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

[Andre Palot]

Tell me how to feel lol

Seems like a downgrade.

 

[Louskoolaid89]

Fortunately our team doesn't and he can't possibly sabotage it.

unfortunately, travis green sucks

 

[DVision44]

I mean a legit mean bastard. Like Gudas.... Bahl isn't that. I do however keeping forgetting about him tbh.

He looked like it in that "one" legendary shift in the Rangers series... lol

He needs to bring more of that..

 

[Billdo]

He looked like it in that "one" legendary shift in the Rangers series... lol

He needs to bring more of that..

Agreed

 

[MS]

As a head coach, Green was awful.

Terrible developmental coach who screwed up pretty much every young player he came in contract with. Would always default to safe, bad veterans instead of trusting young players - and yes, you can say that about lots of coaches but he's the worst I've ever seen for it.

And that would be fine, if he was a great coach running a great system. But after watching him for 8 years in Utica/Vancouver I still don't know what he was ever trying to do and most of his success was based on great goaltending bailing out teams that were getting caved in 5-on-5.

But veterans did love him, probably because he seemed to run a country club.

As an assistant, who knows. But he's probably the worst coach I've experienced in 30+ years following the Canucks.

 

[Maine Fan]

nJ Devils Losing Andrew Brunette as head coach to the Nashville Predators is sad. Fitz signing Ruff again was a mistake in my opinion. It was time to move on to a big time coach. Now signing Travis Green as associate head coach in my opinion is a step backwards. It does go along with keeping Ruff.
Travis Green was a classmate of Fitz. Mistake IMO. The club.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

nJ Devils Losing Andrew Brunette as head coach to the Nashville Predators is sad. Fitz signing Ruff again was a mistake in my opinion. It was time to move on to a big time coach. Now signing Travis Green as associate head coach in my opinion is a step backwards. It does go along with keeping Ruff.
Travis Green was a classmate of Fitz. Mistake IMO. The club.

Why was the time to move on from Ruff after we smashed expectations and had one of the best seasons in franchise history?

 

[Guttersniped]

I mean a legit mean bastard. Like Gudas.... Bahl isn't that. I do however keeping forgetting about him tbh.

Bahl’s just turning 23 this month, he can get there.

He absolutely can physically shut down opposing players, he’s simply bigger and stronger than most of them.

Gudas is a menace but not all that big. Florida isn’t a big team, it’s a team of pests. They get penalized more than they hit.

They also had a bunch of injured players by the end. They’re “tough to play against” but their PK was one of their downfalls. All the cost of being so chippy.

 

[Andre Palot]

As a head coach, Green was awful.

Terrible developmental coach who screwed up pretty much every young player he came in contract with. Would always default to safe, bad veterans instead of trusting young players - and yes, you can say that about lots of coaches but he's the worst I've ever seen for it.

And that would be fine, if he was a great coach running a great system. But after watching him for 8 years in Utica/Vancouver I still don't know what he was ever trying to do and most of his success was based on great goaltending bailing out teams that were getting caved in 5-on-5.

But veterans did love him, probably because he seemed to run a country club.

As an assistant, who knows. But he's probably the worst coach I've experienced in 30+ years following the Canucks.

Sounds like PDB

 

[Better Call Sal]

As a head coach, Green was awful.

Terrible developmental coach who screwed up pretty much every young player he came in contract with. Would always default to safe, bad veterans instead of trusting young players - and yes, you can say that about lots of coaches but he's the worst I've ever seen for it.

And that would be fine, if he was a great coach running a great system. But after watching him for 8 years in Utica/Vancouver I still don't know what he was ever trying to do and most of his success was based on great goaltending bailing out teams that were getting caved in 5-on-5.

But veterans did love him, probably because he seemed to run a country club.

As an assistant, who knows. But he's probably the worst coach I've experienced in 30+ years following the Canucks.

That is somewhat surprising to hear given the Keenan, Torts and Willie Desjardins eras that occurred as well, but point taken.

Is it possible that a lot of the issues stemmed from poor roster construction, as well? Curious on my part.

 

[NjdevilfanJim]

Is that the best picture they can put up or was that on purpose?

Looks like the picture that was taken of him after the Canucks fired him

He looked like it in that "one" legendary shift in the Rangers series... lol

He needs to bring more of that..

That was one hell of a shift

 

[MS]

That is somewhat surprising to hear given the Keenan, Torts and Willie Desjardins eras that occurred as well, but point taken.

Is it possible that a lot of the issues stemmed from poor roster construction, as well? Curious on my part.

Tortorella was a good coach who did a bad job in Vancouver. Keenan was a good coach who was also insane. Green was just ... yuck. Willie was also terrible but at least seemed to be able to coach some structure.

There was obviously poor roster construction but his teams consistently underperformed 5-on-5 even relative to their rosters.

 

[Stephen Gionta]

The reality is fans have zero clue about 95% of coaches in the league.

There is not one person in here that can immediately claim that this was a good or bad hire.

 

[jkrdevil]

Fitz has a pretty good idea of the fit he wants, but there's not a lot of get excited about with his coaching record. He was sub .500 as head coach of the Canucks, but went pretty deep into the playoffs in the one season his team made the post season. Prior to that he was head coach of the Utica Comets, so there may be some familiarity there as well.

If he had an above .500 record as a coach, he probably wouldn’t be taking an assistant coaching job at this stage of his career.

There is a difference between being a head coach and assistant. Thus why I have no opinion.

 

[Bleedred]

Forgot about the Keenan era in Vancouver, but that was a whole dumpster fire there. They signed Messier and he basically took over the team.

Canucks fans HATE Messier, although if you ask MIA poster Trottier (the weirdo who jumped ship from the Islanders to us and then I don't think has been seen since the 12-13 season or so), he claims they didn't hate Messier and that was a lie by me and everybody else lol.

 

[MB3]

Green gave Quinn Hughes a f***ton of rope his rookie year, a year that would've won him the Calder if Cale Makar didn't exist.

Also... it's just an assistant coach lol. John MacLean was an unmitigated disaster of a head coach, but he was a stellar assistant with the Devils when they won their cup in 2003.

 

[NJDevs26]

I don't really care about Travis Green's head coaching record when he's an assistant now, I do wish they'd have just promoted Sarge (even Brunette out the door endorsed this) but I guess in Fitz we trust.

 

[My3Sons]

Forgot about the Keenan era in Vancouver, but that was a whole dumpster fire there. They signed Messier and he basically took over the team.

Canucks fans HATE Messier, although if you ask MIA poster Trottier (the weirdo who jumped ship from the Islanders to us and then I don't think has been seen since the 12-13 season or so), he claims they didn't hate Messier and that was a lie by me and everybody else lol.

I love the person who is right when the rest of the world is wrong. They are always so rational and balanced. That fourth marriage will be the charm. Those three other ex-spouses were all at fault.

 

[Billdo]

Bahl’s just turning 23 this month, he can get there.

He absolutely can physically shut down opposing players, he’s simply bigger and stronger than most of them.

Gudas is a menace but not all that big. Florida isn’t a big team, it’s a team of pests. They get penalized more than they hit.

They also had a bunch of injured players by the end. They’re “tough to play against” but their PK was one of their downfalls. All the cost of being so chippy.

I don't care about their size, I just want a prick on our team who guys dislike.

 

[Bleedred]

John MacLean was an unmitigated disaster of a head coach, but he was a stellar assistant with the Devils when they won their cup in 2003.

No he wasn't.

He was never stellar at anything that involved coaching. That was his first year on the staff and the PP dropped astronomically from the year before. I'm pretty sure it was DEAD LAST that year in the regular season.

That was a big reason for the down years offensively from guys like Elias and Gomez, who both had 57/55 points that year and played 81 and 80 games. Joe Nieuwendyk also had a down year, but bounced back considerably the next season in Toronto.

 

[Eggtimer]

I don't care about their size, I just want a prick on our team who guys dislike.

Ask Sheshterkin how much he likes Meier

 

[NJDevs26]

Yeah it's not like MacLean's really distinguished himself as an assistant post-Devils either...he was Lou's mole in the locker room, and his rep got inflated here by being attached to good teams.

 

[Camille the Eel]

I don't really care about Travis Green's head coaching record when he's an assistant now, I do wish they'd have just promoted Sarge (even Brunette out the door endorsed this) but I guess in Fitz we trust.

Why do we even have to have an “associate coach” between the head and the assistants? what’s the point of it, most teams just have a bunch of assistant coaches and that’s that.

 

[njdevils1982]

Why do we even have to have an “associate coach” between the head and the assistants? what’s the point of it, most teams just have a bunch of assistant coaches and that’s that.

N. Bench baby!

Devils Name Scott Stevens and Adam Oates as Co-Coaches (Published 2014)

General Manager Lou Lamoriello, after firing Peter DeBoer and his assistant Dave Barr, said he would also be on the bench for an unspecified period.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Stephen Gionta]

Thank You - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps

Thank you for the amazing 9 years

www.capfriendly.com

This would be a tremendous offseason in my opinion. Might need to add to that offer to land Colton, But then again Bjorkstrand was just moved for a 3rd and a 4th so you never know what the market is for players being squeezed out of certain situations because of the cap.