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

[njdevils1982]

i remember there was a decent amount of people that wanted nichushkin pre draft that year....and then cory for the 9th happened on draft day

 

[NJDevs26]

I think most of the time when a pick is exchanged solely for the negotiation rights, there's a strong sentiment that they'll sign. Probably via "unofficial" conversations and hypotheticals but does it happen often where they don't? None come to me off the top of my head.

Canes Acquire Bernier, Pick from Red Wings | Carolina Hurricanes

Nedeljkovic traded to Detroit

www.nhl.com

LOL...the sad part is the Canes looked like a clown show when they gave away Nedjlovic AND cheaped out on trying to sign Bernier and they still managed to fill their goaltending just fine. That's falling out of a tree and landing on your feet.

 

[Bleedred]

i remember there was a decent amount of people that wanted nichushkin pre draft that year....and then cory for the 9th happened on draft day

Conte wanted Lazar

At least that was my fear.

Either him or Shinkaruk, who was looking like a top-10 pick I think even heading into the draft week, then fell drastically to like 20-something.

 

[Billdo]

Conte wanted Lazar

At least that was my fear.

Either him or Shinkaruk, who was looking like a top-10 pick I think even heading into the draft week, then fell drastically to like 20-something.

I wanted Nichuskin or Shinkaruk lol

 

[njdevils1982]

Conte wanted Lazar

At least that was my fear.

Either him or Shinkaruk, who was looking like a top-10 pick I think even heading into the draft week, then fell drastically to like 20-something.

ah yes, your favorite burger boy

oh shit, there was also shinkaruk talks here...its all coming back to me

 

[glenwo2]

According to the main boards Nico doesnt even go top 5 in a redraft. They ranking players like Suzuki above him. Mindblowing how underrated Nico is.

Wow....just...wow.

 

[glenwo2]

f*** Zacha

Trade him and let someone else sign him. Lowball him at his qualifying offer if you have to, but f*** long term for one. At that point we're almost signing him just to sign him.

I don't think any of those other guys really get a raise though. Wood probably makes the same or like just barely more. Like the difference of a couple hundred thousand. Him being injured just about the entire year probably cost him A LOT, but the fact that he had a career year last year (in a shortened season) probably gives him a slight raise.

Same goes for Boqvist and Zetterlund.

Bratt will get a big raise though.

That's putting it mildly, to say the least.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

I thought he was alright last year, but he was gonna need a season like this if he had any chance of sticking in the NHL.

I even said quite a few times I’d prefer him to McLeod by a whole lot. Even when I was completely down on him.

Those two will be competing for one job next season.

Do you take more skill and offense in Boqvist over faceoffs, defense and PK ability in McLeod.

Personally, i don't think the team needs more offense assuming we bring in a free agent forward and everyone is healthy. Therefore I would lean towards keeping McLeod in the lineup at 4C. That being said it would be good to have Boqvist as a 13th forward ready to insert if McLeod play drops. It keeps him on his toes that he can't be complacent.

 

[GeNeXt]

i remember there was a decent amount of people that wanted nichushkin pre draft that year....and then cory for the 9th happened on draft day

I wanted Nuke and was very upset when we traded for Cory, but who knows how Nuke's career would've wound up here. It just seemed logical for a slow team with depleted forward group to draft a Russian specimen to play alongside #17, but that plan would've fallen out anyway some couple weeks later.

 

[Bleedred]

I wanted Nichuskin or Shinkaruk lol

I liked Shinkaruk back then and remember being okay if we picked him.

I remember vehemently not wanting Lazar.

Shinkaruk wound up not getting picked until 24th. The Canucks wound up taking him with their first, after taking Horvat with our first.

I swear there was a comment from Lou that we weren’t gonna take Horvat anyway, had we kept the pick. I thought maybe there was even a Nichushkin confirmation that we weren’t picking him either? Maybe I was wrong on him, but I definitely know there was one on Horvat.

 

[Hisch13r]

Those two will be competing for one job next season.

Do you take more skill and offense in Boqvist over faceoffs, defense and PK ability in McLeod.

Personally, i don't think the team needs more offense assuming we bring in a free agent forward and everyone is healthy. Therefore I would lean towards keeping McLeod in the lineup at 4C. That being said it would be good to have Boqvist as a 13th forward ready to insert if McLeod play drops. It keeps him on his toes that he can't be complacent.

There’s no reason to think they’ll be fighting for the same job. Boqvist has been the 3C and has played pretty well there.

 

[njdevils1982]

Wow....just...wow.

whats next? jessiman was the best pick in the '03 draft?

 

[Bleedred]

Those two will be competing for one job next season.

Do you take more skill and offense in Boqvist over faceoffs, defense and PK ability in McLeod.

Personally, i don't think the team needs more offense assuming we bring in a free agent forward and everyone is healthy. Therefore I would lean towards keeping McLeod in the lineup at 4C. That being said it would be good to have Boqvist as a 13th forward ready to insert if McLeod play drops. It keeps him on his toes that he can't be complacent.

I doubt they’ll be competing for the same job next year. If there was any doubt that McLeod had a higher than 4th line ceiling, he completely FUBAR’d all of that this year. With all his stupid insanely long goal droughts. The fact that he’s so bad at scoring goals will probably shorten his NHL career, possibly by hundreds of games.

Boqvist has been showing a real 3rd line ceiling this year. Although I don’t think it’s much higher than that, if any higher.

 

[devilsblood]

i remember there was a decent amount of people that wanted nichushkin pre draft that year....and then cory for the 9th happened on draft day

I was big on Nichushkin in that draft, was stoked to see him dropping, and was disappointed when the pick was traded.

But then he was meh for awhile, took off back to Russia, came back and was OK, to now finally seem to be breaking out as a 27 year old.

I'd pull some "I told you so" but that bit is probably beyond it's expiration date.

 

[Hisch13r]

I doubt they’ll be competing for the same job next year. If there was any doubt that McLeod had a higher than 4th line ceiling, he completely FUBAR’d all of that this year. With all his stupid insanely long goal droughts. The fact that he’s so bad at scoring goals will probably shorten his NHL career, possibly by hundreds of games.

Boqvist has been showing a real 3rd line ceiling this year. Although I don’t think it’s much higher than that, if any higher.

There’s a much higher chance McLeods fighting with a guy like Thompson than he is with Boqvist

 

[Bleedred]

There’s a much higher chance McLeods fighting with a guy like Thompson than he is with Boqvist

I somehow doubt that, just because of the erection (which a new coach might not have) they have for him.

But that SHOULD be what happens.

 

[devilsblood]

We've been given the young guys like Boq and Zetterlund some love, but Greer has been pretty good too.

We have a ton of 13th fwd options for next year, but I'd be cool if he was in that spot.

 

[devilsblood]

I somehow doubt that, just because of the erection (which a new coach might not have) they have for him.

But that SHOULD be what happens.

You guys want to be really disappointed in what Thompson can bring to the team, put him in the role McLeod has been playing.

 

[Bleedred]

You guys want to be really disappointed in what Thompson can bring to the team, put him in the role McLeod has been playing.

Maybe so. But McLeod is nothing special and has ridiculously goal droughts.

 

[Eggtimer]

I liked Shinkaruk back then and remember being okay if we picked him.

I remember vehemently not wanting Lazar.

Shinkaruk wound up not getting picked until 24th. The Canucks wound up taking him with their first, after taking Horvat with our first.

I swear there was a comment from Lou that we weren’t gonna take Horvat anyway, had we kept the pick. I thought maybe there was even a Nichushkin confirmation that we weren’t picking him either? Maybe I was wrong on him, but I definitely know there was one on Horvat.

I wanted Nuke and when he fell to us I was certain we would grab him. I did not want Hunter . I watched him play lots for the Tigers and although he was very good, I wasnt too high in him come draft time. When Nuke kinda bust or didn’t quite pan out at first , I was relieved as I would have been pissed to see him turn into a star when we could have had him.

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

i remember there was a decent amount of people that wanted nichushkin pre draft that year....and then cory for the 9th happened on draft day

I was one of them. And then the night sweats began…

 

[Guttersniped]

I know he wasnt great in the AHL but it is somewhat true about what they say about big bodied forwards taking a bit longer to find their game. Look at Thompson in Buffalo this year. Same as Jeannot . They didnt really light the world on fire previously but they look very good now. I have watched Marchment a lot this year and it seems like he is the real deal . Of course there is always the question of if he is being propped up by an amazing team in Florida , but he looks like he is more of a contributor than a passenger.

Marchment’s skating was atrocious when Toronto first signed him to his minor league deal in 2016-17. He started off in the ECHL. He wasn’t signed to a two-way deal until 2018-19.

Jack Han actually discussed working with him. His posture was such a mess that he was shut down at times so he could just go to the gym and work with a strength trainer.

He’s knocked kneed and had to work a ton with Barb Underhill, their legendary skating coach.

How he started.

Better, if not particularly good, but he can play in the NHL.

He’s an example of how Toronto is one of the best at developing unsigned FA into NHLers. Just an exceptionally well-funded and staffed player development crew in their minor systems.

They of course traded Marchment away for a minor league tweener who played 8 games in Toronto before heading to Swiss league, but that’s not on PD.

Another great undrafted success story
is Trevor Moore, who has 45 points in 75 games… on the Kings. They got Jack Campbell/Kyle Clifford in that deal at least.

Anyway, here’s some examples of the preferred bow-legged posture from McAvoy & Spurgeon:

Marchment’s awkward stance helps lead to this wild equipment failure. The bottom of one of his skates snaps off.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Conte wanted Lazar

At least that was my fear.

Either him or Shinkaruk, who was looking like a top-10 pick I think even heading into the draft week, then fell drastically to like 20-something.

Didn't it come out that the Devils would've taken Max Domi that year if they stayed at 9?

 

[Bleedred]

Didn't it come out that the Devils would've taken Max Domi that year if they stayed at 9?

That I’m not sure about? Could have been.

Outside of the fact that his dad is one of the biggest heels in Devils history (his dad shouldn’t be held against him), and the fact that he’s by all accounts a pretty big piece of shit himself (now that should be held against him), at least he turned out a pretty good player. Unlike Shinkaruk and Lazar.

 

[MadDevil]

I wanted Nuke and was very upset when we traded for Cory, but who knows how Nuke's career would've wound up here. It just seemed logical for a slow team with depleted forward group to draft a Russian specimen to play alongside #17, but that plan would've fallen out anyway some couple weeks later.

With our luck back then it would have probably gone the same where he would have been a "bust" with us and then he would have blossomed later on another team and we'd have lost our minds.