Devils Team Discussion (team/player news and notes) ‎2015 offseason VIII

[NHL Fanatik*]

I like what we did this summer, but I'm mostly looking forward to the draft next season.

It'll be fun watching some kids develop and probably a faster pace but I prefer winning over any style of play and I don't expect a lot of it this year.

Still pondering how we get a winger. I think waiting for another high end talent in the draft is the wrong idea because I doubt we place bottom 5. I know we have no scoring but our defense and tending should be great this year. I foresee a trade for either a young player or a high draft pick.

 

[Devils1029]

Still pondering how we get a winger. I think waiting for another high end talent in the draft is the wrong idea because I doubt we place bottom 5. I know we have no scoring but our defense and tending should be great this year. I foresee a trade for either a young player or a high draft pick.

With the new lottery rules and the top 3 picks actually being up for grabs, it is possible that we coudl finish better than last year, yet still win one of those top 3 picks to grab a Puljarjari or tkachuk or Laino...etc...

 

[CerebralGenesis]

I can see us being bottom 5.

 

[Triumph]

Still pondering how we get a winger. I think waiting for another high end talent in the draft is the wrong idea because I doubt we place bottom 5. I know we have no scoring but our defense and tending should be great this year. I foresee a trade for either a young player or a high draft pick.

People keep saying this, but Edmonton improved massively as did Buffalo. Toronto got rid of Kessel but they upgraded their coaching and have filled out their roster with a lot of depth, even if they don't have a 1st line. New Jersey finished 6th last year and all they did this off-season was add Palmieri, who is worse than Jagr, and dumped Gomez, who played a large offensive role for the team. They probably upgraded at coach, but people forget - this team basically had 0 injuries once the coaching mess took over. They had pretty good injury luck - Jagr, Gomez, Greene, Schneider all missed very little time with injury, and only Clowe missed most of the season.

I don't see why people think this team is better than bottom 5. Phoenix is terrible, they're clearly the worst team in the league. I don't see anyone else clearly worse than NJ - I see Toronto at the same level as us. Even if NJ gets 70 points, I could see that being good enough for 2nd worst.

 

[Bleedred]

I had this feeling yesterday that we might actually make the playoffs and somehow lose in round 2, after our offense reverts back to form and we lose almost every game 2-1 in OT or multiple OT's.

I don't really believe it and I'm not predicting our team to actually make the playoffs, though it was nice to think about for those few moments.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

I had this feeling yesterday that we might actually make the playoffs and somehow lose in round 2, after our offense reverts back to form and we lose almost every game 2-1 in OT or multiple OT's.

I don't really believe it and I'm not predicting our team to actually make the playoffs, though it was nice to think about for those few moments.

Making the playoffs would be awesome, nonetheless somehow managing to advance to round 2. I miss the playoffs so much

 

[MadDevil]

I really have no idea what to expect from our forwards this year. Other than Cammalleri and Henrique they were all pretty bad last year. Elias looked done at times. Zajac we've been over ad nauseum. I don't know what to expect from either of them. Throw in new guys like Palmieri, Kalinin, O'Brien, Coleman, etc., and kids like Zacha, Boucher, and Matteau, and what we've got is anybody's guess. If Hynes and Co. can put in a system that maximizes what we do have, maybe we surprise some people. Or maybe we finish dead last. My expectations are pretty much none at this point. If we're somehow a factor late in the season, great. If we suck...well then we suck and draft a pretty good player again.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

I really have no idea what to expect from our forwards this year. Other than Cammalleri and Henrique they were all pretty bad last year. Elias looked done at times. Zajac we've been over ad nauseum. I don't know what to expect from either of them. Throw in new guys like Palmieri, Kalinin, O'Brien, Coleman, etc., and kids like Zacha, Boucher, and Matteau, and what we've got is anybody's guess. If Hynes and Co. can put in a system that maximizes what we do have, maybe we surprise some people. Or maybe we finish dead last. My expectations are pretty much none at this point. If we're somehow a factor late in the season, great. If we suck...well then we suck and draft a pretty good player again.

i'm not too worried about what we'll see from Palmieri. I think he'll be solid for us. But everyone else I agree with you on. There are definitely a lot of question marks with our forward roster.

 

[njdevils1982]

I really have no idea what to expect from our forwards this year. Other than Cammalleri and Henrique they were all pretty bad last year. Elias looked done at times. Zajac we've been over ad nauseum. I don't know what to expect from either of them. Throw in new guys like Palmieri, Kalinin, O'Brien, Coleman, etc., and kids like Zacha, Boucher, and Matteau, and what we've got is anybody's guess. If Hynes and Co. can put in a system that maximizes what we do have, maybe we surprise some people. Or maybe we finish dead last. My expectations are pretty much none at this point. If we're somehow a factor late in the season, great. If we suck...well then we suck and draft a pretty good player again.

its about how this revamped team's chemistry unfolds.

 

[MichaelJ]

Still pondering how we get a winger. I think waiting for another high end talent in the draft is the wrong idea because I doubt we place bottom 5. I know we have no scoring but our defense and tending should be great this year. I foresee a trade for either a young player or a high draft pick.

Add Beau Bennett and Jurco. Increase our young depth as well as add to competition. Let's things sort themselves naturally. Some forwards become solutions and others become potential trade bait.

 

[RSeen]

I can see us being bottom 5.

How could we possibly not be bottom 5? This is a bottom 3 roster.

 

[Unknown Caller]

How could we possibly not be bottom 5? This is a bottom 3 roster.

It's a bottom 3 offense, not a bottom 3 roster. Our defense and goaltending is at least equivalent to that of a bubble team. Also, look at a team like Ottawa last year. They made the playoffs, and their roster was terrible on paper minus a couple players.

 

[Brooklyndevil]

You have Arizona, Carolina, Buffalo who got better, Toronto is worse and we've been waiting for Edmonton to get better for the last few years. I can see us being from bottom ten to bottom five. It comes down again to Cory and the young defense. We'll see soon enough.

 

[vtdevils2k]

It's a bottom 3 offense, not a bottom 3 roster. Our defense and goaltending is at least equivalent to that of a bubble team. Also, look at a team like Ottawa last year. They made the playoffs, and their roster was terrible on paper minus a couple players.

Agree, our defense and goaltending are quite good with the potential to be great sooner rather than later, but who honestly has a worse roster offensively than the devils? Buffalo and Phoenix are better offensively than ours this upcoming season along with the Oilers. Toronto? Devils may be the worst team offensively in the NHL...the lineup is definitely Matthews worthy next draft....but we have Cory and the defense which will help a lot.

 

[Zippy316]

Atkinson, Rychel, and Calvert are three guys we may be able to poach fro the Blue Jackets given their insane forward depth.

 

[Zippy316]

Agree, our defense and goaltending are quite good with the potential to be great sooner rather than later, but who honestly has a worse roster offensively than the devils? Buffalo and Phoenix are better offensively than ours this upcoming season along with the Oilers. Toronto? Devils may be the worst team offensively in the NHL...the lineup is definitely Matthews worthy next draft....but we have Cory and the defense which will help a lot.

Ottawa had a huge collective surge with their young guys. If we can get that, this team would be in incredible shape.

 

[Devils1029]

Atkinson, Rychel, and Calvert are three guys we may be able to poach fro the Blue Jackets given their insane forward depth.

I do think Columbus is a good potential trade partner. They still need defense and even though they drafted Werenski, he's in college this year and likely next as well. They have some good depth up front and I think we could try to pry away Rychel. Atkinson just resigned so I doubt he moves right now. Id still like a put together a deal of maybe Boucher and Hrabarenka or Helgeson for Rychel. If CLB wants a more established player than I'd look at Merrill or Gelinas and a 5th for Rychel and a 4th rounder.

 

[RSeen]

It's a bottom 3 offense, not a bottom 3 roster. Our defense and goaltending is at least equivalent to that of a bubble team. Also, look at a team like Ottawa last year. They made the playoffs, and their roster was terrible on paper minus a couple players.

We don't have a player on the roster like Erik Karlsson. They also have other good players on offense like Turris, Zibinjad, Stone and also a good vet in Ryan. That roster is much better than ours. Goal scoring will hold us back significantly. Our best forward is injury prone and another year older (Cammalleri). We don't have Jagr like we did last year, no Gomez either. I don't see how we won't be bottom 3 and we will most likely be the lowest scoring team.

 

[Burner Account]

It's a bottom 3 offense, not a bottom 3 roster. Our defense and goaltending is at least equivalent to that of a bubble team. Also, look at a team like Ottawa last year. They made the playoffs, and their roster was terrible on paper minus a couple players.

Are they? Because the Devils are relying on two fairly inexperienced players in Merrill and Severson to play a lot.

 

[217 Forever]

Are they? Because the Devils are relying on two fairly inexperienced players in Merrill and Severson to play a lot.

100% correct. Most folks have put the horse way in front of the cart with our defense. Outside of Greene, people are basing most everything on potential still. Even Lars isn't a finished product yet.

 

[devilsblood]

I think we can be confident that goal tending will be good, while the offense will not.

There is uncertainty regarding the D, but although young,we know there is a lot of talent there. And they were decent last year, and we should expect improvement.

 

[Brooklyndevil]

Well, we picked a bad year to be bottom 3, with the new lottery system.

Arizona
Carolina
NJ
Toronto

I still believe we could surprise where we draft 5 or 6 again. At least we should be faster, younger as well as having a new coach and system.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

I think the team has a bottom 5 roster outside of goal, but having one of the top goalies in the league could steal us enough games to finish higher than that.

On the other hand, I wouldn't be totally surprised to see Corey really frustrated after losing a lot of 2-1 and 1-0 games

 

[tailfins]

Well, we picked a bad year to be bottom 3, with the new lottery system.

Arizona
Carolina
NJ
Toronto

I still believe we could surprise where we draft 5 or 6 again. At least we should be faster, younger as well as having a new coach and system.

I'm interested to see this new system Hynes wants to use. With the youth and lack of talent on the team, we saw last year that simpler and safer had better results. Will Hynes be able to get players to perform to the level he needs for his system to work in the NHL? Or will he / Shero be willing to stick with a system when the talent can't execute? Or will we see the team collapse back into a shell and hope to get 0-0 loser points like last year?

While Shero is saying there are no shortcuts to winning, I wonder how much the team's performance will factor into on-ice tactics. It's nice to talk about building for the future, but watching a bunch of rookies make mistakes in a high risk system will cause some backlash. Will be interesting to see how well management handes it.

 

[217 Forever]

I'm interested to see this new system Hynes wants to use. With the youth and lack of talent on the team, we saw last year that simpler and safer had better results. Will Hynes be able to get players to perform to the level he needs for his system to work in the NHL? Or will he / Shero be willing to stick with a system when the talent can't execute? Or will we see the team collapse back into a shell and hope to get 0-0 loser points like last year?

While Shero is saying there are no shortcuts to winning, I wonder how much the team's performance will factor into on-ice tactics. It's nice to talk about building for the future, but watching a bunch of rookies make mistakes in a high risk system will cause some backlash. Will be interesting to see how well management handes it.

If Hynes doesn't implement his own system and live and die with it then everything else that happened this summer was pointless. Shero's lack of acquisitions should tell you that he isn't expecting much in the way of winning hockey so to "force" us back into a defensive shell every night would make no sense whatsoever.