loaded with young forwards and needed a franchise D. At the 1993 Draft they badly wanted Chris Pronger. They offered Mike Ricci and #10 to San Jose but they weren't interested. On the draft floor, they offered an unsigned Forsberg straight up for the pick. Sharks GM Dean Lombardi declined and vented to the press afterwards.
Essentially he would have done the deal contingent on Forsberg signing, but Quebec's last second offer gave them no time to talk to Forsberg's agent. Forsberg was eyeing the contract that top pick Alexandre Daigle was about to sign with Ottawa (12.5 mil over 5 years). There were rumors that a rich team like the Rangers was prepared to give Forsberg a 4-5 mil signing bonus (dwarfing what Selanne got a year before). San Jose couldn't risk trading for Forsberg.
- Dec 20, 2018
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glenwo2
JESPER BRATWURST
njdevils1982
Hell Toupée!!!
yes! hoboken's finest...a glorious epic...perfect for this warm evening's sundown
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- Dec 20, 2018
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If you know anything about the history of the team and have an ounce of sense you can’t possibly be even intrigued.
Brind’Amour doesn’t remotely have same impact as Stevens.
I personally have a lot of affection for Cujo but good lord, why would anyone want to add a 24 year Joseph retroactively to a team with a 19 year old Brodeur on it?
Brodeur took over as the team’s workhorse goalie starting in 1994-95, we didn’t need a second inferior one to come in two years before that.
Uh, about those draft picks.
So a 1992 3rd or 4th? Hmmm...let's see who could have been available around there. Maltby went a few picks after their 3rd rounder and Jere Lehtinen went 2 picks after their 4th. Lehtinen as a Devil would have been fun.
PizzaAndPucks
New Jersey Angels diehard
- Nov 29, 2018
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There's alot of things that go in to building a dynasty let alone a Cup winning team but Shanahan signing that offer sheet really helped this team out big time. No offer sheet no Stevens and probably no dynasty.
BronzeAgeDevilsFan
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- Mar 19, 2023
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Devils731
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The arbitrator was required to choose either the Blues offer or the Devils offer, they could not create something inbetween.
The Devils likely over-asked but they made the better arguments. I believe the biggest argument was the Blues had signed Stevens as a RFA the year before to a very similar contract as Shanahan. So apparently the Blues felt the two players were similar in value.
Also, my recollection is, the Blues made 12 prior offers to the Devils, each getting better, which likely led to the arbitrator to not trust that the Blues were acting in good faith.
The league also didn’t like how aggressive the Blues were being in signing RFAs to big contracts so may have tried to influence the outcome a bit.
It was always insanely bizarre to me that an arbitrator was able to award a freaking player as FA compensation. And a player that had signed there as a free agent no less!
MB3
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The Blues signed Shanahan despite not having the requisite draft picks (4 firsts) to do so. They just figured "ah f*** it, Devils will say yes eventually". That's a dangerous precedent to set if you're the NHL, a team saying "these rules are lame, let's just bully small market teams into saying ok".
So the Blues said "well RBA and CuJo are probably worth 4 firsts, idk?". And the Devils said no, but do you know who is *definitely* worth 4 firsts as evidenced by your signing last summer?
Scott Stevens, the guy you just gave up 4-firsts to acquire.
Ya. Steven's was NOT happy. He threatened to not show up.
That being said, I actually liked the old SALARY arbitration, where the player and the team put out a number and the arbitrator picked one or the other. It forced the two sides t come much closer. The way it is now the arbitrator seems to always come up with a number pretty much dead center of the two numbers.
My recollection is the quote from the Stevens arbitration was that StL was trying acquire a battleship for a canoe.
He missed her ring finger and shot the ring right over her head.
It’s hard to analyze this without hindsight playing too much of a role. Looking back, we were extremely fortunate in the award, and both we and arbitrator were wise. Both Shanahan and Stevens went on to have glorious careers and as you pointed out, we were better off with Marty than with Cujo.
When it’s your wedding day but the 1C looms large…
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