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

[Lou Bloom]

If any of the defenseman on the left side is out for a prolonged period of time that means Brendan Smith is playing more and that's less than ideal.

How many teams are going to have a much better option as a 7th/8th defenseman than Brendan Smith? Outside of a team like Detroit that has a ridiculous amount of defensive depth, every team in the league is going to have a similar caliber of player as their 7th or 8th best option on defense.

 

[Bleedred]

How many teams are going to have a much better option as a 7th/8th defenseman than Brendan Smith? Outside of a team like Detroit that has a ridiculous amount of defensive depth, every team in the league is going to have a similar caliber of player as their 7th or 8th best option on defense.

They have a lot of defensive depth, but they have a couple of defenseman that aren’t at all good and may even be worse than Brendan Smith.

Like Chiarot.

 

[Lou Bloom]

They have a lot of defensive depth, but they have a couple of defenseman that aren’t at all good and may even be worse than Brendan Smith.

Like Chiarot.

Devils have the better group. I was just pointing out that apart from a clear exception like Detroit, any team's 7th/8th best defensive option isn't going to be much better (if at all) than someone like Brendan Smith.

 

[Guttersniped]

I saw, 38 and 36 look like shit and 37 they’ll probably break out an old Eric Gelinas photo

Hockey Reference lists Gelinas for 37 but I don’t see where he wore that for us in regular NHL game.

They claim he wore it in the 2012-13 season but he played one game that year and wore #32. (Which they don’t list, so they messed up.) LINK

Spoiler: It’s true

Photo from All About the Jersey recap

This is the NHL event summary.

When did he wear #37?

He didn’t play a game that season though.


There’s photos of him playing in pre-season in September 2010 wearing #42.

There aren’t any photos from 2012 with wearing #37 in 2011. (Doesn’t mean he didn’t play, I just didn’t easily find any photos.)

He wore #32 in the 2013 pre-season and there’s photos of him playing.

Gelinas wore #22 starting in 2013-14 regular season.

This is from his 2nd game.

He then switched to #44 in the 2015 pre-season and season, until the Feb trade, because Tootoo wore #22.

 

[Guttersniped]

So only one guy wore #37.

Spoiler: The One True Number 37

 

[Cheddabombs]

So only one guy wore #37.

Spoiler: The One True Number 37

View attachment 740833View attachment 740837View attachment 740834
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Should be retired imo

 

[SJinNewJersey]

Only four players have worn #39 in Devils history and it ain’t exactly a who’s who lol

Gibbons
Kurtis Gabriel
Nick Merkley
Seth Helgeson

Booger!

 

[Aurinko]

This sequence was nuts..

Schmid was something else in 2023 playoffs.

Hopefully he can continue to be similar presense. Even the Shesterkin lost nerves in the playoffs while Akira on the other side stayed calm and collected. Akira's way of no showboating or extra emotions is just the way I prefer it. Even small things like yelling at the ref or lying down defeated can give wrong signals to the other team.

The downside is that he is on a contract year, so it will be really easy to drive his price up. I'm guessing at the current he is looking a 3-4M per year contract, but a good year can change that quite a bit.

 

[Hisch13r]

Schmid was something else in 2023 playoffs.

Hopefully he can continue to be similar presense. Even the Shesterkin lost nerves in the playoffs while Akira on the other side stayed calm and collected. Akira's way of no showboating or extra emotions is just the way I prefer it. Even small things like yelling at the ref or lying down defeated can give wrong signals to the other team.

The downside is that he is on a contract year, so it will be really easy to drive his price up. I'm guessing at the current he is looking a 3-4M per year contract, but a good year can change that quite a bit.

He was very Jekyll and Hyde. He was either great or bad. Out of the 8 starts it was 5 great and 3 bad. No way he’s looking at 3-4 mil right now off of less than a 30 game good sample. If he comes put and repeats last year with like 40 games played then sure. If he was up currently it’d be super cheap. I wouldn’t say Shesterkin lost his nerves either. Sure he got pissed off and yelled at the bench because they were playing like shit but it never deterred his play and he was great the whole time.

 

[Aurinko]

He was very Jekyll and Hyde. He was either great or bad. Out of the 8 starts it was 5 great and 3 bad. No way he’s looking at 3-4 mil right now off of less than a 30 game good sample. If he comes put and repeats last year with like 40 games played then sure. If he was up currently it’d be super cheap. I wouldn’t say Shesterkin lost his nerves either. Sure he got pissed off and yelled at the bench because they were playing like shit but it never deterred his play and he was great the whole time.

I just think winning your firest playoff series as an entry level backup in convincing manner is automatic 3M+. Even Vitek is paid that and he did not perform.

What goes to Shesterkin, most would probably agree that it's not big deal, but I do think it is. I think it feels extra juicy if you get someone to vent that usually doesn't do so. Basically best goalie in the league in a stacked team out in the first round is not a good look either!

 

[Better Call Sal]

Was there Gibbons disrespect taking place in this thread?

How dare you!

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

The downside is that he is on a contract year, so it will be really easy to drive his price up. I'm guessing at the current he is looking a 3-4M per year contract, but a good year can change that quite a bit.

If he does well this upcoming season, then he can be potentially looking at a 3m extension. No way that's the starting price and going up if he does well. The exception to this I can see is if they for some reason want to go long-term, but I would not want to sign a goalie we're not even fully sure of yet to a long-term deal tbh.

 

[Lou is God]

The Hockey News picking the Rangers to win the Metro:

https://thehockeynews.com/news/predicting-the-nhls-metropolitan-division-rankings-in-2023-24

Is 2nd, Canes 3rd and Islanders 6th.

 

[Hisch13r]

The Hockey News picking the Rangers to win the Metro:

https://thehockeynews.com/news/predicting-the-nhls-metropolitan-division-rankings-in-2023-24

Is 2nd, Canes 3rd and Islanders 6th.

Like sure with just the randomness of season over season variance they could win the division but it's a weird pick. The roster didn't really change that much. I think Gustafsson is what their D needed so that helps. Wheeler's just a bigger Kane. Quick's a downgrade from Halak but backup goalie behind the best goalie in the world so not a huge deal either way. Bonino and Pitlick also minor moves. Maybe if Laf and/or Kakko take significant jumps. Maybe Kakko but I don't see it for Laf. To have this team jumping to 1st I think you need to really be banking on Lavi being a big upgrade which I mean possible because Gallant is awful but I don't think Lavi's all that good himself anymore.

I find it hard not to go with the Canes again. They won last year and have improved the most of the top 3 as well. Looking at our ins and outs from the end of the year I think we're a wash or slightly worse. A full year of Meier though maybe makes things slightly better. The Canes on the other hand didn't really lose anyone of value and added a top pair D and a 2nd line wing.

 

[Lou is God]

Like sure with just the randomness of season over season variance they could win the division but it's a weird pick. The roster didn't really change that much. I think Gustafsson is what their D needed so that helps. Wheeler's just a bigger Kane. Quick's a downgrade from Halak but backup goalie behind the best goalie in the world so not a huge deal either way. Bonino and Pitlick also minor moves. Maybe if Laf and/or Kakko take significant jumps. Maybe Kakko but I don't see it for Laf. To have this team jumping to 1st I think you need to really be banking on Lavi being a big upgrade which I mean possible because Gallant is awful but I don't think Lavi's all that good himself anymore.

I find it hard not to go with the Canes again. They won last year and have improved the most of the top 3 as well. Looking at our ins and outs from the end of the year I think we're a wash or slightly worse. A full year of Meier though maybe makes things slightly better. The Canes on the other hand didn't really lose anyone of value and added a top pair D and a 2nd line wing.

Canes also had a couple injuries to key players and they'll be healthy.

And staying healthy is actually an area the Rangers have an edge in. Last few years they're core has been basically injury free, it's uncanny.

 

[Hisch13r]

Canes also had a couple injuries to key players and they'll be healthy.

And staying healthy is actually an area the Rangers have an edge in. Last few years they're core has been basically injury free, it's uncanny.

I don't know how big of a deal it'll end up being but the Rangers let their head trainer go

 

[NJDevs26]

I don't know how big of a deal it'll end up being but the Rangers let their head trainer go

Yeah that was actually a bigger head scratcher than their Tom Wilson induced moves last offseason…why when you’re historically one of the healthiest teams in the league the last several years would you let your head trainer go over anything but money or ego (likely both)?

 

[Billdo]

Smith's a perfectly fine bottom pair D. The penalty issues are real but other than that the hate is soooooooooo overboard. He's not a bad player.

There is ZERO hate in what I said but the fact remains that if he plays a ton of games something bad happened whether that's injury, ineffectiveness, etc.

How many teams are going to have a much better option as a 7th/8th defenseman than Brendan Smith? Outside of a team like Detroit that has a ridiculous amount of defensive depth, every team in the league is going to have a similar caliber of player as their 7th or 8th best option on defense.

Again... where did I say anything negative about him specifically? If he plays a ton it means someone got hurt or isn't playing well. Both would be problematic.

 

[Hisch13r]

There is ZERO hate in what I said but the fact remains that if he plays a ton of games something bad happened whether that's injury, ineffectiveness, etc.


Again... where did I say anything negative about him specifically? If he plays a ton it means someone got hurt or isn't playing well. Both would be problematic.

Yeah obviously if pretty much any team suffers a long term injury it's not going to be ideal to lose one of your regular Dmen. That goes without saying. On the other hand Smith is one of the better 7D in the league and a fine bottom pair D so we'd be better positioned to handle it than a lot of teams would

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

The Rangers are not better than the Canes or Devils roster wise, that's literally to get clicks from airhead Rags fans to fluff up the piece. They've got worse this offseason + aging core of guys who got sent to Alcatraz round 1. And if you want to argue, they'll get more from Zib and Panarin in future runs, keep in mind we beat them with Timo+Nico+Bratt scoring a grand total of 1 goal in that entire series + the goal was an empty net in game 7. The Canes didn't have their 35 goal power forward and made the ECF + whatever they add in the upcoming year since their management is pretty damn good with Waddell + Tulsky there.

Yeah that was actually a bigger head scratcher than their Tom Wilson induced moves last offseason…why when you’re historically one of the healthiest teams in the league the last several years would you let your head trainer go over anything but money or ego (likely both)?

It's them just firing anything in sight because who they lost to, if they lost to Carolina or the Penguins then they wouldn't have cared. Gallant probably comes back. There's only 2 teams that send the Rags into panic mode this much and it's the Devils and Islanders.

 

[Lou Bloom]

There is ZERO hate in what I said but the fact remains that if he plays a ton of games something bad happened whether that's injury, ineffectiveness, etc.


Again... where did I say anything negative about him specifically? If he plays a ton it means someone got hurt or isn't playing well. Both would be problematic.

How's that different than any other team's situation?

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Brendan Smith is fine, arguing this much about his play time is moot because you can do this with any other team in the league with a 7D. Only way he plays a ton is if Colin Miller looks lost + Nemec stays another year in the AHL.

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

Believe in the Hughes duo.

 

[Devs3cups]

The Hockey News picking the Rangers to win the Metro:

https://thehockeynews.com/news/predicting-the-nhls-metropolitan-division-rankings-in-2023-24

Is 2nd, Canes 3rd and Islanders 6th.

Pretty weird considering that in their 2023 Yearbook they have the Canes at 1, us at 2 and the Rangers at 3.

Must be one writer’s opinion.

 

[MartyOwns]