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

[Cheddabombs]

In Fitz I trust! Exciting times to be a Devils fan indeed

 

[The Devil In I]

No I expected gradual improvement in 2020, 2021, and 2022....to the culmination of good. Not bottom 5 every year and getting worse 3 years in a row.

It's great what we are seeing right now but acting like "oh we are ahead of schedule" is a f***ing joke.

He can only develop a timeline from the point he takes over and has control. If you're saying his timeline should take into account years prior to him, then we'll always be behind schedule because of Lou's final years.

 

[youryeah]

elliotte friedman on the 32 thoughts podcast once again drumming up timo to NJ.
- devils have legitimate interest
- believes NJ hasn't been able to talk to the timo camp at this point.
- thinks the devils feel "good players will want to stay there".
- thinks the devils are willing to bet on themselves as far as getting an extension worked out

just his opinion of course.

32 Thoughts: The Podcast NJ talk starts at around the 36min mark

 

[jkrdevil]

Anyways, get some fresh leagues in there for tonight. Sit Wood and Bastian and insert Boqvist and Holtz. Something like this…

Palat-Nico-Bratt
Shara-Hughes-Zetterlund
Tatar-Boqvist-Mercer
Haula-McLeod-Holtz.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Jack Hughes is 21. Our best defenseman is in his 2nd year here. How much quicker was this thing supposed to get turned around?

 

[theoptimist]

What's the hold up

 

[NJDevs26]

If the point is they should have been a playoff contender or at least flirting with .500 a year ago maybe I’d buy the year behind schedule but saying they’re ahead of schedule in terms of being a 100+ point team is absolutely fair, especially since most of us acknowledge rebuild 1.0 didn’t work and set the process back another 2-3 years. You can’t blame Fitz or his expectations on the Shero timeline

 

[MasterofGrond]

We’re ABSOLUTELY two years behind, can’t BELIEVE we didn’t make the playoffs with this roster

New Jersey Devils 2020-21 roster and scoring statistics at hockeydb.com

The roster, scoring and goaltender statistics for the 2020-21 New Jersey Devils playing in the NHL.

www.hockeydb.com

 

[Better Call Sal]

We’re ABSOLUTELY two years behind, can’t BELIEVE we didn’t make the playoffs with this roster

New Jersey Devils 2020-21 roster and scoring statistics at hockeydb.com

The roster, scoring and goaltender statistics for the 2020-21 New Jersey Devils playing in the NHL.

www.hockeydb.com

I was looking at this roster as well just a moment ago.

 

[NjDevsRR]

This is utter bullshit. This notion that is was just goaltending.

Lol, precious.

Sadly, if the goaltending chart looked like this youd be singing the exact opposite tune.

#JimLogic

 

[AfroThunder396]

Who cares about gradual improvement? We weren't going to make the playoffs last year, the cutoff was 100 points. The difference between 63 points last year and 83 points last year means literally nothing. All that would have done is turn Simon Nemec and no playoffs into Denton Mateychuk and no playoffs.

2021 wasn't a real season. The bubble, COVID, pausing and unpausing the season every week. We played 7 teams and every game was a 4-point game. Whatever, who cares. I'd rather have Luke Hughes than sneak in as the bottom seed and get swept by Pittsburgh.

It's clear to everyone with a brain that there were roster improvements every year Fitz has been here, but those improvements didn't lead to wins because team performance was bottlenecked by goaltending. Fix the goaltending and, holy shit, the team starts winning. It's almost like the entire board saw this coming from miles away.

 

[MadDevil]

Cry for years about no progress and disgraces...now there's a lot of progress...it should have happened sooner dammit!

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Who cares about gradual improvement? We weren't going to make the playoffs last year, the cutoff was 100 points. The difference between 63 points last year and 83 points last year means literally nothing. All that would have done is turn Simon Nemec and no playoffs into Denton Mateychuk and no playoffs.

2021 wasn't a real season. The bubble, COVID, pausing and unpausing the season every week. We played 7 teams and every game was a 4-point game. Whatever, who cares. I'd rather have Luke Hughes than sneak in as the bottom seed and get swept by Pittsburgh.

It's clear to everyone with a brain that there were roster improvements every year Fitz has been here, but those improvements didn't lead to wins because team performance was bottlenecked by goaltending. Fix the goaltending and, holy shit, the team starts winning. It's almost like the entire board saw this coming from miles away.

Exactly. Frustration during those years was totally understandable, but now with hindsight, it’s objectively a very good thing we weren’t in the cycle of mediocrity given the assets we were able to amass. And it didn’t hurt our core players’ development one bit. Jack, Nico, and Jesper turned out just fine.

 

[I Hate Tie DOMI]

I'm not particularly interested in extending Sharangovich at 4M. I like the player, but it's pretty clear the coaching staff has no idea what to do with him. If we add Meier that's just going to make the top-6 even more crowded. At this point he is just a glorified PK specialist.

I don't want to give 4M to a guy getting shuttled around the bottom-6 and can't produce at ES because his line mates are Boqvist and Wood or whatever. Especially since they refuse to use him on the PP.

The fact the coaches trot out Haula and Wood on the 2nd PP unit instead of Sharangovich is criminal. Tatar too. One goal between them in a month now?

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

This is utter bullshit. This notion that is was just goaltending.

And of all days to make this comment after last night you should know better...last night was the absolute epitome of what we saw for the last 3 years...it was an ugly flashback and part of the reason I'm not in a very good mood today...

You could've had Hasek in goal last night and wouldn't have changed the results...and that is 100% true about the prior 3 years.

Watch Last night's game again then talk to me about goaltending and gradual improvement.

last night's game was by far the worst game the D has played all year. You acting like that is some sort of norm for these guys is nonsense.

 

[Lou is God]

last night's game was by far the worst game the D has played all year. You acting like that is some sort of norm for these guys is nonsense.

Jim knows how to pick his moments, I'll give him that.

 

[JimEIV]

We’re ABSOLUTELY two years behind, can’t BELIEVE we didn’t make the playoffs with this roster

New Jersey Devils 2020-21 roster and scoring statistics at hockeydb.com

The roster, scoring and goaltender statistics for the 2020-21 New Jersey Devils playing in the NHL.

www.hockeydb.com

It's pretty much been the same core forward group for the last three years. Our top 4 forwards in scoring have been here for the last 3 years with the exception of Mercer who is in his 2nd year. Go down to our top 6 forwards and you add sharangovich who has been here for three years and Tatar who has been here for two... that's the same group that was was a bottom 3 team in the league two years ago and produced on of the worst seasons in Devils history.

But really none of that is the point. They were a bottom 6 team in 2020, they worse in 2021, and in 2022 they were worse than 2021...with essentially the same core forward group in everyone of those years. There was zero improvement in those years with essentially the same forward group.

Mentioning playoffs is a joke but something between the 29th worst team in the league and 17th would've been reasonable. Ahead of schedule my ass.

last night's game was by far the worst game the D has played all year. You acting like that is some sort of norm for these guys is nonsense.

It absolutely was the norm for the previous 3 seasons...to make believe otherwise is just pure revisionist.

 

[MasterofGrond]

It's pretty much been the same core forward group for the last three years. Our top 4 forwards in scoring have been here for the last 3 years with the exception of Mercer who is in his 2nd year. Go down to our top 6 forwards and you add sharangovich who has been here for three years and Tatar who has been here for two... that's the same group that was was a bottom 3 team in the league two years ago and produced on of the worst seasons in Devils history.

But really none of that is point. They were a bottom 6 team in 2020, they worse in 2021, and in 2022 they were worse than 2021...with essentially the same core forward group in everyone of those years. There was zero improvement in those years with essentially the same forward group.

Mentioning playoffs is a joke but something between the 29th worst team in the league and 17th would've been reasonable. Ahead of schedule my ass.


It absolutely was the norm for the previous 3 seasons...to make believe otherwise is just pure revisionist.

“it’s the same core guys”

Yeah and they were 2 years younger and not capable of carrying the team yet. Player progression, what’s that?!?

(And there was player progression it was just partially masked by how f***ing awful our goaltending was)

 

[JimEIV]

“it’s the same core guys”

Yeah and they were 2 years younger and not capable of carrying the team yet. Player progression, what’s that?!?

Where was the progression when the team literally went backwards for three years.

They owe this success for the putrid 3 previous seasons... it's long over due, certainly not ahead of schedule.

 

[MasterofGrond]

This is just lazy, even for you Jim.

Think you may have lost the touch.

 

[MadDevil]

Who cares? The past is the past. We're good now. Enjoy it. Or be miserable because it didn't happen on your personal timeline.

 

[Nocashstyle]

elliotte friedman on the 32 thoughts podcast once again drumming up timo to NJ.
- devils have legitimate interest
- believes NJ hasn't been able to talk to the timo camp at this point.
- thinks the devils feel "good players will want to stay there".
- thinks the devils are willing to bet on themselves as far as getting an extension worked out

just his opinion of course.

32 Thoughts: The Podcast NJ talk starts at around the 36min mark

There certainly is a lot of consistent smoke around Meier and the Devils. Yeah, the same few other teams are routinely brought up too, but it seems like most “insider/rumor” talk around Meier starts with NJ. It will be disappointing refreshing the page one day and seeing “Meier to BUF”

It was also interesting Friedman kind of echo what most of us Devils fans have thought about the rumors of Horvat/Devils. “It just doesn’t make much sense.” Also interesting to hear him say he thought if Tkachuk ended up going to St Louis instead of Florida, St Louis would have likely moved Tarasenko and the Devils could have been involved there too.

 

[Louskoolaid89]

Come on trade tonight for Meier....Come on trade tonight for Meier.... Sign and trade tonight for... Meier..........

 

[HBK27]

elliotte friedman on the 32 thoughts podcast once again drumming up timo to NJ.
- devils have legitimate interest
- believes NJ hasn't been able to talk to the timo camp at this point.
- thinks the devils feel "good players will want to stay there".
- thinks the devils are willing to bet on themselves as far as getting an extension worked out

just his opinion of course.

32 Thoughts: The Podcast NJ talk starts at around the 36min mark

Certainly a bit of a risk if true, but a seemingly good bet. Not sure why Meier wouldn't want to extend with NJ at a fair price. A Devils team with Meier is probably the best positioned to win a Cup over the duration of any contract extension Meier would be looking to sign this upcoming offseason. Add in the Swiss connections, a high tempo offence - what's not to like?

I've been trying no to get too excited over a possible Meier trade, but damn...if Fitz is somehow able to pull off a reasonable trade for Meier along with extensions for him a Bratt....

 

[Guadana]

Grass is green, water is blue, Jim denies the goalie problem.