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

[Better Call Sal]

3.68% on ice sh% at 5v5, 4.90% in all situations. What sample is more likely.to be an accurate representation of a players abilities, an 82 game sample or an 18 game sample with unsustainably low shooting percentages?

This post is going to age poorly, I guarantee it.

Doesn’t it make the point that he is streaky? Which is true and has always been true?

I like Rango a lot. But I did find the lamenting of losing him for Toffoli kind of silly because Toffoli was also shooting better. He wasn’t a fit for how Lindy was deploying his players given his lack of foot speed, but he was very productive. And I think less conversation about this happens if the team’s fortunes turned out differently last year.

But this topic has been beaten to death around these parts.

 

[My3Sons]

3.68% on ice sh% at 5v5, 4.90% in all situations. What sample is more likely.to be an accurate representation of a players abilities, an 82 game sample or an 18 game sample with unsustainably low shooting percentages?

This post is going to age poorly, I guarantee it.

Shara was always a bit streaky. His percentages will normalize but over his career his long term averages are about 9 goals and 8 assists per 30 games. That's a nice player but his results last year were buoyed by a career high shooting percentage. He's probably a 50+ point guy at this stage of his career which is nothing to sneeze at. Would he work as a wing for Nico and Meier or Bratt and Jack? Maybe for Bratt and Jack. I struggle to see him doing the dirty work Hischier's line is expected to do. In a round about way the team chose Palat over him and a few other players they don't have cap space for anymore.

 

[Better Call Sal]

PK speaks the truth.

Also “with all due respect to the 46 games Steve played”.

 

[Emperoreddy]

 

[Dr Aidonis Bison]

Not sure this fits here, but randomly just noticed Eric Gelinas was the top trending name on Elite Prospects..

 

[AfroThunder396]

3.68% on ice sh% at 5v5, 4.90% in all situations. What sample is more likely.to be an accurate representation of a players abilities, an 82 game sample or an 18 game sample with unsustainably low shooting percentages?

This post is going to age poorly, I guarantee it.

If you want to play this game with sample sizes and sustainability, fine. What's more accurate, the 82 games last year where he shot at 17%, or the 205 games with NJ where he shot at 12.8%?

There are three players in the league with +500 GP and a career shooting percent above 17%. Steven Stamkos is at 16.6%, Auston Matthews is at 16.0%, Connor McDavid is at 15.2%, and Sidney Crosby is at 14.5%.

All the evidence points to last year being an outlier, where he was shooting unsustainably good. You are taking a career year and projecting it out like that's his new standard. He's obviously better than he's playing right now, but he's nowhere near as good as people were pretending that he was last year.

You totally missed the point of my post, which was poking fun at the doomers who love crying and bitching when things are going poorly but vanish as soon as we win. No one gives a f*** about Sharangovich or Zacha or Boqvist or anyone else right now because we're a great team without them.

 

[My3Sons]

If you want to play this game with sample sizes and sustainability, fine. What's more accurate, the 82 games last year where he shot at 17%, or the 205 games with NJ where he shot at 12.8%?

There are three players in the league with +500 GP and a career shooting percent above 17%. Steven Stamkos is at 16.6%, Auston Matthews is at 16.0%, Connor McDavid is at 15.2%, and Sidney Crosby is at 14.5%.

All the evidence points to last year being an outlier, where he was shooting unsustainably good. You are taking a career year and projecting it out like that's his new standard. He's obviously better than he's playing right now, but he's nowhere near as good as people were pretending that he was last year.

You totally missed the point of my post, which was poking fun at the doomers who love crying and bitching when things are going poorly but vanish as soon as we win. No one gives a f*** about Sharangovich or Zacha or Boqvist or anyone else right now because we're a great team without them.

Boquist might have made a good extra forward. He's be ok as a top six wing for a few games and maybe as a bottom six center for a few games. He's probably offer something similar to what Tatar offers.

 

[My3Sons]

Haula out for practice today, questionable for Friday. This center depth is on Fitz. We need centers.

At least Hischier practiced after sitting out the end of last night's game. Hopefully that means his foot isn't broken and didn't swell to the size of a watermelon.

 

[Nubmer6]

At least Hischier practiced after sitting out the end of last night's game. Hopefully that means his foot isn't broken and didn't swell to the size of a watermelon.

Maybe it means we finally got smart and keep extra Hischier parts in stock now.

 

[Guadana]

I

I’d like to go with the draft philosophy of picking someone with boom or bust potential . Instead of a more conservative approach on a projected “ good” player , I’d like to go with something like where , for example , there is a kid that had a severe injury his draft year , but was a stud the season prior to his draft year , take a chance on him . That’s the only way we get an impact player drafting where we will be ( bottom 1/3 or in the 25+ range in the first round ) . All the sure picks are gone by then. Only way to find an impact player is to take a chance on someone with warts ( injury history , weak at one aspect of the game , late bloomer , potential attitude issues ) . We have the core already in place , we have the luxury now of taking more chances with our picks IMO .
Or maybe reach a little with picks ? Nothing crazy like taking someone a round ahead of where he is projected to go . But if there is a kid that fits a specific need , take him over someone like a random winger . Target to fill a need over best pick available .
Like if someone is ranked by scouting staff in the 35-40 range , but fills a need more so than a little midget winger that is ranked in the 20-30 range , go with the kid that could fill a need .

As I remember we don't have picks in the first but we have three in second. They drafted Lenny and Casey in second - both were players with strong attributes but with obvious weaknesses. So I like the way they draft in second.
And yeah I'm full on for drafting 176sm player with motor, iq and creativeness. Or some kind of center with strong positional vision and work ethics.
I didn't started to study the draft yet but all of my experience is showing that you will always have first round level talents in second round.

 

[Bleedred]

Not sure this fits here, but randomly just noticed Eric Gelinas was the top trending name on Elite Prospects..

View attachment 939466

It looks like he just signed with a team over in Finland today.

He hasn't played yet in any league this year, but I guess he just signed today.

It's funny how players like Tedenby and Gelinas are still active pro hockey players somewhere in this world, while guys who are around the same age like Urbom and Josefson have been retired for years.

 

[Eggtimers]

lol Chara with rocket skates . How is he doing this year ? I heard he had some minor issues with being almost too big where he struggles cutting off passing lanes / pucks where the puck is passed in close near his body / feet . I guess it would be hard to have proper stick work when your wing span is that massive lol. It would be tricky to get an almost 7 foot long stick in tight to your body quickly lol . Maybe I heard wrong but this is one thing I read he needs work on. His size is a huge positive attribute coupled with his skating ability. I can see how his size would make some aspects of the game more difficult than a normal sized player. But I take the over size player any day over a slightly below average sized player. You can’t teach a player size … lol sorry for the overused cliche . I just want us to be a bit bigger and nastier of a team to be able to go toe to toe with the Canes and bigger teams that play a heavy game.
I can’t wait to see how good our D will look when all of Hughes , Nemec , Casey , Silayev are all in their prime .

 

[TheBeerNerd]

PK speaks the truth.

Also “with all due respect to the 46 games Steve played”.

He is truly our strongest soldier

 

[Lou Bloom]

I

I’d like to go with the draft philosophy of picking someone with boom or bust potential . Instead of a more conservative approach on a projected “ good” player , I’d like to go with something like where , for example , there is a kid that had a severe injury his draft year , but was a stud the season prior to his draft year , take a chance on him . That’s the only way we get an impact player drafting where we will be ( bottom 1/3 or in the 25+ range in the first round ) . All the sure picks are gone by then. Only way to find an impact player is to take a chance on someone with warts ( injury history , weak at one aspect of the game , late bloomer , potential attitude issues ) . We have the core already in place , we have the luxury now of taking more chances with our picks IMO .
Or maybe reach a little with picks ? Nothing crazy like taking someone a round ahead of where he is projected to go . But if there is a kid that fits a specific need , take him over someone like a random winger . Target to fill a need over best pick available .
Like if someone is ranked by scouting staff in the 35-40 range , but fills a need more so than a little midget winger that is ranked in the 20-30 range , go with the kid that could fill a need .

Teams should just take the players they feel strongest about. I've seen "safe" players that I've been extremely high on and "boom or bust" types that I thought very little of and vice versa. You have to look at these players game's in their totality and not over simplify it to "high ceiling" vs "high floor".

 

[Emperoreddy]

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

If you want to play this game with sample sizes and sustainability, fine. What's more accurate, the 82 games last year where he shot at 17%, or the 205 games with NJ where he shot at 12.8%?

There are three players in the league with +500 GP and a career shooting percent above 17%. Steven Stamkos is at 16.6%, Auston Matthews is at 16.0%, Connor McDavid is at 15.2%, and Sidney Crosby is at 14.5%.

All the evidence points to last year being an outlier, where he was shooting unsustainably good. You are taking a career year and projecting it out like that's his new standard. He's obviously better than he's playing right now, but he's nowhere near as good as people were pretending that he was last year.

I'm not claiming he's gonna be a 30 goal 60 point player every year. But he should be around 20-30 goals 40-60 points for the next few years. He's a valuable player. And it's not like the gap between 17 and 13 is really all that crazy, it's a few extra goals.

You totally missed the point of my post, which was poking fun at the doomers who love crying and bitching when things are going poorly but vanish as soon as we win. No one gives a f*** about Sharangovich or Zacha or Boqvist or anyone else right now because we're a great team without them.

If nobody cares about him, why did you bring him up.

I was fine with getting rid of Zacha for Haula, but letting go of Boqvist and Sharangovich never made sense and it never will. They are versatile, skilled players that can play up and down the lineup. Just because the team is playing well doesn't mean we couldn't use them - we certainly could have last year.

And we should allow ourselves to critical of bad decisions by management without being labeled "doomers".

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Doesn’t it make the point that he is streaky? Which is true and has always been true?

I like Rango a lot. But I did find the lamenting of losing him for Toffoli kind of silly because Toffoli was also shooting better. He wasn’t a fit for how Lindy was deploying his players given his lack of foot speed, but he was very productive. And I think less conversation about this happens if the team’s fortunes turned out differently last year.

But this topic has been beaten to death around these parts.

That's precisely why I didn't like the move. We got older and slower.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Sharangovich has always been the same guy there as he was here. He just got way more ice time and PP time last year than he would have in NJ.

I think he is JAG, and that is totally okay. But there were tons of posts last year about how much we're missing that player, and the reality is we really are not.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

I will always root for Yegor. I still don’t think he’d have much of a role on this team. He has thrown 4 hits in 18 games. We don’t need floaters, Fitz added the right pieces.

 

[Eggtimers]

I will always root for Yegor. I still don’t think he’d have much of a role on this team. He has thrown 4 hits in 18 games. We don’t need floaters, Fitz added the right pieces.

I agree. I liked Shara but we are better off using cap space and a roster spot on a player that is harder to play against IMO. Speedy player with size that can get to the middle of the ice and is effective along the boards . During the regular season a player like Shara would be nice to have but I think come playoffs , there are better options than the type of player Shara is that help the team more so .

 

[Eggtimers]

That's precisely why I didn't like the move. We got older and slower.

I think that they hoped Toffoli would have been more effective than Shara come playoff time . History showed that Toffoli was a good producer come playoffs and was better suited for playoff style hockey than Shara could be . I agree Toffoli ‘s lack of footspeed didn’t fit in with what Lindy was trying to play as far as play style goes , but I understand the line of thought Fitz had . He was trying to get a more rounded roster for the playoffs and also needed someone with playoff experience.

 

[jkrdevil]

The Shara trade ended up being more of an opportunity cost loss than losing the player himself.

 

[devilsblood]

He is truly our strongest soldier

Which is pretty interesting given it was a short stint of meh play on a bad team.

But I do like what he brings in terms of personality to the hockey media and of course that he is a big Devils advocate.

 

[devilsblood]

I will always root for Yegor. I still don’t think he’d have much of a role on this team. He has thrown 4 hits in 18 games. We don’t need floaters, Fitz added the right pieces.

His lack of compete is what I think led to his being on the outs in NJ. The tools are there though.

Maybe in time he comes around and we can bring him back.

 

[Lou Bloom]

I'm not claiming he's gonna be a 30 goal 60 point player every year. But he should be around 20-30 goals 40-60 points for the next few years. He's a valuable player. And it's not like the gap between 17 and 13 is really all that crazy, it's a few extra goals.

If nobody cares about him, why did you bring him up.

I was fine with getting rid of Zacha for Haula, but letting go of Boqvist and Sharangovich never made sense and it never will. They are versatile, skilled players that can play up and down the lineup. Just because the team is playing well doesn't mean we couldn't use them - we certainly could have last year.

And we should allow ourselves to critical of bad decisions by management without being labeled "doomers".

Sharangovich was an RFA and was a healthy scratch many games towards the end of the season and in the playoffs. He wasn't a bad player but it didn't make sense for the Devils to invest in him long term. Now trading him for Toffoli who is slow and one dimensional ended up not being a good decision but they ended up flipping Toffoli for a 2nd round pick and a 3rd round pick, so they essentially got a 2nd round pick for Sharangovich which was about his value at the time he got traded.

As for Boqvist he cleared waivers after leaving the Devils and just signed for a league minimum contract with Florida this season. Every team in the league had multiple chances to get him for basically free and chose not to. If he was worth the qualifying offer then some team would have paid him more then the $775K he is currently making.