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

[Triumph]

I am not sure why everyone is acting like Foote is done here, or even that he played that bad on Wednesday. Who else comes up if a scoreline winger gets hurt? I agree he's done here long-term but that's been true for a while. I mean I guess they could move Tatar back up and then go with an all Utica 4th line with Halonen, that also makes some sense.

Bowers has played well enough to claim that 4th line spot for now and Meier's no longer serving the suspension.

 

[Devils731]

I am not sure why everyone is acting like Foote is done here, or even that he played that bad on Wednesday. Who else comes up if a scoreline winger gets hurt? I agree he's done here long-term but that's been true for a while. I mean I guess they could move Tatar back up and then go with an all Utica 4th line with Halonen, that also makes some sense.

Bowers has played well enough to claim that 4th line spot for now and Meier's no longer serving the suspension.

I don’t think Foote is done but I think he won’t get the next chance at a scoring call up or any call up.

I think they try to roll the dice on Halonen, Hardman, or Beckman before going back to Foote.

Basically I think they all get a small chance to impress and they all likely struggle to do so but you just try new guys and hope.

I’d be interested in seeing Parent get a look but with his size I think the team will look elsewhere unless he puts up an absurd amount of points in Utica.

 

[guitarguyvic]

Really bizarre for an offense ranked towards the top of the league to have four shutouts a quarter of the way through the season.

What’s the status of Bastian and Lazar?

 

[Hisch13r]

Paul Cotter is literally me

 

[forceten]

The Markstrom thing has me concerned. I didn't want him to begin with because of his age. We would have paid far more for Saros or Askarov from NSH or for one of Boston's goalies, but my god... both of those trade partners look like they'd have been better. Hellebuyck is looking solid in Winterpeg too.

I don't know that Daws is our future starter and right now he's the best of our bunch. Goaltending is a continued issue here, even if this year's tandem is marginally better than last year's.

Why we aren't scoring in these games is beyond me too... we either score 4 or 0 it seems. Luke Hughes is playing lights out defensively but his offense has vanished nearly completely. Even with Meier out we had a number of players who could have contributed to get 4 goals... Jack Hughes, Hischier, Bratt, Cotter, Noesen, Mercer, Haula, Luke Hughes, Hamilton any combo here ...

Sigh. Yet we're 6th in point percentage so that's a major positive, but I can't help feel like we should be even higher. I think watching the Hurricanes "get worse" in FA and end up far better and seem completely unable to lose (except to us ha ha) makes it more of a sense of urgency than perhaps it should be.

Hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving yesterday!

 

[Bleedred]

I am not sure why everyone is acting like Foote is done here, or even that he played that bad on Wednesday. Who else comes up if a scoreline winger gets hurt? I agree he's done here long-term but that's been true for a while. I mean I guess they could move Tatar back up and then go with an all Utica 4th line with Halonen, that also makes some sense.

Bowers has played well enough to claim that 4th line spot for now and Meier's no longer serving the suspension.

When I say he's done here I mean long term. We're definitely in agreement on that. I think it's likely we see him again this year as a call up, if not real soon.

Actually, if he earns a role here this year that's full time by year's end, I think he COULD be here next year again. But if he doesn't do that then this is probably his last year in the organization.

 

[dgibb10]

The Markstrom thing has me concerned. I didn't want him to begin with because of his age. We would have paid far more for Saros or Askarov from NSH or for one of Boston's goalies, but my god... both of those trade partners look like they'd have been better. Hellebuyck is looking solid in Winterpeg too.

I don't know that Daws is our future starter and right now he's the best of our bunch. Goaltending is a continued issue here, even if this year's tandem is marginally better than last year's.

Why we aren't scoring in these games is beyond me too... we either score 4 or 0 it seems. Luke Hughes is playing lights out defensively but his offense has vanished nearly completely. Even with Meier out we had a number of players who could have contributed to get 4 goals... Jack Hughes, Hischier, Bratt, Cotter, Noesen, Mercer, Haula, Luke Hughes, Hamilton any combo here ...

Sigh. Yet we're 6th in point percentage so that's a major positive, but I can't help feel like we should be even higher. I think watching the Hurricanes "get worse" in FA and end up far better and seem completely unable to lose (except to us ha ha) makes it more of a sense of urgency than perhaps it should be.

Hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving yesterday!

Ullmark has looked toast as well tbh

 

[Bleedred]

The Markstrom thing has me concerned. I didn't want him to begin with because of his age. We would have paid far more for Saros or Askarov from NSH or for one of Boston's goalies, but my god... both of those trade partners look like they'd have been better. Hellebuyck is looking solid in Winterpeg too.

I don't know that Daws is our future starter and right now he's the best of our bunch. Goaltending is a continued issue here, even if this year's tandem is marginally better than last year's.

Why we aren't scoring in these games is beyond me too... we either score 4 or 0 it seems. Luke Hughes is playing lights out defensively but his offense has vanished nearly completely. Even with Meier out we had a number of players who could have contributed to get 4 goals... Jack Hughes, Hischier, Bratt, Cotter, Noesen, Mercer, Haula, Luke Hughes, Hamilton any combo here ...

Sigh. Yet we're 6th in point percentage so that's a major positive, but I can't help feel like we should be even higher. I think watching the Hurricanes "get worse" in FA and end up far better and seem completely unable to lose (except to us ha ha) makes it more of a sense of urgency than perhaps it should be.

Hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving yesterday!

What ''Markstrom thing'' are you referring to? Just his mediocre play? Or is there some new development that I'm not up to speed on?

If you're referring to his mediocre play, I'm concerned as well. Who knows if that's another Rogalski strikes again! Or if it's just father time strikes again. Markstrom did just have a bad season 2 years ago, but analytically it wasn't as bad as his raw numbers. Expected save percentages on that year's Calgary were lower, I'm sure due in no small part to everybody being completely done with playing for Sutter.

And conversely, his out of this world numbers the year before that got him a Vezina finalist, he did not play as good as his numbers would suggest. He played solid, but not out of this world. Expected save percentages were way up that year. I think he had an expected save percentage of like .915% or .916% that year. Probably because they were still buying into Sutter and the team wasn't that bad on paper.

He also had a mediocre 20-21 in his first season in Calgary.

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving as well!

 

[dgibb10]

I understand why we couldn't go after a goalie who struggled last year but at the same time.

 

[Bleedred]

Ullmark has looked toast as well tbh

I think there's a better chance Ullmark rebounds going forward. He's several years younger.

I do not want Ullmark for 5 more years (or is it 6?) at $8+ million though.

 

[dgibb10]

I think there's a better chance Ullmark rebounds going forward. He's several years younger.

I do not want Ullmark for 5 more years (or is it 6?) at $8+ million though.

I thought ullmark was gonna come in at 6 mill or something. I am very concerned for what the price of a goalie will be in 2 years when we need another one.

Forget all the tinkering with depth and what middle 6 winger do we buy to play alongside Jack

We need to at some point, whether with the guys in the system or an outside acquisition, get a long term goalie. Even after getting markstrom Askarov should have been a target if possible (Casey+something)

 

[Bleedred]

I thought ullmark was gonna come in at 6 mill or something. I am very concerned for what the price of a goalie will be in 2 years when we need another one.

Forget all the tinkering with depth and what middle 6 winger do we buy to play alongside Jack.

We need to at some point, whether with the guys in the system or an outside acquisition, get a long term goalie. Even after getting markstrom Askarov should have been a target if possible (Casey+something)

Joey Daccord getting a $5+ million dollar deal for 5 years after his rookie NHL season which came at 28 years old will no doubt also inflate salaries.

Good thing he's having another good season this year, so at least you're not looking at a scenario like ''Well Daccord is getting $5 million a year and he's worthless, look what I'm doing! I'm worth $8-$10!'' when a goalie starts negotiating.

 

[dgibb10]

Joey Daccord getting a $5+ million dollar deal for 5 years after his rookie NHL season which came at 28 years old will no doubt also inflate salaries.

Good thing he's having another good season this year, so at least you're not looking at a scenario like ''Well Daccord is getting $5 million a year and he's worthless, look what I'm doing! I'm worth $8-$10!'' when a goalie starts negotiating.

Yup. The peak hasn't gotten that high YET with Swayman Helle Saros Sorokin all staying below nine, but Shesty is about to blow that out of the water

 

[forceten]

What ''Markstrom thing'' are you referring to? Just his mediocre play? Or is there some new development that I'm not up to speed on?

If you're referring to his mediocre play, I'm concerned as well. Who knows if that's another Rogalski strikes again! Or if it's just father time strikes again. Markstrom did just have a bad season 2 years ago, but analytically it wasn't as bad as his raw numbers. Expected save percentages on that year's Calgary were lower, I'm sure due in no small part to everybody being completely done with playing for Sutter.

And conversely, his out of this world numbers the year before that got him a Vezina finalist, he did not play as good as his numbers would suggest. He played solid, but not out of this world. Expected save percentages were way up that year. I think he had an expected save percentage of like .915% or .916% that year. Probably because they were still buying into Sutter and the team wasn't that bad on paper.

He also had a mediocre 20-21 in his first season in Calgary.

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving as well!

Yes - his mediocre play. Not getting to .910. While we didn't give up TOO much, we did give up a first and a young 3rd pair D. I never bought that he was elite at this point, and he's not. He's better than Vanacek and Blackwood, but they were near the bottom of the league when here.