Casey is potential "Byram level" upgrade after next or next two years. We can still trade other assets or sign free agents from the market, we have plenty options. De Haan, Kulikov, Skjei, Dillon, Henrique, Trenin, Foegele, Joshua, Noesen etc. Plenty options for different role. Same for goalies. Depth is huge and obvious issue this year. Casey, Gritsyuk or Lenny should be dealt for long term piece only.
Can we make the assumption that the Devils are in "win now" mode?
Agreed. The Devils are lucky enough to have several more years of cost controlled contracts from their stars.
There are a lot of forward targets up front in free agency that are interesting to me. I've mentioned Debrusk, Foegele, and Trenin before as guys I'd like to sign.
watching him last night pissed me off a little. he was great on both sides of the puck, phenomenal instincts…if he played like that in 90% of his games, he’d easily approach 100 points every year
I would. Or at least they should be.
As much as I love to have hope until it's mathematically impossible, sadly I don't think so this year. But I won't try to take your hope away.
I don’t see the point in moving Casey this off-season.
Part of my predilection for using Casey as a trade chip is that I think the club should be in contender status next season, and to do so they'll need to upgrade the NHL roster.
Yeah I didn't count Rafalski because he was a european free agent. Madden counts though.
This team just had the 3rd best record in the NHL a year ago with the same core in place. They shouldn't be seen as a playoff lock but they absolutely should be going into next season with playoff expectations.
Yeah it's 1000% win now. Aside from Nemec and Luke, the entire core is in their prime win-now years. Waiting 3-5 years would already take you out of the prime window for a lot of these guys.
I definitely would not trade Casey for Pettersson or a similar defender. I wouldn’t even trade him for Chychrun either. Just not wise asset management.
dom.hockey
Madden definitely. I don't count guys like Rafalski or Oduya because they weren't college free agents. They're more in the Gusev bucket.
agreed on casey. and then those others in the other category as well. i doubt foote has much value at the moment given it appears he came back from a significant injury, just to reinjure himself right away. so essentially a full year away from developing at a ripe age. i think siegenthaler would have more value than bahl, and i prefer bahl to him personally all things considered - i would definitely have him on the table in your specified positions of acquisition. in fact, i think calgary would have interest in a guy like that with term at an okay number at a good age. then don't have to go into the whole UFA shitshow.
No one is sgguesting waiting 3-5 years to be trying to compete. But trading Casey for immediate help next year is the type of move teams like the Lightning and Knights make, trying to squeeze out more from an aging core. The Devils have the luxury of being able to reasonably compete over the next 5 years. They can get the house in order right now, see whether 22-23 or 23-24 was the fluke, and then take the big swing.
