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

[youryeah]

The way every goalie has become worse once joining the Devils, I wouldn't be surprised if they traded the pick for Knight just to see him become a JAG. This team bleeds giveaways in crucial moments, in their on own. The issue isn't just having bad goalies. Coaching staff needs a total overhaul and we need better dmen, at least a guy that can play big minutes and isn't a total liability defensively.

Also, they are soft as hell in the boards, trying to exit their own end. Especially the 1st and 2rd lines.

which goalies? hart trophy winner jon gillies? montreal canadiens legend andrew hammond?

 

[John Pedro]

which goalies? hart trophy winner jon gillies? montreal canadiens legend andrew hammond?

Blackwood and Bernier had down seasons. Daws went from pretty good in the AHL to unplayable as did Schmidt. Hammond was pretty decent in 4 starts for the habs, but can't play a single period of solid hockey for us. Maybe giving up 3 breakaways per game isn't ideal

I'm not saying these guys are good, just that they all regressed a bit or a lot under our defense/team. If you think they're just terrible and only to blame then you gotta question the GM for bringing the absolute worse he could get.

 

[Call Me Al]

trading a top 5 pick for a goalie is one of the worst ideas that’s been floated on here and has been getting way more bandwidth than it deserves. i like the job fitz is doing but id want him fired for that

 

[Bleedred]

The way every goalie has become worse once joining the Devils, I wouldn't be surprised if they traded the pick for Knight just to see him become a JAG. This team bleeds giveaways in crucial moments, in their on own. The issue isn't just having bad goalies. Coaching staff needs a total overhaul and we need better dmen, at least a guy that can play big minutes and isn't a total liability defensively.

Also, they are soft as hell in the boards, trying to exit their own end. Especially the 1st and 2rd lines.

Spencer Knight hasn’t been too much better than JAG on the Panthers as it is.

He’s likely in the same boat as Nico Daws and was not ready for the NHL this year.

Although I think his ceiling is a f*** of a lot higher than Daws is.

 

[Bleedred]

Blackwood and Bernier had down seasons. Daws went from pretty good in the AHL to unplayable as did Schmidt. Hammond was pretty decent in 4 starts for the habs, but can't play a single period of solid hockey for us. Maybe giving up 3 breakaways per game isn't ideal

I'm not saying these guys are good, just that they all regressed a bit or a lot under our defense/team. If you think they're just terrible and only to blame then you gotta question the GM for bringing the absolute worse he could get.

At this point it looks like Hammond was a waste. He should have been brought in so we could send Daws back to the AHL. Instead, up to this point he’s been brought in to Jon Gillies off the ice. If we were gonna keep playing Daws anyway (which we are and all indications are that there’s no end in sight to this plan except for the season ending in 11 games), we could have just thrown Gillies in there once in a while.

Daws needs to be sent back and we need to roll with with Hammond/Gillies the rest of the way, though it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen and if it does, we’re still not anywhere near close to it happening.

Daws at best is the difference between us hitting 60 points this year and falling just short of it.

If you wanna declare Hammond got worse here because he had a few good games with the Habs, as I already pointed out, Hammond had an .837% in 6 games and 203 minutes played in 16-17 in NHL games with the Senators and that’s when he was only 28 years old. Now he’s 34 and likely close to, if not already on his last leg leg.

I counted 1 goal stoppable on 8 with Montreal and have now counted 6 on 13 stoppable with the Devils. This coincides with his huge cratering since he got to the Devils. You can’t tell me he didn’t allow at least two bad ones (and Daws allowed a bad one when he came in too) in the last game and probably FOUR in the Florida game.

That said, I’m skeptical Hammond would even be playing right now if we hadn’t traded for him. He’s likely still playing hurt and we rushed him back to get him in as many games as possible before the season ran out.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t start another game here, due to how poorly his first two starts went. Although I do expect him to play some in relief, when Daws inevitably gets pulled again, unless Gillies starts dressing again. Because Daws sucks too and can’t seem to go more than 3 games without getting pulled anymore.

 

[tailfins]

The other problem with trading for a goalie that people aren't quite putting together is that it isn't about value as such. Yeah, the 5th pick for Knight is an overpay, but also Florida may have no interest in doing that because their window is now, and having Knight around as a theoretical low-cost option for 3 more seasons (after bridging him) is much more favorable than a 5th overall pick. It's much more difficult to replace goalies because they take the longest to develop and have the most challenging development path, and of course as we learned this season, it's extremely difficult to acquire goaltendng midseason.

The Schneider trade was extremely unusual. The other goalies involved in 1st round pick draft day trades were Martin Jones and Frederik Andersen. Antti Raanta was also included in a pick trade but he was not likely the most valuable thing in the deal.

I think the Devils need to look at situations where there's a top tier goalie already in the NHL blocking an NHL ready prospect. Similar to what happened with Vancouver / Schneider. Or somewhere that they're settling on a goalie of the future and an NHL goalie is losing out.

Unfortunately, there's not really a sure thing out there.

You've got Calgary where the "prospect" blocked is Vladar. Sub replacement goalie in the NHL who has shown some promise in the AHL. Being overtaken by Wolf.

San Jose with one of Reimer / Hill / Kakhonen. Reimer and Hill are both signed for next year, while Kahkonen if RFA. Feels like one has to go. I'm guessing Kahknonen, unless the Sharks can sign him cheap and dump Hill? Neither seems to have supplanted Reimer as #1, so can't see them letting him go.

And then the Rangers with Georgiev.

 

[youryeah]

 

[Hisch13r]

lol I said the other day I don’t know if we’ll have anyone left come game 82. Looking more and more like I was right

 

[The Grinder]

Oooof.

Commence full on tank (like we haven’t already)

 

[Hisch13r]

We're getting a REALLY GOOD GOALIE this summer somehow.

Trust me.

I'm just being optimistic here, but I feel we're in for a surprise, a pleasant one.

lol I mean tbf I’d say that we’ve literally done that for 2 offseasons running now.

 

[NJDevs26]

This medical team needs to be shot into the sun if they screwed up Wood on top of the goalies and the ongoing Hamilton fiasco

 

[Blender]

Our team is decimated.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Jesus, a miserable trip to the end of the season.

 

[Cheddabombs]

Who's on our medical team???

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

Feel terrible for Wood, hope he gets qualified and a prove it year in the organization.

 

[britdevil]

 

[NjDevsRR]

Can we shut down Ruff? Asking for a friend

 

[Hisch13r]

Bold take from CJ. I’m not quite that high on things but it also wouldn’t surprise me if it happened.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Bold take from CJ. I’m not quite that high on things but it also wouldn’t surprise me if it happened.

I mean it’s definitely possible. They have top 10 offensive metrics this calendar year. If they can get LEAGUE AVERAGE GOALTENDING then they will definitely be competitive.

 

[NJDevs26]

Bold take from CJ. I’m not quite that high on things but it also wouldn’t surprise me if it happened.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

I don’t see much problem with Wood getting some game action and then making the decision that he’s probably not ready yet. I doubt he’s seriously re-injured, it’s just not worth it.

 

[njdevils1982]

Who's on our medical team???

View attachment 528802

 

[Devils731]

This medical team needs to be shot into the sun if they screwed up Wood on top of the goalies and the ongoing Hamilton fiasco

I could see Wood possibly pushing himself for his contract.

It is another case of a Devil seemingly rushing back for basically no reason. It may have made no difference but Wood could have waited another month before attempting to come back and possibly had a better showing for his new contract.

 

[Triumph]

I think the Devils need to look at situations where there's a top tier goalie already in the NHL blocking an NHL ready prospect. Similar to what happened with Vancouver / Schneider. Or somewhere that they're settling on a goalie of the future and an NHL goalie is losing out.

Unfortunately, there's not really a sure thing out there.

You've got Calgary where the "prospect" blocked is Vladar. Sub replacement goalie in the NHL who has shown some promise in the AHL. Being overtaken by Wolf.

San Jose with one of Reimer / Hill / Kakhonen. Reimer and Hill are both signed for next year, while Kahkonen if RFA. Feels like one has to go. I'm guessing Kahknonen, unless the Sharks can sign him cheap and dump Hill? Neither seems to have supplanted Reimer as #1, so can't see them letting him go.

And then the Rangers with Georgiev.

Goaltending in the league has gotten significantly more scarce. I haven't studied this in depth, but Rask hung them up at 34, Schneider was done at 33, Martin Jones fell apart at 28, Gibson appears to be falling apart at 26, Matt Murray didn't make it to 25. Fleury, Craig Anderson, and Mike Smith are the 3 old goalies I can think of. Without late 30s goalies around, it just puts that much more pressure on everyone else.

As for your list, Vladar is signed for NHL minimum which is enormous for a team that is likely going to be capped out next season. I think Hill gets moved over Kahkonen - why does San Jose make this trade otherwise, they're not going to make the playoffs.

The Rangers will probably non-tender Georgiev, he isn't worth his QO and has very little trade value.

But yeah, there isn't really anybody with two goalies who need to get rid of one. It's a rare thing that happens - the Rangers had it happen twice with Raanta and Talbot, Canucks with Luongo/Schneider, and so on, but we're way past peak goaltender at this point. Some teams are just gonig to do without goaltending.

 

[HersheyBob27]

This medical team needs to be shot into the sun if they screwed up Wood on top of the goalies and the ongoing Hamilton fiasco

Fill us in on hamilton fiasco