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

[Ripshot 43]

Not going to be easy since it’s still early in the season, but I think we really need to start looking into acquiring some depth pieces. Ideally we can hold out until teams start realizing they are sellers but the 4th line (which needing an upgrade anyways) injuries are starting to pile up between Lazar, Bastian and Tatar now.

3 2nd round and 3 3rd round picks in 2025 (one of those will be gone depending on Allen playing 40 games or not).

 

[dgibb10]

What level of competition is he playing? It’s still great even if he’s sheltered I’m just curious.

Similar to the dougie pairing.

None of the devils pairings play particularly "hard" minutes. They send Luke and Hamilton out more in need a goal situations, and Pesce and Dillon out to preserve leads. Here's everyone on NJD except casey (didn't make the minutes minimum)

Something to note is the pairing before Luke and Pesce got back did play quite sheltered minutes (2 20 year olds), which will slightly boost the difficulty of the other 2 pairings in those 10 or so games.

Here's what the NJD pairings look like since luke came back

All very similar usage. He's not getting ridiculous minutes, but there's no effort to shelter him either.

 

[MasterofGrond]

Need this years Lazar

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

This is my mood right now after us beating the Wings on the road ^^^

I want to forget about that Stadium Series game but at the same time this pregame performance was epic lmao. Hope you guys enjoy a trip down memory lane , crazy it's already 10 plus years old...

 

[Oneiro]

I thought of this post again and it's funny thinking back on all the little things that were argued about on this board - Merrill being lost to expansion, the trade for Beau Bennett, the trades for Grabner and Maroon, Subban, etc. and some of those things definitely hurt, but the thing that was the most impactful, quite simply, is that Nico, Jack, and Jesper have gotten better every single year since 2020-21, and they've added solid pieces around those guys. That's not the whole story, but it's a lot of it - those are 3 of the best players in the league now, and there's other players around them.

I look back to when Fitz said that the growth of the young core guys dictated the pace of the additions around them and that was a concise summary of the way this would go. As much as I roll my eyes at the cliches, this has been a pretty typical process of learning how to win, from complete aimlessness to stretching and experimenting with what works and owning their talent on an individual basis to now refining the details and the defensive side of the puck.

But, as you said, it all goes back to having good players in the first place to build around and the debates around the quality of the core are the ones to look back upon and kind of smile. And I say that having been, not necessarily a Nico doubter, but someone resigned to a 60-70 pt two way guy, closer to Koivu than Kopitar. And what he's done this year...it's like seeing with absolute clarity why he was coveted in 2017.

 

[My3Sons]

I look back to when Fitz said that the growth of the young core guys dictated the pace of the additions around them and that was a concise summary of the way this would go. As much as I roll my eyes at the cliches, this has been a pretty typical process of learning how to win, from complete aimlessness to stretching and experimenting with what works and owning their talent on an individual basis to now refining the details and the defensive side of the puck.

But, as you said, it all goes back to having good players in the first place to build around and the debates around the quality of the core are the ones to look back upon and kind of smile. And I say that having been, not necessarily a Nico doubter, but someone resigned to a 60-70 pt two way guy, closer to Koivu than Kopitar. And what he's done this year...it's like seeing with absolute clarity why he was coveted in 2017.

Big talk from the guy who insists that Hischier is a 3C