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

[devilsblood]

Pretty cool lol

2nd and 3rd in the league in terms of fwd to fwd.

Jack and Bratt are at least tied for 1st as a fwd tandem in terms of shots generated. Need to see where Matthews to Marner lands, but anything less then 28 and we are all alone at #1.

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

A Day In The Life of Seamus Casey ^

 

[Triumph]

Jack Hughes kind of fits the bill. Obviously not old, or on the 4th line. But a soft skilled player? People say it.

Nice that you found a totally worthless analogy. Congratulations. You win.

 

[devilsblood]

Nice that you found a totally worthless analogy. Congratulations. You win.

I thought it a pretty good counter example to what is now a completely worn out trope.

Is Don Cherry even alive?

 

[AfroThunder396]

A Day In The Life of Seamus Casey ^

I thought this said "A Day In The Life of Kenny Drugs" and thought it was a promo for a new Eastbound & Down sequel.

 

[Better Call Sal]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1859279231454179592

https://x.com/i/web/status/1859279557960085866

Pesce and Timo back for practice today.

 

[Devils731]

Good news on Timo.

I had one day in my life where I woke up with back spasms for no reason. It was painful, I could barely move, and then the next day it was basically gone. No reason to appear and no reason it passed so quickly.

We still don’t know if this is a long term or major issue for Timo but at least feels a little bit easier to speculate it’s minor now.

 

[Guttersniped]

Sounds like Joe Schoen and that kind of logic has done wonders for the Giants.

I frequently criticize the contract Dougie has since he's not a true #1 defenseman ( aka Hedman, Josi, Pietrangelo or some of the others in that class).

But if the Devils organization values him at that rate and then moves him because of his contract that sends a message to both your own locker room and any potential free agents that you're going to nickel and dime players when it comes to salaries.

We don’t make the playoffs in 22-23 without Hamilton and losing him 23-24 was big blow to the team.

That said, the salary cap exists and Hamiliton makes 9m.

I feel like Luke gets a short bridge deal and they figure out how to dump Dougie after next season.

Trading someone after 5 years isn’t nickel and diming them. His deal was structured to provide exits.

His contract is middle loaded. For Dougie, that avoids the heavy escrow % of the post-COVID era and he gets most of his money before the current CBA runs out in September 15 2026.

For the team, after they pay him his 10.55m signing bonus in July 2025, Hamilton is owed 14.65m for the next season.

A potential trade is made possible by him losing his NTC in his last 3 seasons. He doesn’t have a signing bonus in his last season so he can potentially be bought out then.




Why is keeping Dougie hard? One way to understand salary allocation is to break it down by position.

Forwards 12/20 60%
Defense 6/20 30%
Goalies 2/20 10%

1) A more realistic breakdown is more like: 65% Forwards/ 27% Defense/ 7% Goal/ 1% other
2) You can’t count on having the full cap amount to work with.
3) You want spending to be pretty top heavy.



This works now because Luke isn’t getting paid yet, but then having 4 guys making 21.9m for two years while we need to pay Luke is a problem.

21.9m is 24.9% of 88m
21.9m is 23.7% of 92.5m

Luke on a long term deal plus two defensemen would add +10m. With the salary cap at 92.5m that brings up to 35% of the salary cap, which tough to work with.

 

[Devs3cups]

 

[Triumph]

I thought it a pretty good counter example to what is now a completely worn out trope.

Is Don Cherry even alive?

It's not a worn out trope at all. It still permeates hockey discussions like this one.

Jack Hughes has delivered 59 hits in his NHL career, according to hockey-reference. He visibly avoids contact with opponents, for good reason. Tatar has delivered 843 hits in his career, and does not do that. No one will confuse Tatar with Cam Janssen any time soon, but he has been pigeonholed as a soft, high-octane, no defense, no physicality forward for his whole tenure here, when that is not his game at all and never really was. I can only think of one reason why people would be completely confused as to what he's good at.

 

[devilsblood]

We don’t make the playoffs in 22-23 without Hamilton and losing him 23-24 was big blow to the team.

That said, the salary cap exists and Hamiliton makes 9m.

I feel like Luke gets a short bridge deal and they figure out how to dump Dougie after next season.

Trading someone after 5 years isn’t nickel and diming them. His deal was structured to provide exits.

His contract is middle loaded. For Dougie, that avoids the heavy escrow % of the post-COVID era and he gets most of his money before the current CBA runs out in September 15 2026.

For the team, after they pay him his 10.55m signing bonus in July 2025, Hamilton is owed 14.65m for the next season.

A potential trade is made possible by him losing his NTC in his last 3 seasons. He doesn’t have a signing bonus in his last season so he can potentially be bought out then.

View attachment 933230


Why is keeping Dougie hard? One way to understand salary allocation is to break it down by position.

Forwards 12/20 60%
Defense 6/20 30%
Goalies 2/20 10%

1) A more realistic breakdown is more like: 65% Forwards/ 27% Defense/ 7% Goal/ 1% other
2) You can’t count on having the full cap amount to work with.
3) You want spending to be pretty top heavy.

View attachment 933221

This works now because Luke isn’t getting paid yet, but then having 4 guys making 21.9m for two years while we need to pay Luke is a problem.

21.9m is 24.9% of 88m
21.9m is 23.7% of 92.5m

Luke on a long term deal plus two defensemen would add +10m. With the salary cap at 92.5m that brings up to 35% of the salary cap, which tough to work with.

All this AND Nemec needs to get into the lineup.

If it wasn't for Nemec, (and to a lesser extent Casey), I wouldn't see the need to move on from Dougie. Yes we need to sign Luke at some point, but we could move Palat instead. Or as you say bridge Luke to kick that can down the road a bit.

But unless Nemec just isn't that good, he should not be starting in Utica next year. I think with Casey you could, but Nemec should be on an NHL roster to start next year.

 

[devilsblood]

It's not a worn out trope at all. It still permeates hockey discussions like this one.

Jack Hughes has delivered 59 hits in his NHL career, according to hockey-reference. He visibly avoids contact with opponents, for good reason. Tatar has delivered 843 hits in his career, and does not do that. No one will confuse Tatar with Cam Janssen any time soon, but he has been pigeonholed as a soft, high-octane, no defense, no physicality forward for his whole tenure here, when that is not his game at all and never really was. I can only think of one reason why people would be completely confused as to what he's good at.

His crappy playoffs add to it. As does his stature, OK he hits a little, but he's a small guy, certainly not a prototype 4th line physique. And as noted he's now fairly old.

But no one says these things about Timo. Zetterlund never heard these critiques. Who here doesn't think Nico is an ace defender? Or Haula is a quality defender and a guy willing to get in the fray?

All that said, I think Tatar is fine, certainly not the problem on the 4th line.

I think the reason why he catches heat is more along the line of 4th liners always catch heat.

 

[devilsfan950003]

I prefer Bowers at 4th line center, but whatever. The key to this line is playing Foote. This is his make or break time. His injuries have curtailed his development.

 

[devilsblood]

I prefer Bowers at 4th line center, but whatever. The key to this line is playing Foote. This is his make or break time. His injuries have curtailed his development.

Ya know, I looked at that lineup and didn't even look at the 4th line.

Foote is kind of a big development. In the context of the 4th line at least.