Devils team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - season begins!

[TheBeerNerd]

Appears there is an exodus from Twitter/X. I hope NJD social media starts putting up content on these alternative platforms soon.

Bill Spaulding also posts on Bluesky, as does InStilletos. Amanda Stein just made an account, but it's not her main source yet. There are a whole lot more people both Devils-centric and around the league who've made the jump.

It's a good platform, at least for now. Nothing good lasts online, I'm afraid.

 

[Better Call Sal]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1857521625857466436

#FreeTuna

 

[Ripshot 43]

Appears there is an exodus from Twitter/X. I hope NJD social media starts putting up content on these alternative platforms soon.

Nothing wrong with X.

 

[Emperoreddy]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1857521625857466436

#FreeTuna

Issue is there isn't really a place to free him to.

 

[NJDfan86]

Issue is there isn't really a place to free him to.

I’d take getting him one competent linemate, personally.

 

[Emperoreddy]

What's Haula's underlying numbers been like? I feel like he has been doing a good job at 3C but lost in the shuffle a bit

 

[Better Call Sal]

Issue is there isn't really a place to free him to.

Oh I know. I just mean eventually. You certainly can’t alter the top 9 the way things are going right now.

There’s a lot of negative Tatar discourse but he’s saddled with two boat anchors right now. He’s still a useful player. I’d like to see him with other useful players when possible.

 

[TheBeerNerd]

Nothing wrong with X.

I strongly disagree. No specifics but when I left in 2015, it was for reasons that seem quaint compared to today. It's not that it's non-functional because it functions well, but you have to be part of the, shall we say, specific userbase it caters to.

 

[My3Sons]

Oh I know. I just mean eventually. You certainly can’t alter the top 9 the way things are going right now.

There’s a lot of negative Tatar discourse but he’s saddled with two boat anchors right now. He’s still a useful player. I’d like to see him with other useful players when possible.

Last night he made a couple of poor decisions that seemed unforced. That's my concern. I'm used to him having good advanced stats with little to show in the way of actual goals because he has been very safe and reliable. Maybe he's struggling having to play with fourth line guys but I was surprised to see him cause problems in the defensive zone.

 

[Maine Fan]

I always believed Blackwood was a good goalie in NJ, when healthy.

Unfortunately for us he had real trouble staying healthy his entire time as a Devil.

The funniest part of Blackwood’s 23-24 season* was that he stayed healthy until
until he was injured in a game vs us in late February.

I assume old habits die hard and he was just used to getting injured when he saw a bunch of Devils skaters on the ice.

Vanecek isn’t good though lol.

*for me more than Blackwood

Hi Guttersniped,

I don't agree that Blackwood was a good goalie. Out if his 7 years, check his record, he only had 2 years with more wins than losses. One of those years was a joke, he won 10 lost 6. So he only had one winning year. He was never that good for our Devils. Just my opinion. I think he hurt the Devils while with them. Vanicek was a backup goalie that had a great year with the Devils, just one.

Best they are gone. Moving on. Our present goalies know they must get better. They are working on improving.


Go Devils.

 

[Guadana]

What if Flyers offered us Michkov. Do we immediately say yes, as we still have Casey as RHD depth.

I like Nemec a lot for obvious reasons but Devils will trade Nemec, Casey, Arseniy and Lenny for him in one package but flyers would still not trade him at all. I believe there are very few options for flyers to trade him and all of them are insane for any other part. I don't think we have any asset they would agree to trade for. Jack Hughes included.

 

[Lou is God]

I was just informed on the main board that if Hutson was on the Devils that Luke would get sent down before he did.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

I was just informed on the main board that if Hutson was on the Devils that Luke would get sent down before he did.

that Hutson thread is an abomination

he is already better than 99% of the DMen in the league according to the Habs fans. "He plays 25 minutes a night on a bad team!" as if that means anything

 

[Casey Jones]

Because he's not here to score points when you have Dougie Hamilton and Luke Hughes.

Plenty of defensemen go through pointless stretches while playing solid hockey.

I think it's a statistical anomaly. I bet there haven't been 11 straight games in his history in which he hasn't scored at least one point.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

I think it's a statistical anomaly. I bet there haven't been 11 straight games in his history in which he hasn't scored at least one point.

Last year alone he had a 15 game stretch like that. Plus another 9 and 10 game one.

 

[devilsblood]

I get that. I'm just saying the NHL Edge data corroborates what I'm seeing: His top-end shot is not exactly there.

I'm not saying he's been bad or anything. Dougie has been good. I'm saying there is evidence that some of the red flags I was concerned with before this season (skating deterioration, injury affecting his shooting) are becoming noticeable. I hope it's a short-term blip. It might not be.

I think you are correct on the main concern, which is foot speed.

The shot to me is not a big concern right now. Even if the surgery has effected his shot through 20 games, it may not be long term. And a weakness in the Dumba comparison is Dumba is not an especially big guy where as Hamilton is. I think Dumba needs to put a lot more into his shot to get high velocity where as Hamilton is not a big wind up guy. He get's a lot on his shot without much windup. Big contrast between Hamilton in this regard and a guy like Subban for instance.

Great move, the Noesen move was relatively easy to make per se but the Cotter for Holtz was a ballsy one and it's worked out great

I wasn't exactly in love with the Noesen move, I wondered if we weren't buying peak Noesen. I was way wrong on that.

I thought the Cotter trade had potential for us, but still kind of wonder if we couldn't have gotten more. But as a Triumph has noted a big plus in Cotter's favor is that ridiculously cheap contract.

 

[bossram]

I think you are correct on the main concern, which is foot speed.

The shot to me is not a big concern right now. Even if the surgery has effected his shot through 20 games, it may not be long term. And a weakness in the Dumba comparison is Dumba is not an especially big guy where as Hamilton is. I think Dumba needs to put a lot more into his shot to get high velocity where as Hamilton is not a big wind up guy. He get's a lot on his shot without much windup. Big contrast between Hamilton in this regard and a guy like Subban for instance.

The skating is the bigger issue to me as well. It's possible he could quickly go the Seabrook or Vlasic route to unplayable status: Former high-end defenseman with below-average skating to begin with...falls off further and basically just gets beat every time someone challenges him.

The shooting ability...I dunno. Your theory is plausible I think. A major pec tear is tough to come back from.

 

[devilsblood]

What's Haula's underlying numbers been like? I feel like he has been doing a good job at 3C but lost in the shuffle a bit

Lousy from a CF% standpoint, not good from an xGF%, and good from a GF% standpoint.

But everyone has to pick up the slack of Jack getting all the juicy minutes, so Haula is playing some fairly difficult minutes.

 

[Lou is God]

that Hutson thread is an abomination

he is already better than 99% of the DMen in the league according to the Habs fans. "He plays 25 minutes a night on a bad team!" as if that means anything

Luke still has a ton of more ceiling than Hutson. It's not even close.

 

[devilsblood]

The skating is the bigger issue to me as well. It's possible he could quickly go the Seabrook or Vlasic route to unplayable status: Former high-end defenseman with below-average skating to begin with...falls off further and basically just gets beat every time someone challenges him.

The shooting ability...I dunno. Your theory is plausible I think. A major pec tear is tough to come back from.

I feel Vlasic get's a bad rap because he played heavy defensive minutes on a bad team. But even as late as 22-23 he was above water in xG% despite sub 30% offensive zone starts. his actual gf% is terrible, but again, a terrible team.

Always a defensive d-man though, unlike Hamilton, who I think should try to reinvent himself, at least a little.

(Don't have the energy to delve into a seabrook comparison).

But if nothing else I'm in wait and see in terms of him potting goals.

 

[Saugus]

I was just informed on the main board that if Hutson was on the Devils that Luke would get sent down before he did.

This is a weird hypothetical, but let’s indulge it. If we somehow had both Hutson and Luke, we probably would have made different choices on other moves last offseason.

For example, either we wouldn’t have signed Dillon or we wouldn’t have traded for Kovacevic. We wouldn’t have the space or need for both.