Prospect Info: Devils Win #2 Overall -- Slafkovsky vs. Jiricek vs. Nemec

[glenwo2]

Today in "Not knowing the value of right-handed defensemen"...

He's trolling.

He HAS to be.

 

[JrFischer54]

He brought up a really good point about Nolan Patrick - and how easy it was to get rid of him. As opposed to say....an Erik Karlsson (just a random high-cap, not meeting cap expectations-type player)

damn you guys were serious about the scenario of trading away the pick for a proven nhl top line talent and worrying about the decline after he signs a massive contract. lol i just dont know how you guys can say i'm always so negative. lol i'm sorry its just too funny. i guess sure that could happen but it could just as easily not happen and in fact the opposite. the player signs a team friendly deal to stay competitive on an upcoming franchise meanwhile the pick we traded away ends up being nolan patrick 2.0 so what then? you just dont know

 

[Mr Bojanglez]

damn you guys were serious about the scenario of trading away the pick for a proven nhl top line talent and worrying about the decline after he signs a massive contract. lol i just dont know how you guys can say i'm always so negative. lol i'm sorry its just too funny. i guess sure that could happen but it could just as easily not happen and in fact the opposite. the player signs a team friendly deal to stay competitive on an upcoming franchise meanwhile the pick we traded away ends up being nolan patrick 2.0 so what then? you just dont know

I'm just saying you glazed over a valid point he brought up. Much like I might be doing with your response right now.

 

[Lou is God]

i'll take names next time for ya

and yes a lot of people on this board are 100% scared of the salary cap and singing players past age 28. which i'm assuming while apply to nico and jack when their deals come up at that time right?

IF travis bowl cut finally came around with regard to the salary cap i have hope others will also.

And you're so scared of more losing you want to panic and make stupid moves. Not very smart man.

 

[JrFischer54]

I'm just saying you glazed over a valid point he brought up. Much like I might be doing with your response right now.

no i didn't because i'm not worried about trying to move on from a bad contract it happens all the time. there will always be teams willing to take on a bad contract. if thats a realistic concern (which btw it shouldn't) then the same concern should be for jack and nico when they near the end of their deals no? but yet i'm sure everyone will be fine with inking to them what will probably 10+ by that time

And you're so scared of more losing you want to panic and make stupid moves. Not very smart man.

uh ok? thanks for confirming my original msg btw

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

i'll take names next time for ya

and yes a lot of people on this board are 100% scared of the salary cap and singing players past age 28. which i'm assuming while apply to nico and jack when their deals come up at that time right?

IF travis bowl cut finally came around with regard to the salary cap i have hope others will also.

It’s fine to sign an older free agent knowing the last few years will stink if you’re in a small competitive window with an aging roster. Our window is just opening, I’m glad we aren’t saddled with some stupid contract.

 

[Devs3cups]

i'll take names next time for ya

and yes a lot of people on this board are 100% scared of the salary cap and singing players past age 28. which i'm assuming while apply to nico and jack when their deals come up at that time right?

IF travis bowl cut finally came around with regard to the salary cap i have hope others will also.

If I remember correctly, many people here were happy with the Dougie signing. I think it depends on the player. As a team who currently has many young talented players who will need bigger deals, you don't want to strap yourself too much with big contracts. I think most just want to be selective.

 

[Eggtimer]

He's trolling.

He HAS to be.

I kinda get him saying that we have better D depth than C . I don’t agree with whatever else he says or has said .

We do have 3 awesome C’s in Hughes Nico Mercer but Mercer is looking like maybe we can use him on the wing as a better fit. Yes we have 2 #1 centres but after the three I listed , we have crap really. We have zero good C prospects in the system.
We have three high end centres but nothing after that. On defence , we have about 8/9 players and prospects that look to be NHL regulars. Luke Hamilton Graves Seigenthaler Severson Smith (debatable) Shakir Okhotiuk Bahl Walsh plus a couple other guys that I can’t spell their names lol.

However I think it makes more sense to use #2 on a D man as we have our top 3 centres for the future so we don’t really need to use a very high pick on another potential #1 C. I’d rather add a high end D than a high C. Our D has very good depth but is lacking in elite top pairing guys vs. having top end C already. I would prefer to use later picks like our second or later round ones to get a good two way C or defensively awesome C .

 

[xigon]

Is bedard that much better than jack, that even at the same size he is expected to be an impact player his first year?

 

[Eggtimer]

Is bedard that much better than jack, that even at the same size he is expected to be an impact player his first year?

Yes he is the best prospect since Matthews. Him and the Russian kid. True franchise studs that you build around. I know generational is over used , I wouldn’t say they will be that but they will be players that can turn a franchise around .

 

[Captain3rdLine]

oh boy the salary cap scare tactic. have you not seen x amount of teams trading away bad contracts? lol and people call me negative on here oh man. you are assuming the worst possible outcome and in either situation the team is still in the same spot no bad contract and no busted prospect.



FIRST off for the record i never mentioned fiala in any of this. I'm sure somewhere in the nhl there is more then just kevin fiala out there that will have rumors around. who that is i don't know who would I trade for? I don't know just would listen to offers and if the right name pops then yeah i make the deal. SECOND i'm glad you agree with me that I said holtz IS NOT worth more then the 2oa.

My bad misread the Holtz part.

But you did mention Fiala in the post I was responding to.

 

[hidek91]

Is bedard that much better than jack, that even at the same size he is expected to be an impact player his first year?

Yes, Bedard and Michkov are perceived as Crosby/Malkin/Ovechkin tier of prospects. In terms of pre-draft hype, I'd say they're higher than Matthews and way higher than Jack Hughes.

 

[Diehard Devil]

Excited to see this Simon Nemec kid play in back to back days. I wonder if he and his teammate Slafkovsky have a friendly competition for who gets drafted higher

Id love me some RH Cale Makar

 

[JrFischer54]

My bad misread the Holtz part.

But you did mention Fiala in the post I was responding to.

everyone is mentioning his name i personally don't like him for the 2oa but i guess holtz if people who follow him more closely then i do are waning on him then i'm fine with it. i'm not saying the pick at 2 will bust i would just love to avoid the possibility of that by getting a known talent back

 

[TrufleShufle]

Excited to see this Simon Nemec kid play in back to back days. I wonder if he and his teammate Slafkovsky have a friendly competition for who gets drafted higher

Id love me some RH Cale Makar

Either you are the guy who is still waiting to go on break, or welcome to the board.

 

[McDuffz88]

if i'm pro trading a draft pick away for an nhl player why would i be wanting to trade nico for a prospect? you mean trade nico for an nhl player? if the devils thought cooley was a real possibility and drafted him and then he surpassed nico on the depth chart yes i would definitely look into moving him. nico on a legit cup contending team? no he isn't a top line center. ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmg i know right

Nico is the type of player you win playoff games with. Playoffs are a different animal from regular season. Players like Hughes are gonna get targeted & exposed. Nico does it all from face offs to winning board battles & great defensive play. In a playoff game those are the skills you need to win. It ain't about points in the playoffs. You could have your top 2 centers as Jack Hughes but the team won't go no where without a center like Nico. It's very doubtful Cooley will surpass Nico.

 

[Diehard Devil]

Either you are the guy who is still waiting to go on break, or welcome to the board.

is this person winning something? Then maybe yes, it could be me!

But thanks, I also just signed up for TheScore and Reddit (disclaimer, I only went on Reddit for sports news, the rest is garbage). probably about a decade late but oh well, idt anyone wanted to hear 21yo me's opinion on anything lmao

This is where I get all my draft info now and Im thankful for it.

 

[JrFischer54]

Nico is the type of player you win playoff games with. Playoffs are a different animal from regular season. Players like Hughes are gonna get targeted & exposed. Nico does it all from face offs to winning board battles & great defensive play. In a playoff game those are the skills you need to win. It ain't about points in the playoffs. You could have your top 2 centers as Jack Hughes but the team won't go no where without a center like Nico. It's very doubtful Cooley will surpass Nico.

We will never know because he will possibly end up in zona and will never amount to anything there. What’s a player like hughes? How does he get shut down but nico wouldn’t get shut down? So your saying nico is the true 1c on this team?

 

[beekay414]

Cooley's not even on our board. Let's end the discussion on the kid.

 

[Buggsy]

Cooley's not even on our board. Let's end the discussion on the kid.

How can you say this with confidence?

 

[beekay414]

How can you say this with confidence?

Because there's nothing that Cooley has that makes him the #2 pick. He offers nothing we don't already have, his upside is marginal and there's a unicorn sitting there for the taking in Slafkovsky. Fitzgerald and Castron aren't idiots.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Because there's nothing that Cooley has that makes him the #2 pick. He offers nothing we don't already have, his upside is marginal and there's a unicorn sitting there for the taking in Slafkovsky. Fitzgerald and Castron aren't idiots.

Or perhaps they don’t share your opinion on either of these players

 

[Devs3cups]

Or perhaps they don’t share your opinion on either of these players

Agreed. I mean, I want Slaf, but we don’t know what’s they’re thinking.

 

[beekay414]

Or perhaps they don’t share your opinion on either of these players

I'm willing to bet they do. We'll find out soon enough.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Because there's nothing that Cooley has that makes him the #2 pick. He offers nothing we don't already have, his upside is marginal and there's a unicorn sitting there for the taking in Slafkovsky. Fitzgerald and Castron aren't idiots.

I’m team Slafkovsky all the way but that just isn’t true.
Cooley is much more likely to be taken by the Devils than Nemec and certainly Jiricek. He’s the only one who’s actually in the top 2 conversation and while Slafkovsky was a bit ahead and has probably pulled more ahead with his WC performance making it less likely there is still a reasonable possibility that the devils scouts and management end up liking Cooley more.

I think they would have to have him clearly ahead of Slafkovsky because if they view it as really close I’d imagine they’ll go with Slafkovsky. So ya it’s probably gonna be Slafkovsky but Cooley is certainly a possibility.


You can’t present your opinion of the player and what you think as what the devils are definitely thinking. Just because you don’t think the devils should be considering Cooley doesn’t mean they aren’t. As I said he’s been in the top 2 and even top 1 conversation for a while now. I’d say Slafkovsky, Wright, and Cooley are our 3 most likely picks in that order. And then Nemec.

I'm willing to bet they do. We'll find out soon enough.

No we won’t. You’re almost certainly wrong and them picking someone else wouldn’t prove that he wasn’t on their board. I think Slafkovsky is the most likely but Cooley is certainly a consideration.