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Confirmed with Link: Weekesbomb: Palat to NJ for five-year deal

Hisch13r said:
Still can’t get over how shortsighted and bad this is and it’s not even good value in the short term. How fast until he looks like Tatar and everyone loses their mind and realizes how f***ing bad this actually is?
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What about his last season implies he is on the downswing? The only argument that he will decline significantly is just an appeal to some model or general age curve. Nothing specific.

And Tatar wasn’t even that bad, he was just murdered by a shitty on ice shooting percentage and just didn’t seem to fit on our team. Palat has made a career playing with high end talent and should have no trouble fitting with either of our top centers.
 
Hisch13r said:
Still can’t get over how shortsighted and bad this is and it’s not even good value in the short term. How fast until he looks like Tatar and everyone loses their mind and realizes how f***ing bad this actually is?
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Or there’s the very real possibility that he’s a great fit, does really well, doesn’t decline too much and people end up very happy with the signing.
 
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bossram said:
I've said numerous times I think Palat is a good player. But it's a bad contract. And the wrong timing. If the Devils seriously wanted to contend next season, then I wouldn't have a huge problem with it. Sometimes you gotta pay the piper. But the Devils aren't even at that point yet.
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I hear what you are saying.

But while this isn't a move that says "we are contenders" it is a move that says "we are done being a doormat". At least that's the psychology of it.

I'm all for building through the draft, but it's time we get this rocket off the launching pad.
 
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I didn't think Tatar was that bad, particularly for the minutes he played, which wasn't even 15 minutes a game.

Although it's pretty clear he's declining and his days of being a 20 goal scorer are over.

I'm hoping Palat has a couple more years before he becomes what Tatar was this past season.
 
SteveCangialosi123 said:
What about his last season implies he is on the downswing? The only argument that he will decline significantly is just an appeal to some model or general age curve. Nothing specific.

And Tatar wasn’t even that bad, he was just murdered by a shitty on ice shooting percentage and just didn’t seem to fit on our team. Palat has made a career playing with high end talent and should have no trouble fitting with either of our top centers.
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And as Cooper said, Palat is a blue collar guy who is capable of playing with white collar players.

Tatar does not bring the blue collar game.
 
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Doing something Zacha+Jarnkrok rather than Palat+Haula would’ve been smarter. Yes Zacha+Jarnrkok is worse but it’s not crazy better and it doesn’t hinder you long term
 
devilsblood said:
I hear what you are saying.

But while this isn't a move that says "we are contenders" it is a move that says "we are done being a doormat". At least that's the psychology of it.

I'm all for building through the draft, but we it's to get this rocket off the launching pad.
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This is also part of multiple moves that say, “You better be more engaged next season and battle in these games”

I don’t think the Devils were generally lazy but I think they can use some more pest in their mindset.
 
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devilsblood said:
I hear what you are saying.

But while this isn't a move that says "we are contenders" it is a move that says "we are done being a doormat". At least that's the psychology of it.

I'm all for building through the draft, but we it's to get this rocket off the launching pad.
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I've said before in this thread and the Offseason thread, I get that you've got to improve before you get to the dance.

But there are ways to improve without signing obviously bad contracts from the outset. When you're trying to justify a contract off the hop with, "well, you buy it out later...use a pick to pay someone to take it," well, I don't know why some can't admit it's just a bad contract.
 
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Hisch13r said:
Doing something Zacha+Jarnkrok rather than Palat+Haula would’ve been smarter. Yes Zacha+Jarnrkok is worse but it’s not crazy better and it doesn’t hinder you long term
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This doesn’t hinder us long term.
At worst it’s a problem in the final year. At that point the cap will be higher and we have to buy it out.

As I’ve said Gaudreau would’ve been a much riskier and potentially hindering signing.
 
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Palat used the situation to gain himself some extra dollars. The Devil's deal with him is not so great. Based on his age, three years would have been better, and $6 M per year is too much. But the Devils ran out of available choices, so screwed it is, but they screwed themselves by not offering more and sooner to others.

We have what we have. I project another noncontender. Habit is Habit. At this juncture, I am disappointed, but it should be a better team than last season. The Devils being a better team but not a playoff contender doesn't make me happy.

Let's Go Devils
 
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bossram said:
I've said before in this thread and the Offseason thread, I get that you've got to improve before you get to the dance.

But there are ways to improve without signing obviously bad contracts from the outset.
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Maybe there are. But Tatar was a not an obviously bad contract and that didn't pan out. Johnsson looked like a good trade, on a reasonable contract, and that didn't help.

You mention Pearson and Helms, those guys aren't better then what we already have. Palat is.
 
While I don't think this is a panic move, I do think it's sort of a move where Fitz is at a cross roads.

The last GM got fired in the middle of year 5, where we made the playoffs in year 3. He also started out with MUCH LESS than what Fitz started off with, which we're all in agreement on.

Josh Harris said as much in the press conference after the firing that ''We wanna win'' the record wasn't where it needed to be and we've made the playoffs one time in 5 years.

Fitz now has 2 years and record wise they've went as bad as it's been in 35 years.

So I think he knows that the time is ticking.

I don't think his job is dependent on us making the playoffs this year, but it may be dependent on us making them in 2023-2024 if we don't make them this year.

I thought he was maybe playing with fire a little bit by bringing Lindy Ruff back again. He's rectified that a bit and justified giving him one more shot with the Andrew Brunette hiring yesterday. That would confirm that leash isn't gonna be much longer for Ruff in the head coaching position. There's no doubt in my mind that Brunette wouldn't have taken this gig if he thought Ruff had a few more years here. When there's more head coaching openings next year (most of them were filled before Florida announced he wasn't being promoted to permanent head coach) I would expect teams to ask to speak with him (if Ruff isn't fired before then) and Fitz might have to jump on it and make him head coach if he doesn't want to lose him. This hiring really makes the odds high that Lindy Ruff is the safe money bet for first head coach fired this year.
 
Devils731 said:
This is also part of multiple moves that say, “You better be more engaged next season and battle in these games”

I don’t think the Devils were generally lazy but I think they can use some more pest in their mindset.
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Ya, and Tatar didn't bring it.

And it's more then just "pest", I think it's safe to say he plays a smart game as well (guessing here as I haven't watched him that much).
 
devilsblood said:
Maybe there are. But Tatar was a not an obviously bad contract and that didn't pan out. Johnsson looked like a good trade and that didn't help.

You mention Peason and Helms, those guys aren't better then what we already have. Palat is.
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The difference is the term on those deals were short. They didn't work out? No problem. They just automatically disappear after next season - conveniently when the Devils will want to use the cap space to get into contender mode.

Palat declines quickly? Well, there are a lot of dollars and term to have to move.

I'm not going to rehash this last point again if people cannot understand the actual argument. Read post 906.
 
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