OT: Off-season question of the week

[PettersonHughes]

For the name alone, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond.

 

[NJDevs26]

Close!

I counted a number a little bit higher than this, but it’s possible I accidentally counted the same year twice or something.

Ah yeah I was wondering how you'd even look something up like that since I couldn't even find it on Hockey Reference, but I figured he had 125 shutouts so maybe around half at home (actually 66) and around 3/4 of those at the CAA since he played the majority of his career there at our peak so 45 might be slightly conservative. Now I'll have to try to look it up myself.

My count is 49 just going through all the years manually on HR and counting home shutouts in the splits through 2006-07....assuming none of those 'home' games were neutral site.

 

[Bleedred]

Ah yeah I was wondering how you'd even look something up like that since I couldn't even find it on Hockey Reference, but I figured he had 125 shutouts so maybe around half at home (actually 66) and around 3/4 of those at the CAA since he played the majority of his career there at our peak so 45 might be slightly conservative. Now I'll have to try to look it up myself.

My count is 49 just going through all the years manually on HR and counting home shutouts in the splits through 2006-07....assuming none of those 'home' games were neutral site.

49 is also what I counted! So that’s the answer.

That’s what I did. I went through splits of every year from 93-94 (he had none in 91-92) through 06-07 and counted the home shutouts.

And I’m pretty sure we had zero neutral site home games in the regular season during his career until the Yankee Stadium game in 2014.

For some reason I’m remembering a neutral site game against Buffalo or something from like 03-04, but I’m assuming that was a Buffalo home game and it’s not something like how the Rangers aren’t allowed to play a home game in New York City/New York City area that isn’t at MSG.

 

[Patrik26]

Coleman.

 

[RyGuy]

Zajac, Rico and Prime Schneider as far as somewhat recent history.

 

[Bleedred]

Henrique is a guy I really think we needed to move on from before he became a UFA and got his last contract, which was something I was very adamant about from about 6 months before he was dealt.

But I have to say, he's surprised me quite a bit by still being a pretty good and useful player at 33. I still can't believe his shooting percentage hasn't seriously regressed. I think it was 2 seasons ago that he had a career high in shots on goal, which was pretty interesting. He did get shockingly waived in the early part of the covid shortened season, but I don't even think he ever got put in the AHL and he seemed to rebound for a decent season.

He's a guy I wouldn't mind at the deadline.

You know Lou is probably gonna sign him in 2024, if he's not traded by the deadline and extended by a team (could be Lou if they're a buyer) before that. He can never have enough guys well into their 30's over there.

I remember tossing this around with some friends back in early 2021. I forget who brought it up, but it wasn't me. It was between my off the forum friends and I and not a discussion on here. But someone tossed out the idea of Zacha for Henrique straight up, which I thought wasn't in our best interest in the early part of 2021. I would have considered it for 2022, but Haula made more sense, due to the lesser salary. Haula basically replaced Zacha (at least Devils Zacha) at about the same salary Zacha was getting from us.

I'm still not sure how many more useful years Henrique has. He's a guy that could start falling off considerably at 34 or 35 or stay relatively solid until he's 37 or 38.

I thought for sure his goal scoring would plummet by now, due to a falling shooting percentage, at least as of a few years ago I thought for sure it would happen by now.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Zharkov. He tried so hard but was just so bad at getting the puck in the net. But he was actually quite good at everything else.

 

[Guadana]

Zajac. Elite defensive center and mentor.

I like Bastian from actual roster. Liked Madden, Salmela(he has potential before flyers hit), Liked Coleman and he was my first player as a reason to watch AHL regularly. . And Clarkson too. I think it was my first "I knew it" about the player who produced more than many expected. It was sad to lose every depth player I liked.

People mentioned Zharkov, fun thing is I talked a lot with Zharkov's gf, and I understand why they broke up.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Dean McAmmond

 

[JimEIV]

I have so many of them that varied from year to year...and the term "star" is pretty subjective...I mean I think Pat Verbeek was a star for the Devils, maybe not around the league... but a guy who was your organizations leading goal scorer for something like 18 years is definitely a star ...same can be said for Gionta.

But some of my random favorites are:

Pat Verbeek, Joe Cirella, Mark Johnson, Eric Weinrich, Valerie Zelepukin, Zdeno Cigar, Brad Bombardir....

John MacLean.

More recent: Holik, Arnott, McKay, Coleman, Henrique, Severson...

Special category for Troy Crowder.


But I think Claude Lemieux holds a most special place in my heart.

Claude final answer.

 

[JimEIV]

People mentioned Zharkov, fun thing is I talked a lot with Zharkov's gf, and I understand why they broke up.

Because he couldn't score?

 

[Louskoolaid89]

Grant Marshall. In the goon Catagory Cam Jansen. Claude Vilgrain C'mon a NHL player from Hati originally! Pretty darn cool.

Alexander Semak. 37 goals playing for Herb Brooks. Hahah.

 

[JimEIV]

Kevin Todd's 63 point rookie season while centering Claude who scored 41 goals.

Kevin made the all Rookie team that year thanks to Claude

 

[Louskoolaid89]

Kevin Todd's 63 point rookie season while centering Claude who scored 41 goals.

Kevin made the all Rookie team that year thanks to Claude

Kevin Todd had the most epic mullet. At least for the early 90's!

 

[AfroThunder396]

In all seriousness, I know the "non-star" definition is going to vary from person to person but here are some of my favorites that came to mind:

Ryan Carter
Paul Martin
Brian Boyle
John Marino
Mark Fayne
Kyle Palmieri
Jeff Friesen
Johnny Oduya

They range from not so great but fun, to actually really good for us.

 

[Better Call Sal]

From the lean Shero years, Palms takes the cake for me. Probably because he was a Jersey guy as well, but I thought he was excellent for us and was really bummed that we had to send him off before we could enjoy some success.

For me currently, Siegenthaler is probably my favorite who doesn’t get a lot of attention. He’s my new age Salvador.

 

[SJinNewJersey]

So... I'm following my Devils by the Numbers thread last week with another stupid question, just to try to alleviate the boredom of the dregs of summer.

This week's question: Who is your favorite non-star Devil.

"Non-star" is subjective, but they at least can't have been in an all-star game, and probably shouldn't have ever even appeared on a ballot. I'd probably exclude anyone who's won a major award too, although Boyle is, I guess, allowable.

It could be a fighter, role player, or someone you liked just cause.

For me, it would be Dougie Brown. He was not very talented and would fall a lot, but made up for it by working his ass off, which carved out a special place in my heart

Alexi Kostonov comes to mind. I thought he was a really solid all-around defenseman. It was also weird that him and Fetisov didn't speak to one another, even thought they were paired together all the time.

 

[Guadana]

Because he couldn't score?

You counted the joke perfectly.

 

[Mr Bojanglez]

David Clarkson is probably a top 10 favorite Devil of mine. I'll assume the other 9 were consistently good players.

He left just in time, but while he was here he was so entertaining.

 

[Bleedred]

Bobby Farnham was one of the more memorable rando's.

A player of extremely limited ability, who wound up firing off probably close to 10 goals that season and even got his very own goal/theme song long before anyone else ever did.

Eventually, goalies stopped getting fooled on his weak wristers from above the circles, which was how quite a few of his goals were scored.

I swear he also had a 2 point game in his Devils debut. I believe we picked him up on waivers from the Pens in the first few weeks of the season.

 

[Its Always Sundstrom]

Jeff Friesen.

 

[Mr Bojanglez]

Jeff Friesen.

Was one of my favorite players before they traded for him