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

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

You can't trade the 2023 1st. If things go south, the top 3 picks next year (Bedard, Michkov, Fantilli) would all have gone first overall this year and last year, and Bedard/Michkov are generational players.

If worse comes to worse, the Devils have a very deep prospect pool to deal from, and certainly manage something without giving up top two prospects Hughes/Holtz.

Well however they solve the problem if they miss out on those 3, the point is NJ cannot go into camp next year with Blackwood, Bernier, Fringe NHLer (small trade for waiver eligible 3rd goalie like Gustavsson, Daccord?), Daws. Which will be what will happen if they miss out on those top 3 UFAs.

 

[MauDevils]

So are we shutting down Graves for the rest of the season too? This lineup is going to be something by game 82.

Medical staff says he's good to go.

 

[Hisch13r]

Well however they solve the problem if they miss out on those 3, the point is NJ cannot go into camp next year with Blackwood, Bernier, Fringe NHLer (small trade for waiver eligible 3rd goalie like Gustavsson, Daccord?), Daws. Which will be what will happen if they miss out on those top 3 UFAs.

The only guys who could even be somewhat justified for moving a 1st for are like Igor and Sorokin. Neither are moving. Anyone else is an incredibly stupid move. Even just going into next season with a healthy Blackwood and say Reimer would be fine and gives them NHL goaltending.

 

[RSeen]

Looking at 2022-23

Which wing do the Devils really want Bratt to play going forward with everyone healthy? LW/RW

Is Mercer seen as a top 6 RW or a #3 C?

Is Holtz expected to at least start the season as a top 6 RW or do Mercer and Holtz start as out as #3 C/RW?

I assume Nico and Jack 1/2 at C
Sharangovich top 6 LW and top 6 Bratt RW

Most seem to see Zacha gone leaving a real good top 6 LW missing. Most seem to feel Mercer is best suited as a top 6 RW

Sharangovich/Hughes/Mercer
?/Hischier/Bratt
Wood/?/Holtz (Or do you move Bratt to LW and use Holtz on the right to make the top 6?)
Zetterland/?Mcleod/Bastian

Tatar (31, small at 5'10'/185, projected 34 points this season, another year at $4.5mil)
and
Johnsson (27, smallish at 5'10"/but 194, projected 37 points this season, another year at $3.4mil)
Are these 2 still penciled in as day to day regulars? Aren't there more physical, hard playing 30 point forwards available in the NHL to fill those spots in the lineup?

Do they believe Zetterlund is ready? I would think he gets a shot. Question is what line. He is not a stellar defensive forward and neither is Holtz. Both are much better than the beginning of this season, but neither, as I said, is stellar. So placing either on a line you are looking to provide defense isn't a good move.

Boqvist could be used to center the 3rd line, but I think they would want someone more physical on the 3rd line. He would project to somewhere around 30 points for 82 GP.

That's it for the current Devils forwards except Kuokkanen (projected 17 points in 58 games. What's that about 23 for a full season?

Remaining off the Comets roster would be Thompson, Foote, and Greer.

I get the feeling Fitz will take a flyer on Holtz out of the gate.

The definite forwards therefore appear to be:

C:
Hughes
Hischier
Mercer?
Boqvist?
Mcleod

LW
Sharangovich
Zacha?
Tatar? - MOVE?
Wood
Kuokkanen

RW:
Bratt
Mercer?
Holtz
Johnsson - MOVE?
Bastian

Which leaves:
Zetterlund RW
Thompson RW
Foote LW
Greer LW

The following I see no real reason to keep on board:
Vesey
Geersten

There are some very good UFAs that would be huge for the Devils up front if Fitz can pry them away from their current teams or get those eager to move from their current team to come to New Jersey. .Johnny Hockey, Nino Niederreiter, Evgeni Malkin, Claude Giroux, Filip Forsberg, Andre Burakovsky, Vincent Trocheck, Andrew Copp, Valeri Nichushkin are just examples. There are many more. There are also guys that their teams may be interested to move based on the salary cap like JT Miller and Brock Boeser.

The Devils have lived with their draft selections long enough. It's time to make a few moves to surround the best of those draft selections and start making a move to be taken seriously in the NHL. Many players around the NHL that have been interviewed about various things point to the Devils being ready to break out. This belief could make NJ a good choice for putting down new roots.

On Defense the Devils seem very comfortable with:
Hamilton
Graves
Siegenthaler
Severson

Smith and
Bahl
have been playing. Many seem ready to deal Smith. With a year remaining on his ELC, I think the Devils will give him a chance to see if this season was a sophomore slump.
Bahl appears to some to be an adequate fit and to others not so much.

My thoughts are PK will be gone, but if they can't readily replace him, he will get another smaller contract if he is willing. This has to happen before free agency because they could lose him while looking to replace him before they sign him as an afterthought.

The real physical guy in the system is Okhotyuk, but he is not ready to be the main man on any duo. He needs to be paired with a solid partner.

Walsh's numbers say he is ready for a look, but he must stay consistent defensively and avoid the offensive line turnovers and the defensive zone giveaways. 6'0"/185 could be another drawback.

The following I see no real reason to keep on board:
Vesey
Geersten

A major stumbling block for the Devils moving forward is between the pipes! Anybody who remotely follows the NHL at all knows that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Interested to see what you guys see as next season's opening day roster.

Feels like we have a lot of potential NHL bottom six players in Utica in guys like Zetterland, Thompson and Foote.

I could see Tyce being in our bottom six, potentially 3rd line next year. I think he would have proven he was an NHL player if he was healthy this year. Boqvist to me has earned a shot at 3C. His speed is impressive and he has made large strides this year.

I could see a third line of x - Boqvist - Thompson/Zetterland. X could be Kuok, Tatar, Johnsson, Wood or someone like Foote if he performs well in camp.

I wonder if we try to trade Tatar/Johnson and/or some of these other players in some form of a package. Seems we have an abundance of similar quality players here.

 

[Bad Goalie]

All very legit questions and I have no idea what’s going to happen. There are some moves I’d like to see but not sure how realistic they are and if it’s the best moves or not.
Id like a very good defensively sound 3rd line that’s hard to play against and can chip in offence. No sure how to do that or what to do with the guys currently in the roster but that’s what I’d like to see for an end result.
Add a RHD that is in the mold of Seigenthaler. Only UFA I see that are somewhat like that is Lybushkin , Manson , Gudbranson .
Goalie - no god damn clue. I personally like Gibson but a lot of people say he is cooked and his contract is hefty and for another 5 years…
Other guys have question marks too - Husso - flash in the pan? Keumper - will Avs resign him ? Injury concerns ?
Do we need to add to the top 6 ? Or is Shara Hughes Mercer and Bratt Nico Holtz good enough ? That would leave a crappy 3rd line in my opinion. I do not like Zacha Tatar Johnson but .. what the hell do you do with all three and who do we replace them with? I’d like to move all three and try to revamp the entire third line with very good defensive and hard to play against guys . Ideal line - Nuke Trochek ( he will get paid ! 6mil and that’s way too much for a 3c) Marchment or Neiderrieder or Motte or ?
Then where does Boqvist go? I’m not sure if he is a good 3c and if he’s nkt at 3c , where do you play him?
4th line - I really like Bastian and Wood . Wood though only on the 4th line , I don’t thnk he is a very good 3rd line option if it’s for long stretches of games. McLeod I am also undecided on. I like his face off ability and effort but other than that ???
I think our D is very decent but could use one or two more guys like Seigs. Hopefully one spot can fill Subbans departure with one of the UFA i mentioned above.
Havig said all that , what do we do with guys like Zetterlund , Thompson , Greer , Foote , etc if they show they are ready for the NHL? I guess they can rotate in to fill in for injuries or if someone is not playing well . But only if you promote a guy on a lower line and move one of the kids on the 4th line or ?

We seem to be on a similar thought wave.

I questioned the "top 6" because that appears to be what the Devils are currently simmering, but have too many to fill those wing slots when only 4 are needed and Bratt, Sharangovich, Mercer, and Holtz seem to be the current targets. There are a couple guys out there as I mentioned who will be UFAs that would make the top 6 dynamic. Sharangovich and Mercer would be the odd 2 out.

Then the question is can Mercer who is only 20 yrs-old be groomed into a very good 3C with Shara and another like Zetterlund be a different kind of 3rd line? One with a high offensive potential that the other team has to deal with defensively. I think they could. Holtz is top 6 or a top trade item. He seems to be growing into that role. He is not a bottom 6 player.

If the answer is to go with the 6 you mention that NJ looks to be moving towards, then some of those guys you list at the end like Z, Foote, Thompson, and Greer are really just top 6 guys who weren't good enough at this stage to push their way into that elite number and are of a similar age group. You can't just cupboard them in the AHL until you might need them. Greer would be the guy you do that with, but he would have to get a nice paycheck to hang around knowing he is the 14th forward. You can package the rest with other moves to get some of the other pieces you wish for.

1 of Nuke, Trochet, Niederreiter, Marchmant, etc. would go very well to create that Shara/Mercer/Other 3rd line I was talking about.

The roadblocks to these kind of forwards are Tatar and Johnsson with contracts that are hard to find takers for without paying some of the contracts to the takers.

If you had those 3 lines, Mcleod, Bastian, Kukkonen, Boqvist, Zetterlund, Thompson, Foote, Greer, Vesey, Tatar, and Johnsson are all extra players used to compose a 4th line and 2 extra forwards or combine in multiple ways to trade, and some with their ELCs still intact can still go back to the AHL and go up and down without waiver issues. They can also bloom in that extra AHL time and end up better than some of the Devils young blood that didn't get any better as expected. The AHL guy(s) then push into the lineup and replace the stalled one(s). Those 2 or 3 new acquired guys give the Devils the kind of depth that successful franchises seem to keep rolling into their lineups.

As to the D, Hughes is percolating for what is likely just 1 more college season. He would join the Devils at the end of his sophomore college season. The best move would be to sign him to his ELC starting in 2023-24 and let him play the remainder of his sophomore season in the AHL. He will still be very young (won't turn 20 until September). Saves a season of his ELC and let's the first big contract wait an extra season while the Devils are getting the rest of their eggs arranged. This, unless of course, the Devils are in the playoffs and Luke appears to be so much better than what they have on 1 of their 3 pairings that got them there. Then again, are they headed for a Cup challenge? Doubtful. Let their season play out and let Luke gets his feet wet in Utica. it may be the only AHL time he will see.

This would only mean acquiring 1 D-man for next season to replace PK and hope one of Walsh/OK can be of use next season. If worse came to worse and PK would be willing to settle for a shorter cheaper ticket, he could be useful for 1 more season. There are other D out there. A couple teams have stockpiled D on their farm and maybe 1 of them could be pried loose for something they need. Arizona and Ottawa have a situation where they seem to dump good players the second they will require a new contract of any substance. LA has a few as well.

 

[Bad Goalie]

Very close to being very serious.

That's a good one. How many is that 17? 18? Looks a lot like the one a college teammate received quite some time ago. Some post career work by a good surgeon made it unnoticeable.

 

[Eggtimer]

That's a good one. How many is that 17? 18? Looks a lot like the one a college teammate received quite some time ago. Some post career work by a good surgeon made it unnoticeable.

Here is my leg after I shattered my ankle. Beat that Graves ! 35 “staples”
Removing the staples hurt more than breaking my ankle. Skin grew over them. My foot was completely sideays pointing in the wrong direction. At the hospital I remember thinking “ this is not going to go good “ knowing that they will have to straighten it out and wrap it until surgery.
I remember looking and my gimped foot , then the next thing I remember is looking at my foot all straightened out and wrapped nicely. Apparently they gave me a medication where you have no memory or recollection of what’s going on. My girlfriend at the time said she could hear me screaming and swearing from down the hall. I not do remember one second of it . I want that medication so I can take it every day before work lol. Take it and next thing you know , work is over and your at home!

 

[Bad Goalie]

When I was 21 I broke my upper jaw in 3 places. They wired my lower to the upper for 8 weeks.
When the fracture occurred my gums were still attached to the 5 upper teeth that were knocked out in the accident. The new skin growing to cover the void left by the gum removal grew over, under, around, and any other direction you can come up with in the natural healing process. When they pulled all of those wires I get the impression that might just have a clue of how you felt.

The maxillofacial surgeon who put me back together had his medical school and specialty schooling paid for by the US military and he repaired and rebuilt faces injured in battle. The guy was a miracle worker, but had no patience for anyone showing any kind of pain. He told me to just suck up it up. He'd had to HURT a lot more patients a lot more than he hurt me.

 

[NjDevsRR]

My legs are numb from this page, I get nauseated so easily lmao

 

[Guttersniped]

My legs are numb from this page, I get nauseated so easily lmao

I know, right, I can’t believe someone suggested trading the 2023 1st when people compare it to the 2015 & 2003 drafts.

What? If there’s low hanging fruit I will pick it.

Chin stitches aren’t that much, I got some gnarly ones twice as a kid, just glad the skate wasn’t lower.

The torn skin just hangs there’s though, it can look disturbing (I mostly remember my Mother’s horror at this point, she doesn’t have much of a poker face.)

I don’t doubt @Eggtimer ‘s injury f***ing sucked, my nephew caught his cleat in the ground and bent his ankle in half in a grotesque way while playing rugby in college.

He went through 6 hours of surgery and the aftermath was no picnic. Has a good size scar too.

 

[Nubmer6]

I know, right, I can’t believe someone suggested trading the 2023 1st when people compare it to 2015 & 2003.

What? If there’s low hanging fruit I will pick it.

Chin stitches aren’t that much, I got some gnarly ones twice as a kid, just glad the skate wasn’t lower.

The torn skin just hangs there’s though, it can look disturbing (I mostly remember my Mother’s horror at this point, she doesn’t have much of a poker face.)

I don’t doubt @Eggtimer ‘s injury f***ing sucked, my nephew caught his cleat in the ground and bent his ankle in half in a grotesque way while playing rugby in college.

He went through 6 hours of surgery and the aftermath was no picnic. Has a good size scar too.

I'm kind of surprised there aren't more stitches. Usually they pop a ton in for the facial area since the more there are, generally, the less of a scar you get. I had a cut over my eye and the doc actually popped 32 into a one and a half inch area.

 

[Ripshot 43]

Here is my leg after I shattered my ankle. Beat that Graves ! 35 “staples”
Removing the staples hurt more than breaking my ankle. Skin grew over them. My foot was completely sideays pointing in the wrong direction. At the hospital I remember thinking “ this is not going to go good “ knowing that they will have to straighten it out and wrap it until surgery.
I remember looking and my gimped foot , then the next thing I remember is looking at my foot all straightened out and wrapped nicely. Apparently they gave me a medication where you have no memory or recollection of what’s going on. My girlfriend at the time said she could hear me screaming and swearing from down the hall. I not do remember one second of it . I want that medication so I can take it every day before work lol. Take it and next thing you know , work is over and your at home!


View attachment 531707

Can you give us some background on how this happened? What was your recovery like and do you walk with a limp?

Edit: I think I know the type of medicine you had because when I was a young boy I had stomach issues (I think it was stomach?) and they gave me a medicine where I wouldn’t remember anything but was completely awake when they had to put a camera down my throat.

 

[Guttersniped]

I'm kind of surprised there aren't more stitches. Usually they pop a ton in for the facial area since the more there are, generally, the less of a scar you get. I had a cut over my eye and the dic actually popped 32 into a one and a half inch area.

This post should help @NjDevsRR as I’m sure the nausea was mostly caused by the lack of eye related injuries. Needs pics for him tho.

 

[Nubmer6]

This post should help @NjDevsRR as I’m sure the nausea was mostly caused by the lack of eye related injuries. Needs pics for him tho.

No pics but maybe a description will help. Was playing roller hockey and hit head to head with a buddy of mine. The cut was caused by the skull/ orbital socket cutting from the inside out.

 

[Eggtimer]

Can you give us some background on how this happened? What was your recovery like and do you walk with a limp?

Edit: I think I know the type of medicine you had because when I was a young boy I had stomach issues (I think it was stomach?) and they gave me a medicine where I wouldn’t remember anything but was completely awake when they had to put a camera down my throat.

I used to work shift work as a power engineer at a plant.
It was my last night shift prior to starting a new job. I woke up to get a drink downstairs. We had a two story home. I more or less missed the first step and fell down about 10 stairs and landed in the landing 1/2 way down the stairs where the staircase turns. It was the loudest “crack” noise I have ever heard. Sounded like a snapojf a carrot right beside your ear but louder . The nine stuck out the bottom of my foot. I was hone by myself, girlfriend was gone, I wasn’t thinkjg and I crawled up the stairs instead of down to get the phone to call my GF.
I walk with a slight limp , not nad enough to need a cane or anything.
Recovery was about 2 1/2 months .

 

[Guttersniped]

I used to work shift work as a power engineer at a plant.
It was my last night shift prior to starting a new job. I woke up to get a drink downstairs. We had a two story home. I more or less missed the first step and fell down about 10 stairs and landed in the landing 1/2 way down the stairs where the staircase turns. It was the loudest “crack” noise I have ever heard. Sounded like a snapojf a carrot right beside your ear but louder . The nine stuck out the bottom of my foot. I was hone by myself, girlfriend was gone, I wasn’t thinkjg and I crawled up the stairs instead of down to get the phone to call my GF.
I walk with a slight limp , not nad enough to need a cane or anything.
Recovery was about 2 1/2 months .

It’s posts like these, where a regular describes crawling up the stairs after cracking his leg like a carrot, where having more than just a “like” button is really helpful.

It feels odd giving that the ol’ thumbs up.

 

[devilsblood]

We have been on a heck of a run in terms of head injuries the last couple years.

 

[Billdo]

Here is my leg after I shattered my ankle. Beat that Graves ! 35 “staples”
Removing the staples hurt more than breaking my ankle. Skin grew over them. My foot was completely sideays pointing in the wrong direction. At the hospital I remember thinking “ this is not going to go good “ knowing that they will have to straighten it out and wrap it until surgery.
I remember looking and my gimped foot , then the next thing I remember is looking at my foot all straightened out and wrapped nicely. Apparently they gave me a medication where you have no memory or recollection of what’s going on. My girlfriend at the time said she could hear me screaming and swearing from down the hall. I not do remember one second of it . I want that medication so I can take it every day before work lol. Take it and next thing you know , work is over and your at home!


View attachment 531707

Very nice, I broke my tibia and fibula a while back. Broke in June, wore a boot and no weight for two months, therapy and boot off after a few weeks in August. Mostly back to normal by September. Had bad pain after being on my feet a lot for a few months after but nothing after about a year.

 

[Ripshot 43]

We old.

Just incase some of you didn’t know

 

[RSeen]

We seem to be on a similar thought wave.

I questioned the "top 6" because that appears to be what the Devils are currently simmering, but have too many to fill those wing slots when only 4 are needed and Bratt, Sharangovich, Mercer, and Holtz seem to be the current targets. There are a couple guys out there as I mentioned who will be UFAs that would make the top 6 dynamic. Sharangovich and Mercer would be the odd 2 out.

Then the question is can Mercer who is only 20 yrs-old be groomed into a very good 3C with Shara and another like Zetterlund be a different kind of 3rd line? One with a high offensive potential that the other team has to deal with defensively. I think they could. Holtz is top 6 or a top trade item. He seems to be growing into that role. He is not a bottom 6 player.

If the answer is to go with the 6 you mention that NJ looks to be moving towards, then some of those guys you list at the end like Z, Foote, Thompson, and Greer are really just top 6 guys who weren't good enough at this stage to push their way into that elite number and are of a similar age group. You can't just cupboard them in the AHL until you might need them. Greer would be the guy you do that with, but he would have to get a nice paycheck to hang around knowing he is the 14th forward. You can package the rest with other moves to get some of the other pieces you wish for.

1 of Nuke, Trochet, Niederreiter, Marchmant, etc. would go very well to create that Shara/Mercer/Other 3rd line I was talking about.

The roadblocks to these kind of forwards are Tatar and Johnsson with contracts that are hard to find takers for without paying some of the contracts to the takers.

If you had those 3 lines, Mcleod, Bastian, Kukkonen, Boqvist, Zetterlund, Thompson, Foote, Greer, Vesey, Tatar, and Johnsson are all extra players used to compose a 4th line and 2 extra forwards or combine in multiple ways to trade, and some with their ELCs still intact can still go back to the AHL and go up and down without waiver issues. They can also bloom in that extra AHL time and end up better than some of the Devils young blood that didn't get any better as expected. The AHL guy(s) then push into the lineup and replace the stalled one(s). Those 2 or 3 new acquired guys give the Devils the kind of depth that successful franchises seem to keep rolling into their lineups.

As to the D, Hughes is percolating for what is likely just 1 more college season. He would join the Devils at the end of his sophomore college season. The best move would be to sign him to his ELC starting in 2023-24 and let him play the remainder of his sophomore season in the AHL. He will still be very young (won't turn 20 until September). Saves a season of his ELC and let's the first big contract wait an extra season while the Devils are getting the rest of their eggs arranged. This, unless of course, the Devils are in the playoffs and Luke appears to be so much better than what they have on 1 of their 3 pairings that got them there. Then again, are they headed for a Cup challenge? Doubtful. Let their season play out and let Luke gets his feet wet in Utica. it may be the only AHL time he will see.

This would only mean acquiring 1 D-man for next season to replace PK and hope one of Walsh/OK can be of use next season. If worse came to worse and PK would be willing to settle for a shorter cheaper ticket, he could be useful for 1 more season. There are other D out there. A couple teams have stockpiled D on their farm and maybe 1 of them could be pried loose for something they need. Arizona and Ottawa have a situation where they seem to dump good players the second they will require a new contract of any substance. LA has a few as well.

Hughes is almost certainly going to have his ELC begin next year.

I'd like to see us acquire Nuke or Marchment but I'm not sure how reasonable the contract will be for the former. Having players on ELC's like Mercer, Holtz and Hughes for multiple years certainly helps us. We will also have our first from this year who should be on their ELC likely 4 or 5 years out.

 

[Billdo]

We old.

Just incase some of you didn’t know

Ain't that the truth. I don't even think I'm THAT old it at 36 some stuff hurts a little longer than it used too, that's for sure.

 

[Ripshot 43]

Ain't that the truth. I don't even think I'm THAT old it at 36 some stuff hurts a little longer than it used too, that's for sure.

I’ve heard it only gets worse too for some reason

 

[Eggtimer]

Hughes is almost certainly going to have his ELC begin next year.

I'd like to see us acquire Nuke or Marchment but I'm not sure how reasonable the contract will be for the former. Having players on ELC's like Mercer, Holtz and Hughes for multiple years certainly helps us. We will also have our first from this year who should be on their ELC likely 4 or 5 years out.

Yes I can’t see Luke NOT signing after his season at Michigan and coming straight to the Devils , just like Quinn . As much as I don’t want to burn a year of his ELC , I think it’s a close to a given that it will happen .

 

[Billdo]

I’ve heard it only gets worse too for some reason

I can attest to that somewhat. I've had a bad back since high school basically. The littlest twist the wrong way and I'm shot. It used to go back to normal in a day or two. Now it's a week/week and a half with a heating pad. Getting old is rough. Since trying to take back some of my health it seems to be better though.

 

[Saugus]

69 points in 69 games for Jesper Bratt

Clearly we need to shut Bratt down for the season, for... reasons.