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

[Hisch13r]

The rangers don’t have the cap space for meier. Especially a long term deal around 9 million which is apparently what meier is saying he wants.

The devils have a forward forward prospect and some d prospects they can fire San Jose’s way along with a roster player that can fit their timeline. We have the best chance to get him out of anyone in the league and are going to be a cup contender very soon and have a longer window than a team like the rangers who’s window honestly closed given the downward trend for Panarin and Kreider and their lack of developing forwards.

Oh welp pack it in. 9>8 and we aren't allowed to pay guys more than Jack (ignore Dougie)

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

The 9 day break seems to have hit at the best time. Jack gets to have some fun this weekend and represent the Devils after his torrid pace he's been on. The team can get some rest while we wait for Marino to comeback. The coaching staff can hopefully review some stuff to correct the issues over the last few weeks.

 

[severian]

Well let's hope he doesn't break his leg again. He was going to do it in 19-20 and then it broke then

Delete this

 

[theoptimist]

I think we can trade Tatar for Kalinin

 

[Bleedred]

Boy howdy. If people think we would have won 9 games in the last month with last year’s goaltenders, then Id like what they are having.

The overall team play hasn’t been good for a while now.

If there was a Devils award for player of the month for January then it absolutely goes to Vitek

Obviously, I think Jack gets it, but he'll probably have it every single month forever.

Jack Hughes being the Devils player of the month is almost like McDavid being an auto Hart winner.

So the ''Devils player of the month that won't get player of the month because it's hogged by Jack Hughes'' is hands down Vanecek for this month and since Christmas.

We're 9-1-0 when he plays since the Christmas break, with the only loss being 2-1 to Boston, which he gave us more than enough to chances to nurse that one to OT.

I bet he's top 3-4 (5th at worst) in GSAx since then. He's already 9th in GSAx on the entire season.

 

[NjdevilfanJim]

I see Rangers trying to get Tank or Barbashev out of St Louis not Meier.....If no Meier Barbashev is an interesting player

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Carolina is a great team, but they're not winning the Stanley Cup with Jesperi Kotkaniemi centering the 2nd line. It's just that simple -- every cup winner is two deep up the middle, and I cannot think of a recent exception. I watch a lot of Carolina, and they've tried the aging duo of Stastny and Staal as the 2C for short periods but always seem to bafflingly want to go back to Kotkaniemi to justify their immature "Take that Montreal!" RFA acquisition of him. The fact is, Kotkaniemi certainly cost them a far superior 2C option in Trocheck and, to NJ's benefit, also contributed to their losing Dougie Hamilton.

One would have to think the Hurricanes will go after a Bo Horvat or Ryan O'Reilly at the deadline. They already have 4 legit top-6 wingers in Svechnikov, Necas, Teravainen and Jarvis but all four of their stats have been hurt by the fact they only have one top-6 center to rotate them around in Sebastian Aho.

I honestly feel the Timo Meier sweepstakes are going to come down to the Devils and Rangers. The Devils have a clear advantage in prospect depth, but if the Rangers include Alexis Lafreniere in a deal (which I feel they will), then all bets are off.

Trading Lafreniere for a rental would be utterly moronic for their sake and knowing their luck Lafreneire will flourish in SJ while Meier walks to NJ or somewhere else. Also I doubt anyone gets passed Carolina in our bracket if they land a Horvat or a ROR, I think its their year barring the goaltending doesn't barrel out again which who knows.

If there was a Devils award for player of the month for January then it absolutely goes to Vitek

Obviously, I think Jack gets it, but he'll probably have it every single month forever.

Jack Hughes being the Devils player of the month is almost like McDavid being an auto Hart winner.

So the ''Devils player of the month that won't get player of the month because it's hogged by Jack Hughes'' is hands down Vanecek for this month and since Christmas.

We're 9-1-0 when he plays since the Christmas break, with the only loss being 2-1 to Boston, which he gave us more than enough to chances to nurse that one to OT.

I bet he's top 3-4 (5th at worst) in GSAx since then. He's already 9th in GSAx on the entire season.

Jack = best player

Vanecek = most valuable

 

[billingtons ghost]

Then who is it? Four perfectly competent defensemen wouldn’t be getting caved like this. Is it Severson? Siegenthaler?

Graves is barely passable, he’s better than Smith but that’s about the best you can say.

It's not the defensemen, it's the forwards' team defense that is lacking. We are stretching the distance between our fwds and D by flying the zone, so we aren't completing passes, turning it over and other teams are counter attacking when our defense isn't set.

Earlier in the season, we always seemed to be in position at the blueline upon zone entry, now we are all scrambling to get into position all the time.

Turnovers, stretch passes and Sloppy play by our forwards makes our D look bad, but really it's that they are trying to compensate for getting caught all of the time.

Last year, it was Subban and Ty Smith scrambling back. Thank God it's Siegs and Graves and Smith now else our goalies really wouldn't have a chance. Even Severson is playing 2-on-1s correctly. Amazing.

 

[FooteBahl]

I feel like it’s going to be a very looong 10 days around these parts.

 

[billingtons ghost]

Boy howdy. If people think we would have won 9 games in the last month with last year’s goaltenders, then Id like what they are having.

The overall team play hasn’t been good for a while now.

We wouldn't have won the last nine games without this year's version of Jack Hughes, healthy Hamilton, Severson as a #1 Dman, and with Ty Smith and Pk Subban either... But yeah Vanacek has been great.

I feel like it’s going to be a very looong 10 days around these parts.

Nothing truer than that.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

I feel like it’s going to be a very looong 10 days around these parts.

Yeah, I should probably log out and set a reminder for the Vancouver game. Not much to discuss without going crazy and in circles right now.

 

[Rhodes 81]

The problem with re-signing Graves or Severson is that you're doing so at the cost of cap space for another top 6 forward. You just have to assume that between Hughes, Nemec, Mukhamadullin, and the various 6/7 types that we can fill two spots cheaply next year. Having those cheap contracts on D is what allows you to sign Bratt and another top six forward in the short term.

He’s mediocre, and not particularly good defensively. He’s a fine defenseman, but needs a good partner to cover his warts.

Sevs, who I love, is not the right guy.

He is a perfectly competent 2nd pair Dman

Both of these statements are correct. Graves is a perfectly fine 2nd pairing, high risk/reward d that needs an excellent D partner to help him play his game. Severson is not that guy because this also describes Severson (though Sevs is significantly better offensively than Graves).

It's not the defensemen, it's the forwards' team defense that is lacking. We are stretching the distance between our fwds and D by flying the zone, so we aren't completing passes, turning it over and other teams are counter attacking when our defense isn't set.

Earlier in the season, we always seemed to be in position at the blueline upon zone entry, now we are all scrambling to get into position all the time.

Turnovers, stretch passes and Sloppy play by our forwards makes our D look bad, but really it's that they are trying to compensate for getting caught all of the time.

Last year, it was Subban and Ty Smith scrambling back. Thank God it's Siegs and Graves and Smith now else our goalies really wouldn't have a chance. Even Severson is playing 2-on-1s correctly. Amazing.

It's a mixture of both the forwards and the D, but one thing that helped earlier in the season is that you had a guy on each pairing that can consistently make the long stretch pass between Hamilton, Marino, and Severson. Without that, the forwards get caught cheating more often and it's harder to get through the neutral zone with possession which was this team's bread and butter during the early season dominance.

 

[NjDevsRR]

We wouldn't have won the last nine games without this year's version of Jack Hughes, healthy Hamilton, Severson as a #1 Dman, and with Ty Smith and Pk Subban either... But yeah Vanacek has been great.


Nothing truer than that.

This isn’t entirely accurate.

End of December through March last season the Devils had a top 10 offense. Thats when Nico had a 100 pt pace over like 25 games and Jack and Bratt were also on fire. That was one of the few times we were healthy.

Offense was there, the play wasn’t all that great, just like this current stretch. What’s the difference? The goaltending shit the bed last year while it’s saving us now.

We had 18 games in a stretch from Late Dec through March where we lost where we scored at least 2 goals. Goalies need to win some of those games.

Edit: MY GOD. Out of those 18 losses, we actually scored at least 3 in ELEVEN of them. Cmon now. Average Goaltending wins many of those games. Team was pushing play enough and scoring. Goalies didn’t make the necessary saves.

 

[JK3]

VV has been amazing but I wouldn't overlook our new staff, fundamentally it's night and day on the back end as well some upgrades. How often have we seen two dmen behind the net with no one covering the net front. Our breakouts are much better too although we've strayed from that a bit with stretching things out too much.

 

[Bleedred]

Honestly, I think Vitek has been more relied upon now than he was during the 13 game winning streak.

During the 13 game winning streak, he was very likely facing a lot more score effects and lower quality shots on goal than he has been for last month, as we were blowing a lot of those games open, both outshooting and outscoring teams by stupid amounts.

We haven't really been doing that for the last month and the games have been way tighter and harder on the goaltending IMO.

I don't have too much evidence to base this on, but I will say this much, Vitek's GSAx has risen through the roof in the last month. Earlier in the year, his GSAx was nothing really worth bragging about, even when he had a .920%+ save percentage for a little while. In fact, his GSAA (that's goals allowed above or below the league average save percentage) was better than his GSAx. Now his GSAx is significantly better than his GSAA. And yes, Blackwood's is too.

So I might be on to something suggesting that he (and Blackwood as well) is facing higher quality shots and scoring chances over the last month than he was when we were blowing the doors off of everybody and running away with games quickly.

 

[Emperoreddy]

 

[Bleedred]

The only other guy I would argue over Hughes besides the obvious McDavid is maybe Tage Thompson.

He's having a very 17-18 Taylor Hall-like season in Buffalo.

 

[FooteBahl]

The only other guy I would argue over Hughes besides the obvious McDavid is maybe Tage Thompson.

He's having a very 17-18 Taylor Hall-like season in Buffalo.

No argument there. If only our PP was better…Tage has 8 more on the PP than our boy wonder.

 

[GeNeXt]

The only other guy I would argue over Hughes besides the obvious McDavid is maybe Tage Thompson.

He's having a very 17-18 Taylor Hall-like season in Buffalo.

I was going to place a preseason bet on Pettersson for Hart at like +10,000 odds. Seemed like a good value, and if Vancouver wasn't such a dumpster fire he may have gotten a lot of consideration with Canadian media.

I do believe Thompson will be considered. Not just production, but he's put together a highlight reel that rivals Jack and McDavid this year.

 

[Guttersniped]

I agree that Meier seems too pricy for a rental and Rangers would seemingly have to make some radical moves involving at least 1 player w/ a full NMC to fit Meier in.

But just because the Rags don’t have long term doesn’t mean they won’t spend at the TDL.

NYR & 2022 TDL:
Copp: Morgan Barron (2017 Rd #6 174)
2022 NYR 1st (#30), 2022 STL 2nd (#55),
2023 NYR 5th
Braun: 2023 NYR 3rd
Motte: 2023 NYR 4th
Vatrano: 2022 NYR 4th (#127)

Picks:

As of now:
2023 NYR 1st (#25), 2023 DAL 1st (#31), 2023 NYR 2nd (#57), 2023 COL 3rd (#80)

The Rags are going to have quite a bit of cap space to work with at TDL. They’re making moves to get more (like going down to 22 players at the break to increase the daily accrued cap space).

I wouldn’t be surprised if they move at least one of their top picks.

 

[FooteBahl]

Can someone refresh my memory? There is no all-star roster freeze, just the holiday one, correct?

I don’t want any delays in the Timo acquisition lol

 

[Brooklyndevil]

He definitely seems to have a habit of panicking with the puck, especially late in a game, and it can be costly. I don’t want to say “mentally weak,” but he certainly lets nerves get the better of him. I kind of fear what he’s going to look like in the playoffs. I know Avs fans were completely fed up with him because of that.

He lacks a high hockey IQ. Average at best. Rather keep Sev.

 

[njdevil26]

I really like Graves and I feel like he'd come back at a reasonable extension... 3.75-4.25 per. I like the idea of:

Siegenthaler-Hamilton
Graves-Marino
Hughes-Nemec
Smith

 

[vtdevils2k]

Been sitting on this one...

Haven't read everything on here since last night, but took a peek at the rangers board, they're nervous as hell facing us. Excuses everywhere

"Regular season Hughes...gonna be different in the playoffs, he's gonna get hurt"
"Devils just are not good!"
"Playoffs will be different!"
"Not afraid of them at all"
"Will get bounced in the first round"
"Not physical at all:

love it.

 

[FooteBahl]

Been sitting on this one...

Haven't read everything on here since last night, but took a peek at the rangers board, they're nervous as hell facing us. Excuses everywhere

"Regular season Hughes...gonna be different in the playoffs, he's gonna get hurt"
"Devils just are not good!"
"Playoffs will be different!"
"Not afraid of them at all"
"Will get bounced in the first round"
"Not physical at all:

love it.

I remember reading their GDT after we beat them and they wanted to fire & trade errbody. They’re as bi-polar as we are lol