RD David Jiricek (2022, 6th, CBJ)

[dryz]

Played today and had an assist.

 

[brakeyawself]

I’ve generally seen Nemec listed as the first D off the board. Can you give your thoughts on the 2? Why do you have Jiricek ranked higher? I haven’t seen either so please don’t take this as challenging your statement. I’m just interested in hearing all view points.

I still think Nemec is easily number 1, with Misty 2 Jiricek a close 3rd, but 3rd none the less. And I don't think Nemec's ceiling is lower than Jiricek's, at all, as someone mentioned. I think Nemec is going to be an absolute stud. I actually like him better than Power long term. All though, I'm sure that isn't going to be a popular opinion.

Nemec to me has it all. Misty I think has a higher offensive upside than both. But Jiricek has a high ceiling too. Just not as high a floor. But there's no point taking a guy with a lower floor if their ceilings are equivalent. Which I think they probably are, between Jiricek and Nemec. I just wouldn't necessarily bet on him reaching that ceiling. All though I do think he will be at least a very good top 4 D, and playing RD helps. Whereas the other 2 I feel fairly confident about. Maybe I just have a bias toward Nemec. But he should be the 1st D off the board easy. Misty I see more in the mold of like a poor man's Fox or Makar. While Nemec I see similar to like Seider, Power, that kind of Hedman mold, just maybe not quite on Hedman's level. Jiricek I think COULD be that type of player too. I think Power v Edvinsson is a good compare. With Nemec like Power and Jiricek like Edvinsson.

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

I still think Nemec is easily number 1, with Misty 2 Jiricek a close 3rd, but 3rd none the less. And I don't think Nemec's ceiling is lower than Jiricek's, at all, as someone mentioned. I think Nemec is going to be an absolute stud. I actually like him better than Power long term. All though, I'm sure that isn't going to be a popular opinion.

Nemec to me has it all. Misty I think has a higher offensive upside than both. But Jiricek has a high ceiling too. Just not as high a floor. But there's no point taking a guy with a lower floor if their ceilings are equivalent. Which I think they probably are, between Jiricek and Nemec. I just wouldn't necessarily bet on him reaching that ceiling. All though I do think he will be at least a very good top 4 D, and playing RD helps. Whereas the other 2 I feel fairly confident about. Maybe I just have a bias toward Nemec. But he should be the 1st D off the board easy. Misty I see more in the mold of like a poor man's Fox or Makar. While Nemec I see similar to like Seider, Power, that kind of Hedman mold, just maybe not quite on Hedman's level. Jiricek I think COULD be that type of player too. I think Power v Edvinsson is a good compare. With Nemec like Power and Jiricek like Edvinsson.

Who is Misty ?

 

[lanky]

Who is Misty ?

Good question.
My guess is Mintyukov.

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

Good question.
My guess is Mintyukov.

If so, our comrade is mistaken. Mintyukov will be selected long after Jiricek.

 

[HuGort]

If so, our comrade is mistaken. Mintyukov will be selected long after Jiricek.

Won't he slide due to Russian factor?

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

Won't he slide due to Russian factor?

Not only. Besides, I don't think there will be such an obvious Russian factor. It will mainly penalize players who have not established themselves as obvious selections. Tampa Bay signed Ilya Usov (great signing because he was eligible for the draft and I saw him leaving in the 3rd round). It looks like the NHL franchises aren't going to stop signing KHL players. In addition Mintyukov plays in OHL. It's just a matter of level. He's a 2003. What he does in the OHL is nothing exceptional for a player his age. As a left-handed defender, I see Mateychuk in front of him. Before his injury, I had the impression that Jiricek was going to get the better of Nemec. If he was playing in the OHL, he would walk around.

 

[vildurson]

How was Jiricek in his return?

I assume he should be playing today as well.

 

[mistaclick]

How was Jiricek in his return?

I assume he should be playing today as well.

Not given much ice time. PP minutes though, their coach finally put him out for an OZ 5v5 shift when down 2-0 with like 3-4 minutes left in the game. Otherwise he's being eased into things it seems. He looks good considering it was a knee injury, skating still looks fluid to me. Playing pretty calm I'd say compared to usual

 

[Czechboy]

Not given much ice time. PP minutes though, their coach finally put him out for an OZ 5v5 shift when down 2-0 with like 3-4 minutes left in the game. Otherwise he's being eased into things it seems. He looks good considering it was a knee injury, skating still looks fluid to me. Playing pretty calm I'd say compared to usual

He looked better today. Yesterday was a bit rough.

I don't say this as a criticism as his last game was against teenagers and then a major surgery, long layoff and playing against men. It'll take a few weeks or months to get rolling.

I think he'll get better every game with a hiccup or two. With Klok now out of National Team his chances of making worlds roster improved.

 

[Voodoozz]

Some of David's play from the last 2 games.



I thought he looked great considering these were his first games after 4 months without hockey. Good passing and poise with the puck. Great on a PP. There were some miscues in his game but nothing too terrible. Most importantly - the knee seems to have healed perfectly, Jiricek's skating looked as good as ever.

 

[Czechboy]

Some of David's play from the last 2 games.



I thought he looked great considering these were his first games after 4 months without hockey. Good passing and poise with the puck. Great on a PP. There were some miscues in his game but nothing too terrible. Most importantly - the knee seems to have healed perfectly, Jiricek's skating looked as good as ever.

He has a real fun time behind both nets.. his and the opponents. If you look at the plays... when he is behind his net.. he makes the right quick move and gets that puck moving the other way. Then he also likes to join the offence as a 4th attacker and get behind the other teams goalie line and set people up. Skating looked great for sure.. the first highlight was a bad giveaway by him (from behind the opposition net) and he caught up fast!

 

[NickH8]

Some of David's play from the last 2 games.



I thought he looked great considering these were his first games after 4 months without hockey. Good passing and poise with the puck. Great on a PP. There were some miscues in his game but nothing too terrible. Most importantly - the knee seems to have healed perfectly, Jiricek's skating looked as good as ever.

Just from these clips he seems to have cleaned up his passing quite a bit. At the beginning of the year he had a tendency to throw pucks into coverage trying to connect on these big stretch passes. He seems to have stopped that and is now more selective, which is a plus for me.

 

[AD1066]

It seems like a no-brainer that he ends up a Devil if still available.

 

[Breakers]

Some of David's play from the last 2 games.



I thought he looked great considering these were his first games after 4 months without hockey. Good passing and poise with the puck. Great on a PP. There were some miscues in his game but nothing too terrible. Most importantly - the knee seems to have healed perfectly, Jiricek's skating looked as good as ever.

Jeeeezzzz


His puck retrieval hasn't lost a step
guy had like one bobbled puck retrieval below his goal line but still got the puck back, otherwise everything else was a controlled exit.
1:50-2:40 is like 7 exits in a row.

 

[Eggtimer]

It seems like a no-brainer that he ends up a Devil if still available.

Shitty thing is I can see Philly take him before us .
Slafkovsky Jiricek Nemec is what I’d say is the Devils order is but I can see all 3 possibly gone before their pick

 

[bsu]

Gives me young Adam Fox vibes. I prefer him to Nemec.

 

[Hisch13r]

It seems like a no-brainer that he ends up a Devil if still available.

I've been all in on him for a while. If we stay where we are at 5th worst with the likely odds being a 6th of 7th pick I doubt he's there. Gotta drop back to 4th worst

 

[Nabrules]

I've been all in on him for a while. If we stay where we are at 5th worst with the likely odds being a 6th of 7th pick I doubt he's there. Gotta drop back to 4th worst

serious Question here, what’s up with NJ? been a poor team since 2013 and just seem to pick top 10 every year even with trying to get better with Surban, Hamiltion ect ect

 

[Hisch13r]

serious Question here, what’s up with NJ? been a poor team since 2013 and just seem to pick top 10 every year even with trying to get better with Surban, Hamiltion ect ect

Well back then we just sucked and Lou kept trying to push for the playoffs where he continued to add mediocre old guys instead of rebuilding while also being the worst drafter in the league for a decade. When he was finally gone in 2015 (after giving us his final present of Zacha at 6th…) we were the worst positioned team in the league. An old and awful roster with next to no good young NHL talent, and a bottom tier prospect pool. It’s taken a long time to try and build from absolutely nothing.

19-20 was the first year it looked like things could turn around. That year relied on quite a few question marks like will Jack be able to step in and be really good immediately? Will PK be able to return to form after an offseason to recover? Will Hall be himself again after another knee surgery? Will Gusev be able to adjust and be really good? Will Schneider’s body hold up? None of those question marks really ended up working out so the season crumbled. Last year was a 0 expectation year.

This year the team is nowhere near as bad as the record. The skater group has been average to above average. 5v5’s good. PK’s good. PP is god awful (Recchi’s such a bad PP coach). Goaltending on the other hand is the worst in the league and has destroyed this season. Coming into the year it was actually supposed to be a strength for us. Then Blackwood has offseason surgery with a botched recovery where he never gets back to 100% and is playing injured the whole time he’s playing. He got shut down early January and is only just expected to return to the lineup sometime soon. Bernier got hurt in preseason and then only started 8 games before getting shut down 6 weeks into the year and having season ending hip surgery. So the goaltending for the majority of the season has been 21 year old Akira Schmid (not even just NHL rookie but professional rookie who was in the USHL last year), 20/21 year old Nico Daws (NHL rookie with only prior pro experience to this year being 10 games in the DEL last year), Jon Gillies (career AHLer), Andrew Hammond (career NHL/AHLer tweener), and Scott Wedgewood (another NHL/AHL tweener who happens to be the best of the bunch, we lost on waivers very early in the year when we finally had both Blackwood and Bernier in the lineup and waived him). Goaltending has sunk an otherwise pretty decent team.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Well back then we just sucked and Lou kept trying to push for the playoffs where he continued to add mediocre old guys instead of rebuilding while also being the worst drafter in the league for a decade. When he was finally gone in 2015 (after giving us his final present of Zacha at 6th…) we were the worst positioned team in the league. An old and awful roster with next to no good young NHL talent, and a bottom tier prospect pool. It’s taken a long time to try and build from absolutely nothing.

19-20 was the first year it looked like things could turn around. That year relied on quite a few question marks like will Jack be able to step in and be really good immediately? Will PK be able to return to form after an offseason to recover? Will Hall be himself again after another knee surgery? Will Gusev be able to adjust and be really good? Will Schneider’s body hold up? None of those question marks really ended up working out so the season crumbled. Last year was a 0 expectation year.

This year the team is nowhere near as bad as the record. The skater group has been average to above average. 5v5’s good. PK’s good. PP is god awful (Recchi’s such a bad PP coach). Goaltending on the other hand is the worst in the league and has destroyed this season. Coming into the year it was actually supposed to be a strength for us. Then Blackwood has offseason surgery with a botched recovery where he never gets back to 100% and is playing injured the whole time he’s playing. He got shut down early January and is only just expected to return to the lineup sometime soon. Bernier got hurt in preseason and then only started 8 games before getting shut down 6 weeks into the year and having season ending hip surgery. So the goaltending for the majority of the season has been 21 year old Akira Schmid (not even just NHL rookie but professional rookie who was in the USHL last year), 20/21 year old Nico Daws (NHL rookie with only prior pro experience to this year being 10 games in the DEL last year), Jon Gillies (career AHLer), Andrew Hammond (career NHL/AHLer tweener), and Scott Wedgewood (another NHL/AHL tweener who happens to be the best of the bunch, we lost on waivers very early in the year when we finally had both Blackwood and Bernier in the lineup and waived him). Goaltending has sunk an otherwise pretty decent team.

How do you feel about Ruff? I really hope he doesn't get blamed for this season...he's really good, it wasn't his fault the goaltending was among the worst I've ever seen a team have for a full season.

 

[John Pedro]

Inject Jiricek-Luke Hughes pairing into my veins

 

[Hisch13r]

How do you feel about Ruff? I really hope he doesn't get blamed for this season...he's really good, it wasn't his fault the goaltending was among the worst I've ever seen a team have for a full season.

I don’t have a massive issue with Ruff but I do think he can be upgraded upon. I love what he’s been able to do for the young guys and unlocking their offensive potential. Defensively I don’t think it’s as bad as others do. My dream hire is Sullivan so I’m hoping the Pens flame out and he gets unfairly blamed. I can’t see this happening but Bruce deciding not to stick in Vancouver and we snag him would also be great. Gronborg or Montgomery also seem like good gets.

It’s incredibly unfair to blame this season on Ruff but I just think it’ll be hard to tell the room the guy you’re going back to just lead you to a record this bad. It wouldn’t be logical to place any real amount blame on his shoulders but I don’t think the players would really be thinking logically.

 

[Eggtimer]

I don’t have a massive issue with Ruff but I do think he can be upgraded upon. I love what he’s been able to do for the young guys and unlocking their offensive potential. Defensively I don’t think it’s as bad as others do. My dream hire is Sullivan so I’m hoping the Pens flame out and he gets unfairly blamed. I can’t see this happening but Bruce decided not to stick in Vancouver and we snag him would also be great. Gronborg or Montgomery also seem like good gets.

It’s incredibly unfair to blame this season on Ruff but I just think it’ll be hard to tell the room the guy you’re going back to just lead you to a record this bad. It wouldn’t be logical to place any real amount blame on his shoulders but I don’t think the players would really be thinking logically.

If anyone should go it is Recchi . Ruff has done an excellent job letting the kids play and learn as they go instead of crucifying them for any mistakes they make and stapling them to the bench.
Break out seasons for Jack and Bratt. Mercer lookimg good along with Nico.
Anywho back on topic,
I’d say with some amount of certainty that the Devils habe a top 3 wish list of Slafkovsky (almost certainly gone before our pick) Jiricek and Nemec. Not sure what order the two RHD are in for us . If we pick 5th or later ….Very good chance we miss out on both the D. We will not select a Center unless it’s a clear BPA situation , even then I thunk we would trade down or take the best power forward like Cutter .

 

[Michoulicious]

Reminds me of Seider during its draft year.

Pretty sure many teams see that as well. Nothing against Nemec, but if that knee healed well, I really like that package (size, shot, physical play).