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

[Devs3cups]

 

[njdevil26]

I really want people to stop posting photos and videos of Jack outside of hockey because I feel like he's constantly a millisecond away from doing/saying something crazy haha.

 

[Devs3cups]

I really want people to stop posting photos and videos of Jack outside of hockey because I feel like he's constantly a millisecond away from doing/saying something crazy haha.

Honestly, I see it as normal 22 year old kid stuff haha. We forget their age sometimes.

 

[njdevil26]

Honestly, I see it as normal 22 year old kid stuff haha. We forget their age sometimes.

See you understand that... I understand that... most here understand that... now I log on Twitter (X- whatever) and see people overanalyzing a stupid video calling Jack a jerk. I care about what Jack does Sept through May/June and that's it.

 

[My3Sons]

See you understand that... I understand that... most here understand that... now I log on Twitter (X- whatever) and see people overanalyzing a stupid video calling Jack a jerk. I care about what Jack does Sept through May/June and that's it.

I care in the sense that there is a professional level of offseason commitment to stay successful. If he is eating right, sleeping enough, and doing the workouts and training he needs to do then by all means he should do kid things. My kids do kid things. I can't fault any other kid for doing the same stuff in their free time.

 

[Zippy316]

Palat - Haula - X
Nosek - Mcleod - Bastian

Should be a bottom-six that can handle a lot of defensive responsibility, and lift some of the burden off Nico. Ideally they subsidize the top-six to have majority OZ shifts.

The only issue is the deployment of Holtz. If he falls on that 3rd line spot, it can't really be used as a defensively oriented line.

Ruff and the Devils seem to like to use the McLeod line as a pseudo checking line. Adding Nosek to that line makes it even more likely.

I would imagine Hischier gets the majority of the checking minutes, McLeod’s line picks up the rest, and Holtz is sheltered on that Palat-Haula line to start.

Ruff loves going to the line blender anyways, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see someone like Toffoli or Mercer or even Bratt drop down to L3 if you need it to be more defensive at times.

 

[Hisch13r]

I'm having a ball going through old Hughes threads and Hughes vs Kakko threads

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

I'm having a ball going through old Hughes threads and Hughes vs Kakko threads

There’s some great stuff in there. One Finnish dude even said he sees Kakko being a top center in the NHL before Hughes. A center!

 

[Hisch13r]

There’s some great stuff in there. One Finnish dude even said he sees Kakko being a top center in the NHL before Hughes. A center!

There were so many who thought Jack wouldn't be a center. Also a smaller but still not insignificant amount of people who thought Kakko would be a center because he played a few games of center here and there. As anyone could imagine this all stemmed from the smol vs beeg stuff. Completely disregarding that the strength of Jack's game is his ability to carry the puck through the middle of the ice while Kakko's strength was along the boards. Definitely sounds like Jack's the winger and Kakko's the center

There has to be a Finnish state run hockey propaganda program because no one hypes up their own prospects while trying to tear down whoever they're compared to like the Finns do. I've never seen a prospect get the level of unwarranted criticism that Jack did in his DY. It was deranged.

 

[Hisch13r]

This one is one of my favorites from one of the biggest Kakko pumper and Hughes detractors

Essentially, Hughes is better than Kakko at skating.

The rest I'm not buying at all.

Then someone replied to them saying this

I'm not really even buying this because Kakko appeared to be a really good skater at the World Juniors.

Another from that first guy

He'd need to be extremely dynamic and gamebreaking then, because Kakko already is very dynamic and gamebreaking in his own right.

Something I'm unsure about with Hughes is how good he's at general shiftiness and agility. His skating isn't at all like Connor McDavid's was with Erie. The most impressive thing about McDavid wasn't his speed at all, it was his agility and ability for extremely swift braking, turns and changes of direction. Yet to see it...

Extremely funny because McDavid's speed was otherworldly and the most impressive thing about his skating while Jack's was his agility and the way he'd change paces

 

[Aurinko]

McLeod’s line typically has not played alot vs opposition top lines. There was a stretch a couple years ago I think. But it didn’t go well

He’s a couple years older now though(as is Bastian) and replace Wood with Nosek and maybe.

Friend, I only seen the last year of play. I have full trust in him. The game 7 performance and the way he contributed to the success was just amazing to see. Routines do stick in my opinion, the "game 7" Justin Williams and snakebit Marner come in to mind.

 

[Guttersniped]

I'm having a ball going through old Hughes threads and Hughes vs Kakko threads

Still my all-time favorite take, it’s got everything in one glorious post:

F Alexis Lafreniere - Rimouski Oceanic, QMJHL (2020 Draft) Part 2

Let's keep this on topic everybody. Back to Lafreniere who I project to be better than Matthews but worse than Laine. Agree or disagree?

forums.hfboards.com

 

[Hisch13r]

From before the start of last season

Top 10 C in production maybe, but not in goals for vs goals against... Not top 10 C by overall play where defense still plays key role for center.

He came close. 16th among centers that played 1000 minutes in 5v5 GF%. Behind some noted studs like Zacha, Coyle, Kotkaniemi who definitely are better all around players and didn't just benefit from their situation. 4th in xGF%. I'd say he's going alright in overall play and is a top 10 center

 

[My3Sons]

Still my all-time favorite take, it’s got everything in one glorious post:

View attachment 734802View attachment 734803View attachment 734804

F Alexis Lafreniere - Rimouski Oceanic, QMJHL (2020 Draft) Part 2

Let's keep this on topic everybody. Back to Lafreniere who I project to be better than Matthews but worse than Laine. Agree or disagree?

forums.hfboards.com

that poster routinely posts pathetic fan boy takes. I cannot imagine he takes them seriously.

 

[Hisch13r]

Still my all-time favorite take, it’s got everything in one glorious post:

View attachment 734802View attachment 734803View attachment 734804

F Alexis Lafreniere - Rimouski Oceanic, QMJHL (2020 Draft) Part 2

Let's keep this on topic everybody. Back to Lafreniere who I project to be better than Matthews but worse than Laine. Agree or disagree?

forums.hfboards.com

I love how he said "recent wingers" and slid in Jack. He was hard on the winger Jack train. He was also hard on the Turcotte train, the top 10 from 2019 was all the same, and the draft had NO stars lol

lol Here's another fun one by them

Can you explain why you think Hughes will play center and Kakko will play wing?

Idk maybe it's because one of them was always a center and the other was always a winger?

 

[Aurinko]

From before the start of last season



He came close. 16th among centers that played 1000 minutes in 5v5 GF%. Behind some noted studs like Zacha, Coyle, Kotkaniemi who definitely are better all around players and didn't just benefit from their situation. 4th in xGF%. I'd say he's going alright in overall play and is a top 10 center

You monster.

I give full respect to necroers. Sign of dedication.

 

[Devils731]

Still my all-time favorite take, it’s got everything in one glorious post:

View attachment 734802View attachment 734803View attachment 734804

F Alexis Lafreniere - Rimouski Oceanic, QMJHL (2020 Draft) Part 2

Let's keep this on topic everybody. Back to Lafreniere who I project to be better than Matthews but worse than Laine. Agree or disagree?

forums.hfboards.com

Name removed to protect the guilty.

 

[Hisch13r]

Still my all-time favorite take, it’s got everything in one glorious post:

View attachment 734802View attachment 734803View attachment 734804

F Alexis Lafreniere - Rimouski Oceanic, QMJHL (2020 Draft) Part 2

Let's keep this on topic everybody. Back to Lafreniere who I project to be better than Matthews but worse than Laine. Agree or disagree?

forums.hfboards.com

Here's a fun one from them from before the start of last year

Kakko barely plays on a veteran team. Hughes can do whatever he wants with unlimited minutes and good situations and it doesn’t cost them if it doesn’t work because they aren’t yet competitive.

It's my favorite argument because Jack was handed the keys because he was actually legitimately great. People love to act like Kakko's issue was that he was blocked on the right side and that's the reason he hasn't broken out when that's literally never been the case.

His rookie year he had Buch and Fast blocking him. If he was what he was touted to be then he would've seized the 1RW spot. Instead he was legitimately the worst player in the league that year. The following year Fast was gone. There was no one blocking him from a top 6 RW spot besides himself not being good enough. Then the following year Buch was gone as well. It's not like the Rangers had replaced those guys with good RWers either. His competition was like Julien Gauthier and .......

The argument with Laf while dumb because the guy has been nothing more than a guy at least in theory holds water because there is Panarin and Kreider on the left side. Now if Laf was what he was supposed to be he'd have bulldozed his way in there but at least there's legitimately guys. That's not the case with Kakko. The road has always been there for him. The only thing that has ever blocked Kakko from being a legit top 6 even 1RW is himself not being good enough

Also Jack really hurt us last year since we finally got competitive and he was playing all those unlimited situations in good situations. We would've been an even better team if we didn't have Jack out there stinking up the joint and costing us

 

[Guttersniped]

that poster routinely posts pathetic fan boy takes. I cannot imagine he takes them seriously.

If he was such a put-upon dick about things I wouldn’t revel in this so much but he’s hilariously insufferable.

There’s an amazing exchange before the 2017 draft where he just rips into a Finnish poster for liking Heiskanen more than Liljegren. He accuses him of going with Group Think or some nonsense.

The Finnish poster “claims” to have watched both players and coming to like Heiskanen on his own. Clearly a suspect story lol.

He was just bizarrely hostile to the poster and railing against “group think” among scouts in general. (Again, for having Heiskanen over Liljegren lol.)

But when he gets pushback on his dumb takes he whines up a storm.

A new classic moment: there’s a thread on the prospect board asking people about past “bad takes” and what they learned from them.

He’s posted on the thread of course, but only to argue with people who used their previous takes of Lafreniere as their example. He would obviously burst into flames if he engaged in any personal self-reflection.

He really crapped up the thread too and it’s the stuff he’s written appropriately 1,000 times on the main boards about AL. We get it my man.

 

[Guttersniped]

Here's a fun one from them from before the start of last year



It's my favorite argument because Jack was handed the keys because he was actually legitimately great. People love to act like Kakko's issue was that he was blocked on the right side and that's the issue when that's literally never been the case.

His rookie year he had Buch and Fast blocking him. If he was touted to be what he was supposed to be then he would've seized the 1RW spot. Instead he was legitimately the worst player in the league that year. The following year Fast was gone. There was no one blocking him from a top 6 RW spot besides himself not being good enough. Then the following year Buch was gone as well. It's not like the Rangers had replaced those guys with good RWers either. His competition was like Julien Gauthier and .......

The argument with Laf while dumb because the guy has been nothing more than a guy at least in theory holds water because there is Panarin and Kreider on the left side. Now if Laf was what he was supposed to be he'd have bulldozed his way in there but at least there's legitimately guys. That's not the case with Kakko. The road has always been there for him. The only thing that has ever blocked Kakko from being a legit top 6 even 1RW is himself not being good enough

If “Lafrenière never got Jack Hughes type minutes” is your favorite argument, you’re in luck, because you have a shit ton of opportunities to read all about it. (Unless a certain someone has a temporary time out.)

 

[Hisch13r]

If “Lafrenière never got Jack Hughes type minutes” is your favorite argument, you’re in luck, because you have shit ton of opportunities to read all about it. (Unless a certain someone has a temporary time out.)

Oh I've read it a ton. I frequent the Laf thread on the Rangers board on the reg. It's currently shutdown until he signs a deal because it's just been people going in circles with the "Laf would be a star if he just got more ice time and PP1 time" crowd and the "the guy has been so mediocre he doesn't deserve those opportunities" crowd.

 

[NjDevsRR]

There’s some great stuff in there. One Finnish dude even said he sees Kakko being a top center in the NHL before Hughes. A center!

 

[Better Call Sal]

View attachment 734814

This is exactly how I envision Dano looking when he yells "Oh My!"

 

[Nubmer6]

You guys are weird.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

collecting Feete