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

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TrufleShufle

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Aug 31, 2012
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I remember how Smith wasn’t gonna play much when we first signed him and will be the 7th defenseman.

He was mostly an every nighter through the first three quarters of the first season and basically an every nighter when he was healthy through the entirety of last season.

How many times was MacDermid a healthy scratch after we got him? 2 or 3 times? I even remember him missing one game because he was either sick or injured.

He’s gonna play a lot more than we want him to.
I guess that depends on the coach and what else fitz shoves into the toolbox for him(or her) to use before the season starts.
 

HBK27

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That’s one line crippled if MacDermid plays almost every night.

When people start wondering why Bastian or the other 4th line guys hardly puts up any points anymore that’ll be a good answer.

I wish goons weren’t a thing anymore. Ban fighting if you have to.

Goons are a thing though. So if we let MacDermid walk via UFA, how do you suggest we deal with Rempe and the likes?

I remember how Smith wasn’t gonna play much when we first signed him and will be the 7th defenseman.

He was mostly an every nighter through the first three quarters of the first season and basically an every nighter when he was healthy through the entirety of last season.

How many times was MacDermid a healthy scratch after we got him? 2 or 3 times? I even remember him missing one game because he was either sick or injured.

He’s gonna play a lot more than we want him to.

We have a completely new coaching staff that's still TBD coming in. Let's see how the roster even looks next season and how they handled MacDermid's ice time / games before worrying about this.

Imagine getting paid $1 million to be a cheerleader.

What would be your plan on dealing with Rempe versus bringing back MacDermid?

Guy injures two Devils in 5 minutes of ice time. You don't just not have some sort of plan to try to prevent that from happening again next season. Should the new coach just tell the players to watch out for his elbow and try not to get hit?
 

Zajacs Bowl Cut

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"dealing with Rempe" lol

imagine basing signing a guy for three years because of a goon on a team you'll play 4 times a year.

the way to "deal with Rempe" is play better on the PPs he gives you and make his team pay on the scoreboard. Maybe that makes him think twice about how he plays?
 

Devils731

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Jun 23, 2008
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What would be your plan on dealing with Rempe versus bringing back MacDermid?

Guy injures two Devils in 5 minutes of ice time. You don't just not have some sort of plan to try to prevent that from happening again next season. Should the new coach just tell the players to watch out for his elbow and try not to get hit?
I think the problem is that MacDermid going after Rempe(and we should be talking about all goons here) doesn’t protect anyone. Rempe and his team don’t care if Rempe has to fight someone after he injures an opponent.

MacDermid has to injure a good player on the other team to show there is mutually assured destruction if someone hurts a Devil. That causes the other team to reign in their psychos.

I don’t like that the league is like this but it is. So is MacDermid willing to be that guy?
 

Better Call Sal

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"dealing with Rempe" lol

imagine basing signing a guy for three years because of a goon on a team you'll play 4 times a year.

the way to "deal with Rempe" is play better on the PPs he gives you and make his team pay on the scoreboard. Maybe that makes him think twice about how he plays?

Why not have a solution for both? Given we didn’t do very well doing that this year anyway. :laugh:

Look, of course I’m not surprised some will overreact to this signing when they see it. But it really is a big nothing burger at the end of the day.
 

TrufleShufle

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"dealing with Rempe" lol

imagine basing signing a guy for three years because of a goon on a team you'll play 4 times a year.

the way to "deal with Rempe" is play better on the PPs he gives you and make his team pay on the scoreboard. Maybe that makes him think twice about how he plays?
Imagine taking what some poster on a message board says and making it the only reason the GM of a hockey team made a signing just to argue against it.
 

Zajacs Bowl Cut

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Imagine taking what some poster on a message board says and making it the only reason the GM of a hockey team made a signing just to argue against it.

But just because a GM of a hockey team makes a move does not make it a good move. GMs make terrible moves all the time.

and I have praised Fitz plenty for his work in the past. I think this was pointless and not needed, especially given that term.

Its May and we have no team news which is why we're dwelling on this. But as someone else said- we were once told Brendan Smith wasn't gonna play that much and then he played like 80% of the games the last 2 years.
 

forceten

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Stop letting Rempe live rent-free on these boards. It's not about Rempe per-se. It's about all the players like Rempe and how we really have nobody on this team that is a physical presence first, hockey second. We need a sociopath. MacDermid can beat the piss out of Rempe, that much is obvious, but Rempe will get better and wiser, and other teams will have their own variant of him. We need htat on the team, and a 4th line winger isn't a big deal if he can be trusted to play decent hockey, which, I think he certainly can.
 

Zajacs Bowl Cut

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Stop letting Rempe live rent-free on these boards. It's not about Rempe per-se. It's about all the players like Rempe and how we really have nobody on this team that is a physical presence first, hockey second. We need a sociopath. MacDermid can beat the piss out of Rempe, that much is obvious, but Rempe will get better and wiser, and other teams will have their own variant of him. We need htat on the team, and a 4th line winger isn't a big deal if he can be trusted to play decent hockey, which, I think he certainly can.

These types of players barely exist anymore. How many teams employ a regular player that basically can't play? It isn't a thing that happens in the league nowadays past a few exceptions.
 

RSeen

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Oct 26, 2011
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I'd prefer to add functional toughness (i.e., players that can be physical and actually add to positive puck possession), which I hope we still focus on.

If he is the 14th forward, still not a fan of the contract, but it is not overly impactful.
 

TrufleShufle

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But just because a GM of a hockey team makes a move does not make it a good move. GMs make terrible moves all the time.

and I have praised Fitz plenty for his work in the past. I think this was pointless and not needed, especially given that term.

Its May and we have no team news which is why we're dwelling on this. But as someone else said- we were once told Brendan Smith wasn't gonna play that much and then he played like 80% of the games the last 2 years.
I never said anything about good move bad move, but about taking the lowest hanging fruit to argue against.

And to the second point, that's half Fitz half coach. If Fitz gave them someone who could PK, bottom pair, or play 4th line in times they needed that extra guy, I'd like to imagine he wouldn't have played as much. The injuries didn't help. But also "half coach" part would be, because there was times we all thought there as a better option for what ever position he was put in a lot of nights, but Ruff didn't.

You have to hope Fitz gives the new coach options that he can't possibly think is a worse choice than Macd most nights.

I'm not the worried about it. I stand by believing this was a just get it done and not think about it signing by Fitz. If we need one of these guys over the course of the next 3 years, we have the best. If not, who cares. Now start building out a good enough hockey team to need him as little as possible.
 
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Oneiro

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Mar 28, 2013
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It's not just Rempe trauma or whatnot. Fitz saw the consequences of not covering his bases last year on multiple fronts. Goaltending, injury wise, McLeod-wise, etc.

We'll have a lot of new faces and not take chances heading into the playoffs. And this will be a playoff team next year.
 
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