Zajacs Bowl Cut
Lets Go Baby
if you asked around the NHL, I would bet like 75% of teams (if not more) would trade their center depth for ours.
Devils team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - offseason part III
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if you asked around the NHL, I would bet like 75% of teams (if not more) would trade their center depth for ours.
Ya, and this points to the importance of Nico, who, like McLeod, had more shifts start with a faceoff then on the fly. Which allows Hughes to start most of his shifts on the fly.
When guys take on a large share of difficult assignments it allows other players to get a large share of more favorable assignments.
If one of Nico/Hughes goes down we are in big big trouble, and have nothing in the pipelines. While we have an elite RHD 1-2-3 in the NHL currently
Unknown Caller
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Mercer can easily slide to center. Haula, McLeod, Boqvist and Thompson can and have all played center as well. It’s not a huge issue.
Billdo
Registered User
I mean Hughes and Nico are obviously on much higher tiers but we can absorb a small absence
One whom will likely not be signed, after which we literally have nothing. Well, next to nothing, as I don't see Walsh as a legit option.
You can thank expansion for that mate.
Every team in the league is one or two injuries away from a crisis.
they only had two RD at the draft and chances are Severson is gone next season and they have two again. There's also the reporting about Wright that he didn't impress the teams as being competitive enough. It is what it is at this point. NJ is hardly the only team that passed on Wright so something is up there. Wright wasn't even the first center drafted. Maybe he ends up the player people were hoping he'd be at 15-16 but it remains to be seen. If the team liked Nemec better and thought he was the BPA then they should pick him. NJ can start adding some center depth in the next few drafts or make a few trades.
Mercer hasn't proven to be a reliable option just yet. Having any of the other 4 in the top 6 sounds like we are on our way to another lottery pick.
Stephen Gionta
Boston College > Boston University
Do you understand how easy it is to find bottom 6 centers?
Also - Mercer can play C whenever needed.
Hughes - Hischier - Mercer down the middle is tremendous.
Right. He won't be signed because we drafted Nemec , and have to give up an elite 2nd pairing rhd because we need to make room for Nemec. Who may or may not ever be as good as Severson. While we have a glaring hole at 3C for the long term. Our RHD would have been all under 30, so wouldn't really need anything major in the pipeline there. Outside of Nemec, we drafted a few RHD anyways. I just think we would of been way better off selecting Wright 2nd overall, then continue the draft the way it went.
If you roll with Mercer as your 3C, we have a big hole on the wing to fill in the top 6 now.
isn't it Hughes-Mercer-Hischier?
We need to be perfectly healthy just to have any chance at competing for a wildcard spot. That is the difference between us and most teams.
Signing a 3rd pairing defender isn't overly difficult imo; we did that with B. Smith. Plus the rest of the draft was focused on RHD anyways, and we picked up some potential future NHLers there. Yeah maybe Wright sucks, but he was the widely consensus #1/#2 pick
Of course. Our team, especially at forward, is outrageously young.
If you're comparing us to the perennial playoffs contenders, they have proven players that can absorb big injuries. Penguins and Lightning being good examples here.
Let's hope that another year on, your young lads can enter that echelon.
Stephen Gionta
Boston College > Boston University
Zajacs Bowl Cut
Lets Go Baby
How many NHL teams have even 2 guys as good as Nico and Jack are and are projected to be?
Basically any team would be in for some trouble if they lose one of their top 6 Centers longterm
Both center and RD were a wasteland at the prospect level heading into the draft. They came out of this draft backfilling the RD like they did with the LD a couple of years ago. My guess is next season we see backfilling at center. At least the team's centers are young except for Haula. It could be worse. If the goaltending doesn't hold up this season none of it will matter anyway.
We could sign kadri to play wing on Hughes line and take face offs sometimes and then we would have great center depth. Also would have to walk away from miles wood then
I don't think we have the cap space for that. It would also probably require walking away from Bratt and Severson next year.
Also, isn't it rumored that he's already signed with the Isles, but for some reason known only to Lou, it just hasn't been announced yet? Thought I read that somewhere.
If we have the cap space to offer gaudreau a contract and still resign our rfas then we should be able to offer kadri. Yeah I wonder now since that rumor came out if it’s not going to happen now
We made the Gaudreau offer before signing Palat. The cap space situation is different now, and any logical contract for Kadri would probably put us over. Unless we are able to unload Johnsson and Tatar, which seems unlikely.
- Dec 20, 2018
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It’s not a problem on the big club if we keep everyone, it makes no sense to me give up McLeod (barring the legal stuff).
We have absolutely nothing in the AHL. Thompson is real questionable as center depth, the guy pro career is 27 AHL games and 9 NHL games. We lost the only prospect who seemed like a feasible 4C call-up, Schnarr.
We obviously addressed the hell out of defense this draft. We need to address centers in the next one. You can do it all in one draft.
SteveCangialosi123
Registered User
What is going through someone’s mind when they say our center depth is bad? What exactly is your frame of reference? It can’t be the last 25 years of Devils hockey. When have we ever had better centers? Who in the league has better centers? I’m so confused.
ZachaFlockaFlame
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"If the Leafs have Matthews or Tavares injured, they're in trouble"
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