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

[Captain3rdLine]

NHL edge data suggests Haula is way above average. He hit approximately 23.5 last year which was roughly 95% of skaters. Lazar is a bit above 22.1 which was league average. Bastian is slightly below average, Palat is further below average and do yourself a favor and don't look at Noesen's edge data. Cotter is well above average. Based on the objective stuff I'd say the bottom six centers are fast and average and one winger is fast and one is more or less average and one is slow and one is a turtle.

The top speed they reached all season is not even close to a good way of measuring how fast a player is in the normal course of a game. I don’t even think the edge data is a good way of measuring how fast a player plays. Not meaningless but not the be all end all.

Haula reached over 22 once. I don’t question that he can occasionally get up to a good speed. But he’s slow footed off starts, not very explosive and slow turning. And when you look at the other edge skating which you didn’t seem to be interested in, Haula is below average in 22+ bursts and 20-22 bursts. Again don’t think that says all that much. I could be over exaggerating how slow he is but I don’t for a second think he’s a very good skater or fast.

 

[Barry Tallackson]

Our bottom 6 has lost a ton of speed, which was a big factor 2 seasons ago… wood, boqvist, Sharangovich, McLeod are now replaced with the likes of noesen, Palat, Haula

 

[My3Sons]

Our bottom 6 has lost a ton of speed, which was a big factor 2 seasons ago… wood, boqvist, Sharangovich, McLeod are now replaced with the likes of noesen, Palat, Haula

They didn’t lean into their identity. That speed was what really gave them an edge. I’d have preferred they got faster overall.

 

[theoptimist]

Well, MM was our shadow 1C.
22-23 doesn't happen without him. He helped Nico defensively and carried whatever line he was on. To me, his departure is one of the saddest things to happen to this franchise since Kovy and Parise.

He would have earned a 6 year, 30M deal last offseason. Huge loss.