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

[Bleedred]

I'm jonesing so hard for hockey that I'm listening (not watching) to a replay of a Red Bulls game just so I can hear Cangi's voice. I'm truly in the "will suck dick for coke" phase of withdrawal.

Most summers I'm like that around this time, but I'm a little more content this offseason, probably because the season ended later than normal this year. I haven't even attempted to watch the world juniors.

I also (to the surprise of no one) got way too emotionally pissed off by the level of goaltending that I had to witness from this team last season that I'm enjoying the break. I won't over-enjoy the break. I'll be more than ready for things to start probably even in a couple more weeks.

One other thing that really drained me and just seemed to kill momentum last season for me (it did change late in the year when they stopped testing asymptomatic players after all star break) was when guys were dropping every day to the covid list. You never knew who was gonna end up on the list and not be able to play for 10 days (and then 5 days), you never knew what games were gonna be postponed that night. It also got to a point right before New Years where you didn't know if they would be able to fit in all 82 games. If they hadn't ended the testing of asymptomatic players in early February, I'm skeptical we wouldn't have been making regular season games up well into May and the playoffs would have been totally different (for the worst). With the number of cases going down around that time, it wouldn't have been nearly as bad as what was happening in late December and early January, but things could have been way different in what I thought was an excellent playoffs. That really kind of soured me a bit last year. Not permanently soured me, but to the point where I'm not withdrawing when I normally will be.

I fully expect next offseason to be full of a withdrawal and boredom and waiting for the season to start, since the cup will be back to being awarded before the middle of June and the regular season will be over before the middle of April.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

SARGE!!! LOVE IT.

What a great dude.

 

[NjDevsRR]

!!!

 

[Guttersniped]

Are you working as artist still?

Oh, sadly, and believe me I’ve always been super disappointed about this, I can’t draw well at all.

I started collected comics pretty young in the mid 80s, when independent comics (non-DC & Marvel stuff) was just starting to flourish.

The bigger conventions in the 70s & 80s had more women if they were also SF/Fantasy fiction related but the US comics scene was basically all super heroes. And dudes.

The gender balance changed by the 90s, DC’s Vertigo line, Independent non-Super Comics and then especially manga did that. (Then more women, and more people in general, started reading super hero comics.)

If you go to shows, comic artists are there and they sell their original artwork that was used to produce comics, plus they do original sketches.

I got into that when I was a still a teenager. The main original comic art market is basically all men even though there are definitely plenty of female fans and artists. I was the only women on e-mail discussion group for a number of years, it’s a very small niche thing. Prices have exploded so I haven’t bought anything in a long time.

Many comic artists now draw on computers and don’t have physical inked pages used for production to sell. *feeling old and sad now*

Edit: and when I was the only women in the original art email list I got to peer into this secret world of men and see what they discuss amongst themselves.

And when it wasn’t comic book or art related, it was sports or Dad movies. I did learn how popular Russell Crowe movies are among a certain demographic.

Master & Commander: Far Side of the World FTW. (Several of them had read the books too. Not the most exciting bunch, but I appreciate nice people lol.)

 

[My3Sons]

Oh, sadly, and believe me I’ve always been super disappointed about this, I can’t draw well at all.

I started collected comics pretty young in the mid 80s, when independent comics (non-DC & Marvel stuff) was just starting to flourish.

The bigger conventions in the 70s & 80s had more women if they were also SF/Fantasy fiction related but the US comics scene was basically all super heroes. And dudes.

The gender balance changed by the 90s, DC’s Vertigo line, Independent non-Super Comics and then especially manga did that. (Then more women, and more people in general, started reading super hero comics.)

If you go to shows, comic artists are there and they sell their original artwork that was used to produce comics, plus they do original sketches.

I got into that when I was a still a teenager. The main original comic art market is basically all men even though there are definitely plenty of female fans and artists. I was the only women on e-mail discussion group for a number of years, it’s a very small niche thing. Prices have exploded so I haven’t bought anything in a long time.

Many comic artists now draw on computers and don’t have physical inked pages used for production to sell. *feeling old and sad now*

Edit: and when I was the only women in the original art email list I got to peer into this secret world of men and see what they discuss amongst themselves.

And when it wasn’t comic book or art related, it was sports or Dad movies. I did learn how popular Russell Crowe movies are among a certain demographic.

Master & Commander: Far Side of the World FTW. (Several of them had read the books too. Not the most exciting bunch, but I appreciate nice people lol.)

You can admit that you laughed at some fart jokes along the way.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Playoff team?!?!?

Bratt-Hughes-Mercer
Palat-Hischier-Holtz
Tatar-Haula-Sharangovich
Wood-Boqvist-Zetterlund
X - Mcleod,Bastian,Johnsson,Foote

Siegenthaler - Hamilton
Graves - Marino
Smith-Severson
X - Bahl, Walsh, Nemec,Okhotiuk

Blackwood
Vanecek
X-Bernier

I think we'd be able to compete for a wildcard spot if we stay somewhat healthy

NHL playoffs? No. Better than last year maybe.

 

[Unknown Caller]

NHL playoffs? No. Better than last year maybe.

They’re a playoff team as long as they stay healthy.

 

[glenwo2]

!!!

Okay now THIS is very EXCITING.

 

[Bleedred]

They’re a playoff team as long as they stay healthy.

Also need Blackwood to MASSIVELY improve from last year (like probably what he was before 2021) and Vanecek to stay at least stay the same.

That's still the only question mark, despite some wanting to make it out to be worse than it really is.

 

[glenwo2]

Also need Blackwood to MASSIVELY improve from last year (like probably what he was before 2021) and Vanecek to stay at least stay the same.

That's still the only question mark, despite some wanting to make it out to be worse than it really is.

I have very little confidence in Blackwood right now.

My expectation is that our newest goaltender acquisition outplays him and gets the starting nod.

 

[Bleedred]

I have very little confidence in Blackwood right now.

My expectation is that our newest goaltender acquisition outplays him and gets the starting nod.

I honestly think a decent amount of this board is extremely optimistic on his upcoming performance this year. I'm pretty pessimistic that he'll have a year worth really bragging about. Current rankings would indicate that Vanecek is the better goalie. Blackwood's first two years in the NHL were better than either of Vanecek's years in the NHL, but it seems a bit of long shot that Blackwood will return to that level, at least consistently.

But the saving grace is that the NHL is now FILLED with A LOT of BAD goalies. Some of them right in our division in Korpisalo (probably the worst in the league), Has-Been Halak across the river, The Capitals had to sign an AHL goalie to be their backup for cap reasons after blowing their load on the Kuemper contract. Carolina has two well into their 30's, rickety guys seem to get injured sneezing themselves or trying to push their urine stream out. We don't even know what the hell the Flyers current plan behind Carter Hart is. The oldest player in the league is a BAD goalie that hasn't had a good season in 5 years.

 

[OmNomNom]

sorry to bring up the bratt topic again, but it's entirely possible we didn't sign him to a massive extension due to lack of cap space, right? i bring this up seeing the cost to offload monahan -- maybe the price was way too steep for us to say "hey jesper, we can reasonably clear cap space so we can give you the big contract right now"

 

[guitarguyvic]

Bless your heart if you’re courageous or confident enough to predict anything about this team, especially if it involves making the playoffs. On paper it’s slightly better with a couple of the changes Fitz made and by virtue of young guys maturing further…but we literally don’t know jack shit about how the goaltending will pan out or if this team can play any kind of meaningfully responsible hockey under Ruff.

 

[My3Sons]

I honestly think a decent amount of this board is extremely optimistic on his upcoming performance this year. I'm pretty pessimistic that he'll have a year worth really bragging about. Current rankings would indicate that Vanecek is the better goalie. Blackwood's first two years in the NHL were better than either of Vanecek's years in the NHL, but it seems a bit of long shot that Blackwood will return to that level, at least consistently.

If Vanacek can be consistently slightly above average and MBW can range from very good to poor with the average being average that is not terrible as a percentage of winnable starts. I’m skeptical NJ makes the playoffs next season because I think it takes one more year for WAS PIT NYI and BOS to collapse and join me at the shuffleboard court in Del Boca Vista but even an above NHL .500 finish woukd boost morale and maybe give the players and fans something to cheer about and look forward to for the first time in a while.

 

[Bleedred]

sorry to bring up the bratt topic again, but it's entirely possible we didn't sign him to a massive extension due to lack of cap space, right? i bring this up seeing the cost to offload monahan -- maybe the price was way too steep for us to say "hey jesper, we can reasonably clear cap space so we can give you the big contract right now"

Let's ask BrattMobile or whatever his name is over on Twitter. This is a question for him.

 

[HBK27]

sorry to bring up the bratt topic again, but it's entirely possible we didn't sign him to a massive extension due to lack of cap space, right? i bring this up seeing the cost to offload monahan -- maybe the price was way too steep for us to say "hey jesper, we can reasonably clear cap space so we can give you the big contract right now"

No.

If there was common ground for a long-term deal between Bratt and Fitz, they could've signed it well before the Palat signing.

Even with the team constructed as is, the Devils would be better off with an extra $3-$4M in salary if Bernier is expected to be on LTIR the whole season as it would allow them to replace more of Bernier's salary.

Seems clear from everything Fitz has said that they just couldn't come to an agreement on a long-term contract. I don't think the cap had a single thing to do with it. If you can get one of your core players signed long-term you do it and figure out the rest later.

 

[glenwo2]

Let's ask BrattMobile or whatever his name is over on Twitter. This is a question for him.

hahah!! BrattMobile indeed.

 

[Bleedred]

Bless your heart if you’re courageous or confident enough to predict anything about this team, especially if it involves making the playoffs. On paper it’s slightly better with a couple of the changes Fitz made and by virtue of young guys maturing further…but we literally don’t know jack shit about how the goaltending will pan out or if this team can play any kind of meaningfully responsible hockey under Ruff.

Fair enough. I'm right there with you on the goaltending. In fact, I'm on my own little boat as far as the goaltending goes. The boat is only enough to hold me, because I don't think anybody could have less faith in our current goaltending than myself.

As far as Ruff goes, he currently doesn't stand to be here very long if things go bad. I could honestly see him getting ganked by Halloween if things are really going badly. Fitz got to see in person what happened to his ''Mentor'' when he decided to p***yfoot around firing Hynes and put that off and went to the most insane of lengths in trying to preserve his job and keeping it on life support by sending Fitz down to the bench himself to make it look like he was really trying to do something.

After constantly striking out on my ''Ruff will be fired on.........'' predictions last year, I would really hesitate to think Ruff would be on a short leash, until we went and hired Brunette.

I think Brunette saw this as his best opportunity and means to a head coaching position out of all the teams that were interested. When you look at the other names of the teams that were interested in him, it was both teams that just hired a head coach this offseason (Philly) and teams where the head coach wasn't really in any kind of imminent danger to losing that job.

And then the Brylin promotion/hiring today. This may be reading into it too much and irrelevant, but we now have one more coach on the main staff than we did last year. I don't think there's any limit on how many coaches you can have on your staff and some teams have 3 main assistants (and a goalie coach) and other teams might have 4 main assistants and a goalie coach. We replaced Nas and Recchi and now with Brylin we have one more assistant than we've had for at least the last several years. And when Ruff goes, it's a pretty safe bet that Chris Taylor goes with him, as he's a Ruff guy/hire and he's the only non-goalie coach from the main staff that remains from the original Ruff staff.

 

[My3Sons]

No.

If there was common ground for a long-term deal between Bratt and Fitz, they could've signed it well before the Palat signing.

Even with the team constructed as is, the Devils would be better off with an extra $3-$4M in salary if Bernier is expected to be on LTIR the whole season as it would allow them to replace more of Bernier's salary.

Seems clear from everything Fitz has said that they just couldn't come to an agreement on a long-term contract. I don't think the cap had a single thing to do with it. If you can get one of your core players signed long-term you do it and figure out the rest later.

I would be curious what Bratt’s ask was on a long term deal. He ultimately didn’t go to arbitration and was able to compromise on the one year contract. Presumably he’s willing to compromise to at least some extent with some term? I could see the Hangul being that he’s just unwilling to give up more than one or at most two UFA years to avoid seeing an open market contract when he’s 29.

 

[Guadana]

Oh, sadly, and believe me I’ve always been super disappointed about this, I can’t draw well at all.

I started collected comics pretty young in the mid 80s, when independent comics (non-DC & Marvel stuff) was just starting to flourish.

The bigger conventions in the 70s & 80s had more women if they were also SF/Fantasy fiction related but the US comics scene was basically all super heroes. And dudes.

The gender balance changed by the 90s, DC’s Vertigo line, Independent non-Super Comics and then especially manga did that. (Then more women, and more people in general, started reading super hero comics.)

If you go to shows, comic artists are there and they sell their original artwork that was used to produce comics, plus they do original sketches.

I got into that when I was a still a teenager. The main original comic art market is basically all men even though there are definitely plenty of female fans and artists. I was the only women on e-mail discussion group for a number of years, it’s a very small niche thing. Prices have exploded so I haven’t bought anything in a long time.

Many comic artists now draw on computers and don’t have physical inked pages used for production to sell. *feeling old and sad now*

Edit: and when I was the only women in the original art email list I got to peer into this secret world of men and see what they discuss amongst themselves.

And when it wasn’t comic book or art related, it was sports or Dad movies. I did learn how popular Russell Crowe movies are among a certain demographic.

Master & Commander: Far Side of the World FTW. (Several of them had read the books too. Not the most exciting bunch, but I appreciate nice people lol.)

That’s fun how it absolutely different here. I was starting to draw when I was 26. In 29 I started to work as artist. And I studing every time, because it’s hard and a lot to know. And there are o tonns of women in art community and very few men. Work as cog artist for mobile gaming company, grow as artist on 19th century art. Don’t like super hero comix) not my thing. But Mignola is in my heart.

 

[Bleedred]

Andrew Brunette is in all likelihood a year away (at most) from taking the head coaching job, no matter what happens. It was already almost two months into the offseason when Florida announced they won't be retaining him as head coach and that they'll be hiring Paul Maurice instead. Most of the vacancies had already been filled. I think there was only one head coaching position available at the time that happened and then the Sharks eventually made a really late change with Boughner a couple weeks later and Friedman did say that Brunette was one of the names being considered in San Jose.

So that means he could get an offer this offseason to be a head coach when there's a lot of openings. And teams usually don't block it from happening with their assistants. They allow them to leave freely if it's to go and take a head coaching job.

At that point, Fitz either has to let someone else hire him or makes him the head coach and has Ruff retire. Even if we make the playoffs, Ruff might just agree to retire, unless he still wants to work and feels like he can get jobs. I'm sure he can get assistant jobs, but we'd probably need to make a Stanley Cup Finals or come pretty close to making one (like Rick Bowness did recently) for Ruff to get another head coaching gig this offseason.

He had to wait a few years in between Dallas and his job here, and had to be settle for being an assistant for the Rangers. He could be waiting till he's 70 if he really wants to go on past this year as an aspiring NHL head coach.

 

[devilsblood]

Bless your heart if you’re courageous or confident enough to predict anything about this team, especially if it involves making the playoffs. On paper it’s slightly better with a couple of the changes Fitz made and by virtue of young guys maturing further…but we literally don’t know jack shit about how the goaltending will pan out or if this team can play any kind of meaningfully responsible hockey under Ruff.

I think the team has a wide spread of potential outcomes.

If they stay healthy, especially in goal, Hamilton gets back to the player he was, and the young guys continue their upward trajectory then I think playoffs could be within reach.

If Blackwood is hurt, while Vanecek is meh, and some of the young guys plateau or pull back, or we see a rash of injuries amongst the skaters, then we'll be in a similar boat as this past season.

I think we'll be in the higher end of that range, but a bad team is a bad team until they prove otherwise.

 

[Bleedred]

This definitely sounds odd coming from me, but I do wonder if at some point Bernier can get out there and maybe even surprise us for a 10-20 game streak and it winds up really helping us once the season comes to an end.​

​

I wouldn't bet on it happening, as I've said all along, he's not a self bet to count on being any kind of a contributor to the team this year, once he got the hip injury. He could also come back and look as awful as Rask did when he played a handful of games, before he decided to retire because he just couldn't play competently out there.​

​

But also in a small sample size, anything can happen. So Bernier playing 15-20 games this year at a .915% wouldn't be the most shocking thing we've ever seen or could imagine.​

 

[Unknown Caller]

Bless your heart if you’re courageous or confident enough to predict anything about this team, especially if it involves making the playoffs. On paper it’s slightly better with a couple of the changes Fitz made and by virtue of young guys maturing further…but we literally don’t know jack shit about how the goaltending will pan out or if this team can play any kind of meaningfully responsible hockey under Ruff.

They were a playoff caliber team last year with average goaltending and a powerplay that wasn't historically atrocious. They don't need to do much else to get there, and that doesn't even factor in development and the additional acquisitions they made. The metro is tight, so I'm not going to predict or guarantee anything about getting in, but they're absolutely a playoff caliber team.

 

[NJDevs26]

I still kinda wish they’d cleaned out the goalie coach with the rest of the staff but I guess they feel more than anyone he didn’t get a fair shot last year with 1A and 1B hurt, and Fitz foolishly losing #3 on waivers