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

[NJDevs26]

Luke is going to get an obscene contract deserving or not.

And I'm sure they won't sandbag him like they did Mercer....you imagine if they put Luke on the 3rd pairing, take away much of his PP time, force him into a defensive posture and ask him to kill penalties...then claim he had a "down year" in a contract year?

Yeah...that ain't happening but it did to Mercer.

This is all nonsense...the same organization that was running Jack and Nico back into games injured before December because they were desperate to win is going to be worrying about Mercer's stats? It's one thing to play around with Mike Dunham's games played when you make the playoffs and win the division by twenty points but when you're having one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history the organization's concern isn't going to be saving money on a Mercer deal.

 

[MadDevil]

You think that was all by design for Mercer?

Obviously. Purposely sandbagging a young guy you want to be part of your future in the middle of a massively disappointing season just to save on his next contract is a totally logical move.

 

[JimEIV]

Getting Mercer on the cheap for at least a couple of years is literally the only feasible way to sign Luke and probably Nemec but the focus is mostly Luke.

So, you sign a scrub like Tatar for 1.8 for 1 year...now that 5.5 to 6.5 is not available for long term deal... which literally would be had they not signed Tatar...they would have 6.7 in space right now without Tatar...

Then force Mercer into a cheap short term deal to open a two/three year widow to dish out 9/10 million contract to Luke this year ...

That's what's going on....and that "betting on himself" nonsense is total BS. He's being squeezed by design to insure Luke can get a massive contract....watch it will all play out exactly like that

 

[JimEIV]

Obviously. Purposely sandbagging a young guy you want to be part of your future in the middle of a massively disappointing season just to save on his next contract is a totally logical move.

How the hell does Mercer go from top 6 for two years in a row to playing with Lazar and McLeod for roughly 40-50% of his Even Strength time? Dude was sandbagged.

 

[forceten]

How the hell does Mercer go from top 6 for two years in a row to playing with Lazar and McLeod for roughly 40-50% of his Even Strength time? Dude was sandbagged.

If Mercer was sandbagged, so was Holtz. If Holtz was demoted due to poor play, it's reasonable to assume so was Mercer.

 

[Zippy316]

Mercer had opportunities last year, played poorly, and was demoted because of it. No different than Holtz’s season last year.

In previous seasons, he was creating a lot more, being a nuisance to play against, and had some hot stretches where he was moved up to the top six and produced.

I am curious to see if Tatar coming back helps at all. Him and Mercer seemed to really gel together at times. Even if it’s on a high energy third line with Haula.

 

[MadDevil]

How the hell does Mercer go from top 6 for two years in a row to playing with Lazar and McLeod for roughly 40-50% of his Even Strength time? Dude was sandbagged.

I don't know, maybe he wasn't good and earned a demotion?

Although I must admit it doesn't sound as dramatic as Fitz wanting to pinch pennies and telling mean old Lindy Ruff to f*** Mercer over, so I can see why you've chosen that stance.

He had a bad year on a team where everything went wrong. Unfortunately it was a contract year for him, which sucks, but it doesn't mean there was some grand conspiracy to keep his numbers down so the team could save a little money.

This is what happens when you have a lot of good players on your team. You can't give them all big money and/or long term deals. If we can't afford Mercer longer term, it'll suck, but that's the way it goes. If he bounces back, which I expect him to, he'll get his money somewhere.

 

[devilsblood]

How the hell does Mercer go from top 6 for two years in a row to playing with Lazar and McLeod for roughly 40-50% of his Even Strength time? Dude was sandbagged.

Injuries to Hughes and Nico certainly played into this. And McLeod was in the midst of a breakout season, so doesn't make sense that that would be a sandbag move.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

How the hell does Mercer go from top 6 for two years in a row to playing with Lazar and McLeod for roughly 40-50% of his Even Strength time? Dude was sandbagged.

Mercer was 6th among forwards in ES ATOI last year. And he was actually 4th in 5 on 5 ATOI, ahead of Nico.....

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

View attachment 905649

Let me sing you a story about a man named Jim,

Who argues in circles, likes to reel you in,

But if you give him a bourbon, and with some archerrrrrrryyyyyyy…

You’ll eat venison burgers for weeks on for free…

 

[AfroThunder396]

We've been over this many times. Mercer started in the top-6. He played himself out of the top-6. At Thanksgiving he was 2nd only to Bratt in both total TOI and ES TOI among forwards, yet had 4 points in 17 games. That's fewer than Holtz, McLeod, Lazar, and tied with Siegenthaler.

Even if he's "buried on the 4th line," which he wasn't, but even if he was, then why were the other 4th liners outproducing him? When Jack and Nico went down he was supposed to be the one to step up and replace their offense and he failed miserably at it.

In terms of points/60, he was 408 out of 425 forwards who recorded at least one 5v5 point.

He was one of the worst forwards in the league the first 20 games of the season and would have been healthy scratched if Ruff actually had the balls to break his iron man streak.

Go ahead and make excuses for your favorites if you want, but you don't get to re-write history. The numbers speak for themselves.

 

[JimEIV]

We've been over this many times. Mercer started in the top-6. He played himself out of the top-6. At Thanksgiving he was 2nd only to Bratt in both total TOI and ES TOI among forwards, yet had 4 points in 17 games. That's fewer than Holtz, McLeod, Lazar, and tied with Siegenthaler.

Even if he's "buried on the 4th line," which he wasn't, but even if he was, then why were the other 4th liners outproducing him? When Jack and Nico went down he was supposed to be the one to step up and replace their offense and he failed miserably at it.

In terms of points/60, he was 408 out of 425 forwards who recorded at least one 5v5 point.

He was one of the worst forwards in the league the first 20 games of the season and would have been healthy scratched if Ruff actually had the balls to break his iron man streak.

Go ahead and make excuses for your favorites if you want, but you don't get to re-write history. The numbers speak for themselves.

Mercer was out of the top 6 in 2 games. Go look at the With and without minutes for the first 3 games.

How the hell do you play your way out of the top 6 in 20 5v5 shifts with his track record? It's not like Holtz who never did shit in his career...it's an asinine argument.

Mercer didn't play his way out of anything...moving Meier around to get him going was got Mercer bumped....just like when they broke up Mercer, Bratt and Johnsson....it was not only the best line when they broke it up, it was the only line producing and it was to accommodate other players.

 

[Triumph]

The thing is that the Devils would be in a better position if Mercer had a better year because they would feel comfortable committing significant money to him on a 4 or 5 year contract. Mercer is now in a position where he is forced to bet on himself because I just can't imagine the Devils coming in with a high enough offer on a long-term deal - this was where Bratt found himself after the 2020 season also.

 

[My3Sons]

Mercer had opportunities last year, played poorly, and was demoted because of it. No different than Holtz’s season last year.

In previous seasons, he was creating a lot more, being a nuisance to play against, and had some hot stretches where he was moved up to the top six and produced.

I am curious to see if Tatar coming back helps at all. Him and Mercer seemed to really gel together at times. Even if it’s on a high energy third line with Haula.

So where does Hischier play then?

 

[Guadana]

Getting Mercer on the cheap for at least a couple of years is literally the only feasible way to sign Luke and probably Nemec but the focus is mostly Luke.

So, you sign a scrub like Tatar for 1.8 for 1 year...now that 5.5 to 6.5 is not available for long term deal... which literally would be had they not signed Tatar...they would have 6.7 in space right now without Tatar...

Then force Mercer into a cheap short term deal to open a two/three year widow to dish out 9/10 million contract to Luke this year ...

That's what's going on....and that "betting on himself" nonsense is total BS. He's being squeezed by design to insure Luke can get a massive contract....watch it will all play out exactly like that

They will find 1 mil for long term deal if Mercer will agree on a reasonable deal.
Free cap space isn't a problem at all. Especially 1 mil. Cmon.

The only problem that he played enough last year, his ice time was very good for how he performed, but his performance was bad. There were no try to limit him. Nico missed some games, Jack, Timo. Toffoli was traded. Mercer just wasn't good enough. And he still had enough ice time, 5 on 5, pk, pp. Sorry, but he wasn't close to play regular pp1 role.

 

[JimEIV]

The thing is that the Devils would be in a better position if Mercer had a better year because they would feel comfortable committing significant money to him on a 4 or 5 year contract. Mercer is now in a position where he is forced to bet on himself because I just can't imagine the Devils coming in with a high enough offer on a long-term deal - this was where Bratt found himself after the 2020 season also.

This is just talking points....they don't have the money/space for any long term deal....all these words mean absolutely nothing with 4.9M in space....you are absolutely not getting Mercer on any long term deal for less than 5....

So this talk of "down year" or "betting on himself " is all misdirection to avoid the fact that the money/space isn't there...and I personally think the space is not there intentionally.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Anybody heard anything as to the rookie roster as rookie camp opens on Wednesday? Maybe I'm too far ahead of the game, huh?

 

[JimEIV]

Luke's deal is probably already worked out in principle and waiting to be announced sometime early in 2025.

To get to that Mercer has to be signed on the cheap. Tatar is a placeholder of 1.8, Haula walks at 3.2, 3 million in savings from not signing Mercer to a long term contract and there's 8 million of Luke's ~9 million 2026 contract and Bastian is probably the rest.

Down year my ass, this shit was planned.

 

[Hockey Sports Fan]

So where does Hischier play then?

if he has a good showing in camp i could see him holding down the 3C spot in Utica this year

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Luke's deal is probably already worked out in principle and waiting to be announced sometime early in 2025.

To get to that Mercer has to be signed on the cheap. Tatar is a placeholder of 1.8, Haula walks at 3.2, 3 million in savings from not signing Mercer to a long term contract and there's 8 million of Luke's ~9 million 2026 contract and Bastian is probably the rest.

Down year my ass, this shit was planned.

this is absolutely absurd and you have been proven wrong over and over again.

Mercer SUCKED in the playoffs in 2023 and all year last year. Facts. He STUNK. No matter where he played. That is on him, not on the team.

 

[Omar Little]

this is absolutely absurd and you have been proven wrong over and over again.

Mercer SUCKED in the playoffs in 2023 and all year last year. Facts. He STUNK. No matter where he played. That is on him, not on the team.

Mercer didn’t suck in the playoffs

 

[TheUnseenHand]

So before the season starts I'd like to understand how I'm going to be able to watch games as an out of market fan. I have ESPN+. Is that still going to give me all the non national games or do I need whatever MSG thing they were talking about a couple weeks ago?

 

[My3Sons]

This is just talking points....they don't have the money/space for any long term deal....all these words mean absolutely nothing with 4.9M in space....you are absolutely not getting Mercer on any long term deal for less than 5....

So this talk of "down year" or "betting on himself " is all misdirection to avoid the fact that the money/space isn't there...and I personally think the space is not there intentionally.

If Mercer told NJ he’d sign long term for 5.5 per I imagine the team would create the space. I’m guessing his agent is asking for at least 6 mil per on a long term deal if not more and NJ probably wants him at 5.

 

[Ripshot 43]

So before the season starts I'd like to understand how I'm going to be able to watch games as an out of market fan. I have ESPN+. Is that still going to give me all the non national games or do I need whatever MSG thing they were talking about a couple weeks ago?

You will get everything but the games on nhl network or other exclusives.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Mercer didn’t suck in the playoffs

he sure did

he was 10th among forwards in CF% and xGF%. Only guys worse were Bastian, Wood, and Sharangovich