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

[Triumph]

Im going to agree with Jim here.

Fact of the matter is that, this is the second time the Devils have had a hard time getting a deal done with him. At that point does anyone really wanna go through it again?

I have no idea if we could get the right value for him, mainly because I dunno who would legit be available. But if I was the GM I might be looking. One thing is for sure. Even if a deal isnt found he would be gone next offseason even things open up. Either the draft or before.

Yes, because he's worth it. He's by far the best winger the Devils have and jumped into the conversation for one of the best wings in the league last year. Trading him now would be exceptionally foolish, everyone's capped out and so are the Devils, why would anyone want Bratt, and what are they giving us? After this season, a ton of money opens up and the Devils have the ability to pay him whatever he wants.

 

[JelloPuddyPops]

It's all about the Kung Pao! Ask Costanza!

George likes his chicken spicy.

 

[Emperoreddy]

If Bratt wants to be here and getting paid is the only hurdle, the Devils will be able to offer him more money next offseason with the freed up space from contracts coming off the books.

If it takes $8 million to get him locked up then just pay him.

 

[McDuffz88]

No, the two missing pieces would be ironically the two best players for the Devils in the 2010's. A goalie like Schneider and a winger like Taylor Hall would make this team absolutely insane. Palmieri was cooked in 2021, not sure what Lou saw in him to trade for him.

It's very easy to see what Lou saw in him. If a player contains these two qualities they are an automatic Lou hire A) a former NJ Devil player & B) 30 years or older

 

[Nicomo Cosca]

It's very easy to see what Lou saw in him. If a player contains these two qualities they are an automatic Lou hire A) a former NJ Devil player & B) 30 years or older

Lou loves him some American born players, too.

 

[Bcap88]

If he signs one year hold onto him this year and trade him next year at the draft

 

[billingtons ghost]

Easy shots, middling shots, hard shots...they couldn't f***ing stop any of them. Although I suppose to be fair no other teams ever ask their goalies to make a difficult save. Only the Devils give up these glorious chances that no goalie could be asked to stop.

We had absolute crap goalies for most of the season, but the hatred on Blackwood is so frigging misplaced.

There's going to be a real surprise for the section of the peanut gallery who believe that Vanacek alone will elevate us to a playoff team.

This is a young team that is a goaltender killer. Putting them in front of absolute garbage made them a true bottom feeder.

I'm not sure why my take on this is such a hard thing to swallow for people.

 

[billingtons ghost]

It had everything to do with icing two broken goalies then a bunch of AHLers who couldn't stop beach balls.

We had the worst goaltending in the league. You don't end up there based on the type of shots given up

You do when you break goalies confidence. A good percentage of these guys had bad results because they sucked, but the diatribe about Blackwood above is misplace. Same could be said of Bernier who got lit up before hurting himself in a blowout.

I’d call that bluff and play him all year, let him risk injury AND regression, and go out and either earn the contract he wants or regret not taking a long term deal. Pretty sure fitz, is holding a better hand, and he knows it. We can always do this again next year. At which point, I’d definitely trade him.

Uh... new handle for you, I'm guessing - Are you a Phish Phan?

 

[billingtons ghost]

Imagine looking at all the resumes and medical records of the goalies we've iced the last two seasons and thinking it's the system's fault they suck. What system was making any of these guys look good outside of Trotzville on Long Island?

Imagine icing a team with Subban/Smith (worst dman in the league) as a pairing, just about the youngest team at that, and then saying that a goalie who came into the season as a favorite for the Team Canada job is really the whole entire problem.

I'm not sure why it's such a crazy take to believe that Vanacek or whoever we pick up this season might struggle as much or more than Blackwood playing behind this team. But yeah, point to some garbge stats or an utterly subjective 'stoppable' stat from one guy and then exclude all other possibilities in this complex game.

We would've been a lottery team with just about every goalie in the league. We might be again this year, except our defense looks to get healthier and better and our kids will hopefully grow and learn.

Again - not sure what is so 'out there' in just not putting it entirely at Blackwood's door.

 

[Emperoreddy]

We had absolute crap goalies for most of the season, but the hatred on Blackwood is so frigging misplaced.

There's going to be a real surprise for the section of the peanut gallery who believe that Vanacek alone will elevate us to a playoff team.

This is a young team that is a goaltender killer. Putting them in front of absolute garbage made them a true bottom feeder.

I'm not sure why my take on this is such a hard thing to swallow for people.

There is nothing statistically to back up this idea the team is a goalie killer. There is plenty of evidence that the goalies we shoved out there last year were garbage.

An injured Bernier was able to get average results in front of this team before his hip completely exploded.

 

[Guttersniped]

There is nothing statistically to back up this idea the team is a goalie killer. There is plenty of evidence that the goalies we shoved out there last year were garbage.

An injured Bernier was able to get average results in front of this team before his hip completely exploded.

Bernier’s Save % is .914 if you take out the last game against Winnipeg.

Bernier started against the Sharks on 11/6 and won 3-2 in a shoot out. Then three games later, he started and lost against Boston 5-2 on 11/13

And then he didn’t start again until 11/26 against Nashville, five games later. He had a rough game then. (He got clean up duty in two games in between, one of them was due to Blackwood going into concussion protocol.)

The team was obviously starting to try to avoid using him. The Winnipeg game was four games later, but it was the second game of a b2b and Blackwood got horribly abused by the Wild the night before.

Something was obviously wrong with Bernier in the Jets game and that was that.

I don’t know why people keep acting like these major injuries weren’t a factor. We were told about Blackwood’s “pain management” and how he wasn’t practicing so he could stay off of his foot/ankle outside of game time.

Do people not understand what it’s like to play with a injury like that? Do they not understand the incredible importance of practice time for a struggling goalie?

Blackwood came off the IR on November 2 (1st game after was 11/5) and I bet if we had better options he would have gone back on it sooner than January 25 (his last two games before that, 1/8 then 1/19).

“Both of our starters played injured and then we lost them after they started a combined 32 games. The rest of the games were played by a 5 other goalies. That was catastrophic.”

“Why are do you keep saying you don’t want any improvement to our team defense? For example, Smith and Subban were terrible, what’s the plan with them next season?”

 

[Mgd31]

Maybe it'll be like Laine. Sign him to a 1 year deal. Constant trade rumors all year and then re-sign him to a longer contract next offseason. Trying to be positive guys heh.

 

[Call Me Al]

I’d call that bluff and play him all year, let him risk injury AND regression, and go out and either earn the contract he wants or regret not taking a long term deal. Pretty sure fitz, is holding a better hand, and he knows it. We can always do this again next year. At which point, I’d definitely trade him.

lol great user name ️

 

[Azathoth]

Our soundtrack for the next few days

 

[MachoDiablo]

Maybe it'll be like Laine. Sign him to a 1 year deal. Constant trade rumors all year and then re-sign him to a longer contract next offseason. Trying to be positive guys heh.

Given what will be off the books by then and being another season closer to a bigger rise in the cap, I actually think there’s a decent chance of that.

 

[ninetyeight]

Maybe it'll be like Laine. Sign him to a 1 year deal. Constant trade rumors all year and then re-sign him to a longer contract next offseason. Trying to be positive guys heh.

Yeah, though disappointing, It's really not the end of the world if he signs 1 year. The trade value drops if we keep him for another year instead of trading him right now (unless he has a monster season), but if we can extend him next year it's a moot point.

But man you would think these short contracts uncertainty and constant negotiations also affect Bratt's game. Why wouldn't he just want to get it done and over with so he can focus 100% playing hockey.

 

[JimEIV]

We had absolute crap goalies for most of the season, but the hatred on Blackwood is so frigging misplaced.

There's going to be a real surprise for the section of the peanut gallery who believe that Vanacek alone will elevate us to a playoff team.

This is a young team that is a goaltender killer. Putting them in front of absolute garbage made them a true bottom feeder.

I'm not sure why my take on this is such a hard thing to swallow for people.

I agree with you but I think it's going to better this season. Additions of Palat and Haula give us at least two lines in the top 9 with a veteran forward that can play a responsible 2 way game. I think that's going to go a long way.

Getting rid of Subban and Ty is another plus, getting rid of Nas and replacing him with an experienced and successful coach for the D is another big step forward

We still have a lot of forwards that play pond hockey but I think the changes we made this off season are the type that change the room and the culture of the team.

We'll see, but if it's bad next year some drastic changes will have to be made.

 

[FooteBahl]

If Bratt does make it to the hearing, are the numbers presented by both sides made publicly available?

 

[hidek91]

Yeah, though disappointing, It's really not the end of the world if he signs 1 year. The trade value drops if we keep him for another year instead of trading him right now (unless he has a monster season), but if we can extend him next year it's a moot point.

But man you would think these short contracts uncertainty and constant negotiations also affect Bratt's game. Why wouldn't he just want to get it done and over with so he can focus 100% playing hockey.

Because if he believes that he's a star and the last year wasn't a fluke, his best scenario is something like 8Mx2 years contract, which is totally unacceptable for Devils. In order to maximize his earnings and also have an option to choose in which city he plays, he can't go for a long contract because it will be very hard for him to sign long contract when he's 32-33, while that should be possible when he's 28-29. It's a business and if you sign something unfavorable it can cost you millions.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

 

[ninetyeight]

Because if he believes that he's a star and the last year wasn't a fluke, his best scenario is something like 8Mx2 years contract, which is totally unacceptable for Devils. In order to maximize his earnings and also have an option to choose in which city he plays, he can't go for a long contract because it will be very hard for him to sign long contract when he's 32-33, while that should be possible when he's 28-29. It's a business and if you sign something unfavorable it can cost you millions.

True, he doesn't have that leverage though as Devils get to decide the arbitration term (between 1 and 2 years). I really believe he wants to be a Devil longterm, but he and his agent don't seem to understand that he might get traded before we even get to the next negotiations.

And while I agree that 27-29yo is usually the best age for that one last pay day, there's risks of injuries. Right now you'd get great money guaranteed for 8 years. For the type of player Bratt is, an injury that would affect his skating could be brutal.

Also if you get paid early on (45m+), you are pretty much set and maybe when you are 32 years old your priorities are in winning the cup instead of money. So you might choose less money to be able to play for a contender.

 

[HBK27]

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

okay lol f*** us

 

[youryeah]

#teamjesper

 

[Csonked Out]

Man why are we doing this too him. That’s a horse shit offer