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

[Lou Bloom]

Devils will have a top end center core as long as Nico/Jack keep playing like they have. 3C is not as hard to fill as a long term RHD regardless if it's Gourde/Suter or whoever. Also I don't think the Devils signed Dillon to the deal he has for his 3rd year but more like that they had to offer that extra year to get him to sign here -- so there's no need to make any decisions based on Dillon's 3rd year when he'll be 36

Hamilton and Pesce are both older defenseman and both have just come off long term injuries and Pesce's style of play is of some who end up on LTIR and Hamilton may become a cap casualty anyway (his contract goes from full NMC to a 10 team trade list this offseason)

Obviously the Devils have two elite centers in Jack and Nico, my point in bringing up Florida, Vegas and Tampa was that they all had elite center depth, not just top end centers. Florida had Bennett/Lundell as their 3C, Vegas had Chandler Stephenson and Nicholas Roy as their 3C and 4C, Tampa had Gourde and Cirelli as their 3C and 4C during their Stanley Cup seasons.

Even if Dillon is just a 7th defenseman in his final season, the Devils will still have Anton Silayev ready to come over who is a much more seamless replacement in the lineup for Dillon's spot.

If the Devils had the same thought on Pesce as you then why would they sign him long term? It makes no sense to sign a player to a 6 year term with the expectation that he doesn't have much shelf life. And even in this scenario the Devils still have Casey in the system who's NHL ready and still have Kovacevic on the roster who they can look to re-sign if they have 0 trust in Pesce/Hamilton.

 

[Triumph]

It shouldn't be hard to find a 3C, even just next year the Devils still have Haula and there'll be guys like Suter and Gourde available in UFA. Doubt any prospect the Devils would get would displace a vet like Haula's usage and they definitely won't displace Nico or Hughes. Meanwhile the Devils have Hamilton who is 31 and Pesce who is 30 so RHD so something which is a strength could soon turn to something the Devils look for if they trade Nemec.

I thought Kovacevic was sort of a mirage from the beginning of the season especially when he started to have some meh games after his start but now I think he's actually what he is showing and if he is that then he will be the be the best RHD on the market this offseason. So I don't think the Devils will be able to re-sign him either if he keeps up his play.

I'd like the Devils to start drafting centers or finding them with college free agents/european free agents as well and all but I don't think they're near a position where they have a need to trade from a strength for a center.

I'd also like to eat crow on Allen lol, super happy with his play

Kovacevic is excellent and the Devils can't replace him. What they can do is offer him a Siegenthaler + inflation + a little more kind of deal to stay, which he might take because he's never been paid anything close to that nor had this sort of role. Obviously if he makes it to market and the Devils go deep in the playoffs, that sort of thing is probably off the table, but to me you have to make the attempt, even if means trading both Hamilton and Nemec and losing both trades.

 

[BostonDevil]

Still can't wrap my head around why people want to move Nemec.

Josh Anderson ain't gonna come cheap

 

[R8Devs]

Obviously the Devils have two elite centers in Jack and Nico, my point in bringing up Florida, Vegas and Tampa was that they all had elite center depth, not just top end centers. Florida had Bennett/Lundell as their 3C, Vegas had Chandler Stephenson and Nicholas Roy as their 3C and 4C, Tampa had Gourde and Cirelli as their 3C and 4C during their Stanley Cup seasons.

Even if Dillon is just a 7th defenseman in his final season, the Devils will still have Anton Silayev ready to come over who is a much more seamless replacement in the lineup for Dillon's spot.

If the Devils had the same thought on Pesce as you then why would they sign him long term? It makes no sense to sign a player to a 6 year term with the expectation that he doesn't have much shelf life. And even in this scenario the Devils still have Casey in the system who's NHL ready and still have Kovacevic on the roster who they can look to re-sign if they have 0 trust in Pesce/Hamilton.

The Devils still compare well to those teams with Nico/Jack/Haula and I'm pretty confident they'd be able to find a replacement for Haula when the time comes without having to give up Nemec. I also don't think a rookie/first year 3C is what the Devils would actually run with when they're in their contention window.

Pesce was signed as a win now deal, similar to Palat - I don't think GMs sign these guys expecting these UFAs to fulfill the term of their deal but if they don't get term they won't sign, so you just deal with the ramifications later. Maybe they thought it was an appropriate risk with the cap potentially being 100mil+ by the middle of Pesce's deal.

 

[Lou Bloom]

The Devils still compare well to those teams with Nico/Jack/Haula and I'm pretty confident they'd be able to find a replacement for Haula when the time comes without having to give up Nemec. I also don't think a rookie/first year 3C is what the Devils would actually run with when they're in their contention window.

Pesce was signed as a win now deal, similar to Palat - I don't think GMs sign these guys expecting these UFAs to fulfill the term of their deal but if they don't get term they won't sign, so you just deal with the ramifications later. Maybe they thought it was an appropriate risk with the cap potentially being 100mil+ by the middle of Pesce's deal.

The Devils definitely don't have similar center depth talent as those other teams. Jack and Nico are definitely as good a one two punch as you'll find but after them there's a huge drop off in center talent organizationally.

How is betting on a blue chip forward prospect that's NHL ready to perform any different then expecting one of Casey/Nemec to perform. Either way you're betting on youth in that scenario.

Yeah, I understand that teams are willing to lose on the backend of FA contracts sometimes in order to get the value up front. the difference is that Pesce just signed his 6 year deal this past offseason. At minimum the Devils should be expected high end play out of him for 3 seasons of that contract. Hamilton is still only 31 years old and has 3 more years left on his contract.

If these guys stay healthy and performing then that means you're going to have a logjam at RD and if you are worried about not having the depth in case of injury/underperformance then why not re-sign Kovacevic to a reasonable deal.

 

[R8Devs]

Kovacevic is excellent and the Devils can't replace him. What they can do is offer him a Siegenthaler + inflation + a little more kind of deal to stay, which he might take because he's never been paid anything close to that nor had this sort of role. Obviously if he makes it to market and the Devils go deep in the playoffs, that sort of thing is probably off the table, but to me you have to make the attempt, even if means trading both Hamilton and Nemec and losing both trades.

Idk it's just hard to see a guy who hasn't had a big contract yet not going to market with potentially the biggest jump in the cap ceiling in years, 27 years old, being the best available player in a desired position while also having one of the most desired traits by GMs by being 6'5. I think the Devils would probably offer that kind of deal deal you alluded to but it's hard to imagine that they'll give him the biggest offer he'd get. Also Hamilton may be pretty hard to trade with his trade protections but yeah we'll see. It'll be interesting to see how they handle RHDs this coming offseason

The Devils definitely don't have similar center depth talent as those other teams. Jack and Nico are definitely as good a one two punch as you'll find but after them there's a huge drop off in center talent organizationally.

How is betting on a blue chip forward prospect that's NHL ready to perform any different then expecting one of Casey/Nemec to perform. Either way you're betting on youth in that scenario.

Yeah, I understand that teams are willing to lose on the backend of FA contracts sometimes in order to get the value up front. the difference is that Pesce just signed his 6 year deal this past offseason. At minimum the Devils should be expected high end play out of him for 3 seasons of that contract. Hamilton is still only 31 years old and has 3 more years left on his contract.

If these guys stay healthy and performing then that means you're going to have a logjam at RD and if you are worried about not having the depth in case of injury/underperformance then why not re-sign Kovacevic to a reasonable deal.

Haula's usage is not one they'd give that forward prospect, I think the guys you're talking about might be moved to wing and/or in the press box when playoffs start whereas Nemec can play a regular 3rd pair's usage.

I think Kovacevic's play has priced him out of that reasonable contract range for depth.