Devils team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - offseason edition
- Thread starter NJDevs26
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I don't usually listen to or believe bloggers and their opinions but Todd Cordell predicted before the season started that Smith was going to have a terrible year and he was right on the money. He was a completely different guy compared to year 1 and it wasn't close.
Did he provide any reasoning to support his prediction?
I honestly don't remember... because I remember seeing the first sentence about him having a terrible year and clicked off of it like "YEAH WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW"
The Wumpus
bottomless pit supervisor
Sort of, the sophomore slump is a real thing sometimes. Remember Larsson's second season after a solid rookie year?
We can hope Smith is having the Larsson development curve and not the Butcher one.
Definitely saw more Butcher than Lars unfortunately. Larsson at least brought something to the table if he wasn't putting up points. I do hope you're right though. Smith bouncing back this year would be huge.
glenwo2
JESPER BRATWURST
For some reason, some here have trouble accessing the site to even subscribe.
I had no such issue so maybe it's a browser problem?
Yeah. I actually thought one of Ryan's first articles was the shortest article I ever read....until I later found out that I needed to sub to see the rest.
There's not exactly a "please subscribe to read the rest" message there.
Eggtimer
Registered User
I subscribed to Nj.com
Just for the Devils info .
I know it’s frustrating beig nickeled and dimed for everythig these days , But in this circumstance , the price is worth it . For me anyways.
It gives me entertainment and something to read and do for a fraction of the price of other shit I pay money for.
But yes , it’s very frustrating paying for something that used to be free . The thing that pisses me off the most is when you get something temporarily for “free” for a limited time , then you are raped by automatically being billed if you do not cancel before the free trial / offer is up. Now that is bullshit.
That amd places in Canada , you are forced to subscribe and pay for certain tv packages in order to gain access to others ….. I have to subscribe to Telus‘ extended sports package in order to be able to subscribe to NHL centreice…..WTF how is that bullshit allowed ?
Just for the Devils info .
I know it’s frustrating beig nickeled and dimed for everythig these days , But in this circumstance , the price is worth it . For me anyways.
It gives me entertainment and something to read and do for a fraction of the price of other shit I pay money for.
But yes , it’s very frustrating paying for something that used to be free . The thing that pisses me off the most is when you get something temporarily for “free” for a limited time , then you are raped by automatically being billed if you do not cancel before the free trial / offer is up. Now that is bullshit.
That amd places in Canada , you are forced to subscribe and pay for certain tv packages in order to gain access to others ….. I have to subscribe to Telus‘ extended sports package in order to be able to subscribe to NHL centreice…..WTF how is that bullshit allowed ?
Eggtimer
Registered User
Regarding Smith. Even if he does rebound and plays like he did in his rookie season , I still don’t see a roster spot for him.
We need to be better defensively overall. We need to be better able to box guys out in front of our net and stop the cycle in our own zone. Smith does not / cannot do that as effectively as Okhotiuk / Bahl / Shakir I’m my opinion. Smiths strengths to his game are already taken care (and more effectively ) by Hamilton and Severson . I just don’t see a roster spot for him even if he rebounds. It SHOULD be whoever performs the best in camp next year . Maybe he can do that but I’d be very surprised. I just don’t want him to be gifted a position because if his history and pedigree .
We need to be better defensively overall. We need to be better able to box guys out in front of our net and stop the cycle in our own zone. Smith does not / cannot do that as effectively as Okhotiuk / Bahl / Shakir I’m my opinion. Smiths strengths to his game are already taken care (and more effectively ) by Hamilton and Severson . I just don’t see a roster spot for him even if he rebounds. It SHOULD be whoever performs the best in camp next year . Maybe he can do that but I’d be very surprised. I just don’t want him to be gifted a position because if his history and pedigree .
- Feb 5, 2010
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Yeah, this narrative is getting tired. Subban was fine and I'll be disappointed if he leaves. He had his faults but is still definitely and NHL D man.
Zippy316
aka Zippo
Has anyone taken a look into assistants for this off-season?
I recall seeing one of the insiders — I think it was Friedman — mentioning that there are a lot of expiring contracts among assistants around the league. I would think the Devils have to be a desirable place for an assistant who would want to be a HC. There’s definitely an avenue there for an assistant to replace Ruff if the season starts poorly. Not only that, but there’s room for tons of improvement for both special teams for whoever comes on board.
Wonder if there’s any resource for who is available.
I recall seeing one of the insiders — I think it was Friedman — mentioning that there are a lot of expiring contracts among assistants around the league. I would think the Devils have to be a desirable place for an assistant who would want to be a HC. There’s definitely an avenue there for an assistant to replace Ruff if the season starts poorly. Not only that, but there’s room for tons of improvement for both special teams for whoever comes on board.
Wonder if there’s any resource for who is available.
- May 1, 2011
- 133,233
- 62,588
ABDOQ
Anybody But Dineen Or Quinn
It's not that I'm opposed to either of them being assistants here, but I would be irrationally paranoid that if either were hired to be assistants that whatever one we hire (god forbid it's both) would become head coach if Ruff is quickly blasted into outer space.
- May 1, 2011
- 133,233
- 62,588
Early on to start the year I thought he was awful. They were still trying to squeeze blood from his dried up stones in hope that he was really still a 20 minute defenseman, which he absolutely was not anymore. And then he was just being handed power play time based on NOTHING other than what he was 3-4 years ago.
I thought he was solid in a reduced role, which is absolutely the type of role he should be playing in 2022.
One other frightening was that a couple different times when somebody in the media asked Ruff about the power play early on his answer more than once was something about ''We need to get Subban going'' and how they feel he can bring more to the power play and really help it. This was based on nothing but what he used to be. I think he had 11 power play points in 189 games as a Devil. ZERO of which came this last year. I don't know if this was the ideas of the jerkoff that just got fired or both him and Ruff, but it failed miserably. They mostly abandoned it at some point in December, but they still went back to it a few times when the power play wasn't doing anything.
I can see why people soured on him. He was really a shell of himself here. I thought he was good his first year here, but he just lost all of his offense. He scored quite a bit more in his second year here, but he really lost the rest of his game. I thought he had a solid season last year, but I would be HIGHLY hesitant to give him more than one year if we re-signed him.
All in all, I don't regret the trade. I don't think it was easy to see his play falling off that much.
- May 1, 2011
- 133,233
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Imagine if Dineen and Quinn are both brought in as assistants and Ruff is fired, then we get the N. Bench 2.0?
Tom Fitzgerald, Kevin Dineen and David Quinn.
If that ever happened I would hope the fate of all 3 will be the same of the original N. Bench, resulting in none of the 3 returning in any role in the organization the next year.
Tom Fitzgerald, Kevin Dineen and David Quinn.
If that ever happened I would hope the fate of all 3 will be the same of the original N. Bench, resulting in none of the 3 returning in any role in the organization the next year.
I'm one that's been trying to subscribe and can never get the page to load. Obviously it's not overly important for me to call in or anything but I wanted to subscribe to support having dedicated Devils coverage.
I'm from Kansas (I don't like Denver or St Louis teams so picked the Devils over the more local ones based on the Kansas City Scouts when I first started getting into hockey as a kid) so NJ.com would be strictly for Ryan/Devils content for me.
I've tried using Safari, Chrome, Brave and all browsers have the same issue.
- Dec 20, 2018
- 22,675
- 50,599
Yes. I even had to black out a Film Festival sign.
Boucher did often (always? I wouldn’t know) wear glasses at press conferences, which is why I went with this. You also can’t see the cheek which would have the scar. But it’s obviously Mads and not him.
The real guy:
Mgd31
Registered User
He's not available and probably is only leaving for a current HC job. But I would like Jim Montgomery this year and then he takes over for Ruff if the team blows up before Christmas or next year.
Guadana
Registered User
Smith wasn’t good in his first year. It’s a rookie season affect. He was better in producing, but that’s all.
I was the man who did say we should trade him before the season. Because I did know. Because that was obvious. Especially after drafting Luke Hughes and signing of Hamilton. Now we did lost a big part of his price. And if we will not trade him this summer, his price could turn into the nothing.
When player is a softy slowly bamby, I don’t know what you are waiting from him. Even if he somehow did produce 20 points.
I was the man who did say we should trade him before the season. Because I did know. Because that was obvious. Especially after drafting Luke Hughes and signing of Hamilton. Now we did lost a big part of his price. And if we will not trade him this summer, his price could turn into the nothing.
When player is a softy slowly bamby, I don’t know what you are waiting from him. Even if he somehow did produce 20 points.
- Dec 20, 2018
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Of course they will honor the crap out of that team.Good lord what a flashbackand that article is full of incorrect statements. Friesen certainly was not a Holik replacement. And I can’t recall him ever being viewed as a center in his career at any point.
Bit of a shift but I hope they do honor the 2003 team this year. Would be cool to see Friesen come back, I was always bummed he flamed out so fast after that Cup year. Would love to see him and Gio back for old times sake.
Stephen Gionta
Boston College > Boston University
KovalchukFistPump
Too lazy to change username
Any news on Severson? You have to be looking to trade him if he won't sign a reasonable extension. I guess you could wait til the deadline, but it's risky.
Eggtimer
Registered User
I cannot see Smith hettig that much more valuable . He SHOULD be the #7/8 Dman but I can see the Devils go too far in trying to shoehorn him into the lineup even thought there are better fits/ options .
For whatever reason , most NHL teams wait far too long and are stubborn to realize that a player just doesn’t work out on their team. It is someone Ha nf to admit that they made an error in drafting or assessing a player. However, in Smiths case , I don’t think they screwed up drafting him where they selected him . At first , it appeared that he fell a little where he was drafted and was a good pick at the time. He won WHL D man of the year amd looked very promising and we probably hoped his skating would improve or that his hockey IQ would counter balance his lack of foot speed.
Now , we simply don’t have a need for his style of game.
We ha e better options plus we need more physicality and crease clearing ability , ability to stop the cycle in our own end. He blows at that . We habe numerous better options so we have zero need for him , even if he does rebound.
I hope we can find a trade with the Kings for him.
Kings are the opposite of us. They have tons of RHD and need a LHD puck moving offensive D man. Smith for one of their RHD would be a win-win for both clubs. I’m just not sure who we would get in return. I’m guessig Durzi is way out of question but who knows .
The main issue I have with Subban is that he is biased towards having an offensive game when NJ needs more of a defensive RD on the third pair. Now, at even strength, the ability to move the puck is still a big deal. But beyond that, you are looking at injuries to both Hamilton and Severson and maybe even Walsh and Smith before Subban should ever see a PP. If PK could function well on the PK I'd think he was still a perfect fit on the third pair but he's no Lovejoy.
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