Devils team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - camp edition

[MadDevil]

“-play any style, quite honestly,” he says.”

savage but accurate burn on the 2023-24 Devils by Fitz.

 

[JimEIV]

But I would add I don't think adding to the bottom 6 achieves what Fitz is intending....

If your soft fragile players that can only play one style of game are playing 2/3 of the minutes...adding beef and grit on the edges does not achieve the desired result.

If you change the pie crust from plain to graham cracker on a shit pie, it's still a shit pie

 

[Jersey Fresh]

Really good read regarding NJ's offseason:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5773891/2024/09/18/devils-offseason-overhaul-markstrom/

On Markstrom, him and his agent had the Devils at/near the top of his list last season as we all figured:

“He basically picked New Jersey pretty early in the process and was fixated on New Jersey all last year,” Morris says. “It didn’t just come up at the trade deadline. There were behind-the-scenes, lengthy discussions in December, January and February.”

But it sounds like a deal was never really close:

“There were offers made back and forth, but nothing of substance to be quite honest,” Fitzgerald says. “We felt we made a really fair offer at the deadline — picks and prospects. I would say I really felt there was something in the works prior to that, but it didn’t happen.”

With Markström signed through 2025-26, the Flames didn’t have the same urgency to trade him as their pending unrestricted free agents. Hoping to leverage Markström’s strong first half of the season, Calgary seemed to want to get premium pieces back — perhaps Dawson Mercer — if it was going to accept a deal before the deadline.

The Devils didn’t offer enough to get the deal done. But Fitzgerald did put himself in position to make an offseason splash. He unloaded Vanecek’s cap hit ($3.4 million through 2024-25) at the deadline, trading him to the San Jose Sharks for Kaapo Kahkonen, whose contract would come off the books after the season. That opened cap space for the summer.

During the offseason, Fitz leveraged the fact that there were other goalie options and was adamant that there be salary retention. Calgary eventually was willing to make a deal for "less than they originally envisioned."

A few other quick blurbs. On Holtz:

“I was holding out hope that it would click with him,” Fitzgerald says. “We’re not in the hope business. We’ve accelerated the process. I don’t want to waste any more of our top players’ years away.”

On the Vegas trade overall:

“I know on paper what it looks like, but I’m trying to help build a team that can actually withstand the heavy teams in the league and play a different style — play any style, quite honestly,” he says.

Pesce:
Sure enough, in the hours after free agency opened July 1, Pesce agreed to a six-year contract with a $5.5 million cap hit. To help with their salary-cap situation, the Devils structured the deal in a way that made Pesce comfortable with a slightly lower average annual value than he perhaps could’ve gotten elsewhere. He has a no-trade clause for the first three years, plus a 15-team no-trade list for the final three. His camp also negotiated large signing bonuses early in the contract ($5 million in 2024-25 and $4 million in 2025-26 on top of a $2 million base salary both years) so he could get more money up front.

Dillon:
Dillon wanted a deal between two and four years for around the same AAV ($3.9 million) as his most recent contract. When his agent started talking with New Jersey about a three-year deal, the Devils offered around a $3.8 million AAV, and Dillon’s agent asked for around $4.25 million, the defenseman says. The two sides met between those numbers: Dillon signed for three years at a $4 million AAV.

Stamkos:
“I was in on the Steven Stamkos thing right until the end,” Fitzgerald says.

Heading into free agency, Fitzgerald got a call from Don Meehan, who represents Stamkos. The future Hall of Famer was headed to market, unable to come to terms with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Stamkos had identified New Jersey as a team he could help, Fitzgerald remembers Meehan saying.

“Then you start looking at the pieces,” Fitzgerald says. “There was no way we could’ve done what he got, but we stayed in the fight.”
Ultimately, Stamkos signed a four-year, $8 million AAV deal with Nashville. The Devils, who currently have less than $6 million in cap space and still need to sign Mercer, a restricted free agent, would have had to make trades to come close to that. The chances of actually landing Stamkos were always slim, but for Fitzgerald, the fact he was interested felt good.

Though Fitzgerald would’ve made an exception for a player like Stamkos — “When you get that phone call, you’ve got to take it,” he says — he didn’t view adding skill to the top six as a priority. The Devils already have that with players like Jack Hughes, Timo Meier, Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt.

Interestingly, there was no mention of Marchessault in the article despite him (seemingly) being linked to the Devils by some on Twitter before signing in Nashville.

Like those Fitz quotes.

 

[MasterofGrond]

I don’t think the Devils are going to fall into the master of none hole. We have enough offensive firepower to hang with anyone. Cotter and Markstrom and Dillon etc are being added because that was all we could do, and gave up too many goals because of it.

We’re trying to ride our big guns and be good enough everywhere else, defensively, physically, in net, for that to carry us.

 

[Bad Goalie]

I guess the Devils will eventually get around to posting the roster for the camp. It should be larger than usual considering the 3 games they have to play while the actual team is in Prague. I'm trying to guess exactly who those in Jersey will be and compare it to the actual list.

 

[devilsfan950003]

Bet on himself.

Let's hope he gives the best 2 or 3-years of his career here.

He has 20 goals and 13 assists for 33 points in 82 games. How much does he deserve? He shows promise and has done well in previous seasons. In sports, it's always, "What have you done for me lately?"

 

[Better Call Sal]

I don’t think the Devils are going to fall into the master of none hole. We have enough offensive firepower to hang with anyone. Cotter and Markstrom and Dillon etc are being added because that was all we could do, and gave up too many goals because of it.

We’re trying to ride our big guns and be good enough everywhere else, defensively, physically, in net, for that to carry us.

You said this better than I ever could have. Everything Fitz accomplished this offseason circles around the flaws that were there last year, too many goals against for a multitude of reasons.

It's clear we have plenty of offensive firepower to put up goals, but we don't want to be forced to rely on that by going down in seemingly every game the way we did last year. With the additions we've made on the backend and between the pipes, along with Keefe's hopefully strong defensive structure, hopefully we'll be more balanced. Knock on wood for a cleaner bill of health across the board too.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

You said this better than I ever could have. Everything Fitz accomplished this offseason circles around the flaws that were there last year, too many goals against for a multitude of reasons.

It's clear we have plenty of offensive firepower to put up goals, but we don't want to be forced to rely on that by going down in seemingly every game the way we did last year. With the additions we've made on the backend and between the pipes, along with Keefe's hopefully strong defensive structure, hopefully we'll be more balanced. Knock on wood for a cleaner bill of health across the board too.

You better knock hard since it's possible we already start the season down L Hughes and Nemec.

 

[HBK27]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1836423954795225170

 

[JimEIV]

I support everything that was done this off season(except for Tatar, that was dumb) and I think we'll be a better team for it...but I can't help but think all that was done was really done was reverting to 2023 with losses of Severson(add Pesce), Graves(add Dillon), Wood(add Cotter)...

It really all seems like an admission of guilt to me.

 

[Better Call Sal]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1836424524981768653

 

[RANDOMH3RO]

I support everything that was done this off season(except for Tatar, that was dumb) and I think we'll be a better team for it...but I can't help but think all that was done was really done was reverting to 2023 with losses of Severson(add Pesce), Graves(add Dillon), Wood(add Cotter)...

It really all seems like an admission of guilt to me.

It’s not like the team hated those players and wanted them gone, they just didn’t want to give them raises for long term. So they replaced those guys a year later for collectively ~3 million less. Seems like smart business to me.

 

[Triumph]

Pagnotta is not a real source but it's fun when people here are so desperate for news that they treat him like one.

 

[JimEIV]

It’s not like the team hated those players and wanted them gone, they just didn’t want to give them raises for long term. So they replaced those guys a year later for collectively ~3 million less. Seems like smart business to me.

So we threw away a season for cost savings? And that seems "smart"?

 

[Better Call Sal]

Pagnotta is not a real source but it's fun when people here are so desperate for news that they treat him like one.

I think Nichols is barely a step above him, but at least he's a credentialed Devils reporter.

 

[JimEIV]

So Mercer is officially a hold out now?

 

[Zippy316]

But I would add I don't think adding to the bottom 6 achieves what Fitz is intending....

If your soft fragile players that can only play one style of game are playing 2/3 of the minutes...adding beef and grit on the edges does not achieve the desired result.

If you change the pie crust from plain to graham cracker on a shit pie, it's still a shit pie

Honestly, I don’t think Fitz views them as bottom six guys. Cotter played a lot of minutes as a complimentary player in Vegas top six. Noesen could do the same. Palat and Haula have been doing this for the last two years for instance.

I think we’re going to find out very soon obviously, but I would not be surprised to see lines early in the camp like Cotter - Hughes - Bratt or Bratt - Hischier - Noesen to see if there’s anything that can stick.

If you can find lightning in a bottle with one line like that, it would make our forward group even deeper. By the end of the year, it’s more than likely the fourth line is Cotter - Lazar - Noesen. At least to start the year, it doesn’t hurt to have a complimentary guy riding shotgun in the top six.

 

[Devils731]

So Mercer is officially a hold out now?

He’s a free agent so technically he’s not holding out. He has a contract with no one.

He’s officially missing the first day of Devils camp medicals but he has no obligation to be there right now.

 

[Nocashstyle]

Pagnotta is not a real source but it's fun when people here are so desperate for news that they treat him like one.

He’s more prone to preemptively throwing out rumors than other insiders, but he’s obviously plugged in. No, he’s not Friedman or Lebrun, but immediately discrediting him, especially in this situation, is a little over the top.

 

[RANDOMH3RO]

So we threw away a season for cost savings? And that seems "smart"?

Were Severson and graves and wood difference makers last season? I know this is just bait but come on, those contracts are all land mines. Losing quality players might have hurt 1 season, but retaining them would hurt multiple seasons in the future. You want to complain about Mercer not having enough room to get him paid, imagine if that money was going to Severson and graves and wood for the next 5 seasons instead. Then you’d actually have something that mattered to complain about.

 

[TrufleShufle]

Were Severson and graves and wood difference makers last season? I know this is just bait but come on, those contracts are all land mines. Losing quality players might have hurt 1 season, but retaining them would hurt multiple seasons in the future. You want to complain about Mercer not having enough room to get him paid, imagine if that money was going to Severson and graves and wood for the next 5 seasons instead. Then you’d actually have something that mattered to complain about.

You should have just simply responded. "So you wanted to have no money at all for Mercer?"

 

[britdevil]

Not having a deal done before camp is one of my pet hates.

I hated on Bratt for it and I am going to hate on Mercer for it.

Remember when Gionta came to camp with no contract? I miss that.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Must discredit anyone that brings anti narrative points....it was all business as usual, "this happens all the time" yesterday....today the bearer of bad news knows nothing...Gestopo tactics 101

Pagnotta has done enough over the years to discredit himself. And he said the talks are still ongoing. What's the bad news?

Remember when Gionta came to camp with no contract? I miss that.

The Giontas are the best.

 

[Triumph]

He’s more prone to preemptively throwing out rumors than other insiders, but he’s obviously plugged in. No, he’s not Friedman or Lebrun, but immediately discrediting him, especially in this situation, is a little over the top.

I could've written exactly what he just wrote, whether or not I had information about Dawson Mercer's contract talks.

Pagnotta is not Eklund, but he is by no means an insider. He gets a few more right than Eklund did, but not many more, and he's been straight up wrong about things a few times too.

 

[JimEIV]

Pagnotta has done enough over the years to discredit himself. And he said the talks are still ongoing. What's the bad news?

You don't think "talks are on going" on the first day of camp isn't bad news? They had almost 3 months to get this done after every Free Agent was signed