This season was derailed by injuries, Hall's chief among the many. Devs were a playoff team last year. Add Hughes and a top pair defenseman, and the team can contend.
OT: NHL draft lottery
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I am still of the crowd that thinks Philly sold their sports souls for a while to get that SB. Expect heartbreak for a while.
Karlsson’s next contract has 3-4 years of dead money written all over it.
One issue with the Devils defensive prospects in Butcher (not really a prospect anymore), Jeremy Davies, Ty Smith and Reilly Walsh is that their more offensive defensemen and not really big or strong, Walsh is the biggest of the group at 6'0" and 185 lbs, the rest are under 6'0", like Karlsson.
Even so the league is more built on speed, you still need a couple badasses to protect the goaltender, the one thing I noticed about the way teams playing NJ this year was they never had to check to see who was on the ice like the days of Stevens and Dano, because it didn't matter none really, I mean who is going to crack you in the back of the head if you get front of our goalie? Andy Greene?
But Karlsson is tempting and we got the cap space.
Jake Gardiner could be a good fit, he's 6'2 and has skill and is a UFA, but I don't know if he's soft for his size or not.
Here is the list of UFA for defensemen:
https://www.spotrac.com/nhl/free-agents/defenseman/ufa/
On the trade front I've heard Jacob Trouba wants out of Winnipeg but he won't be cheap, might have to give up someone like Ty Smith and next year's #1 and probably more because there will be competition for his services
Too much for Trouba
Devils could use a big mobile defenseman that doesn't need to put up a ton of points.
I think the Devils are much closer than it appears . The first half of this year the team struggled due to goaltending, the second half saw goaltending a strength as Schneider recovered and blackwood emerged. Unfortunately the offense we had when the goalies were struggling disappeared in the second half due to injuries .
Get everyone health, get the same goaltending as the second half and sign a strong d or 2 and this team should be pretty good.
I don't know if that is too much, one thing about Trouba is he's 6'3", young, does everything well and unlike most young, big defensemen his progress has been relatively smooth PLUS if you sign Karlsson, you're not going to miss Ty Smith.
But we're really getting ahead of ourselves, I don't think we'll be in play for Karlsson.
Hischier will have monster year next season with Hall and hopefully an acquired RW
Flyers won't be relevant until they sell the team to someone outside of the Broad Street Bullies Old Boys Club. 70s Night will sell out WFC as usual and they'll trot out a 70 year old Lauren Hart to sing God Bless America 10x as usual next year.
I wouldn't sell the Flyers short by any means, their young talent is as good as any. Their two biggest problems have been coaching and goaltending, if Hart is the real deal they are not going to be easy to play.
Seems like they've had goaltending problems going back to the days of Roman "The Big Oaf Between The Pipes" Ceckmanek. Before him they had Vanbiesbrouck and Hextall, two pretty good goalies
Shero didn't do anything last summer because he's smart and stayed the course instead of overreacting to a year ahead of schedule. People were crying he didn't sign some 30 year old like James Neal and he ended up with like 7 goals this year. They were just killed by injuries this year which resulted in a 3rd worst finish which ultimately worked out great. Big summer ahead with a bunch of extra picks that can be used or traded and the cap space to dip into FA if it's a player that makes sense for the future.
Even as a Ranger fan I agree with this completely. Unless you are in a situation where aging players mean your window is closing, you have a couple year period to win while your core is on ELCs, etc. it is better in a salary cap world to make one move too little than make a move that hamstrings you in the future because of the cap.
The Rangers will need to be very careful this summer that luck in the lottery and two years of missing the playoffs, combined with available cap room, doesn't get them to do something stupid like signing Karlsson for 7 years.
Even the Devils owner said "there are no shortcuts to the top, there are only shortcuts to the middle." Building through the draft is the only way to become a contender.
As a Ranger fan, I see the Rangers in a "can't miss" position. I would argue the one advantage the Rangers have is not having to decide which to pick; the Devils will take one, and we'll grab the other. But, make no mistake, BOTH teams will be better because of this.
For sake of discussion however, a question. I consider Nico to be an undersized center (very talented, so not knocking him); I also expect that Hughes will be somewhat undersized. He will grow, but I see him playing around 195ish, so maybe a bit small by some standards. Do any Devils fans feel it might be better to draft Kakko, and try to make a deal for a #2 center (knowing full well they ain't a dime a dozen)?
I am not looking to start a pissing contest here, I am curious about thoughts. Again, I'm happy the Rangers won't have to make the decision; I'm certain somehow they'd screw it up.
For sake of discussion however, a question. I consider Nico to be an undersized center (very talented, so not knocking him); I also expect that Hughes will be somewhat undersized. He will grow, but I see him playing around 195ish, so maybe a bit small by some standards. Do any Devils fans feel it might be better to draft Kakko, and try to make a deal for a #2 center (knowing full well they ain't a dime a dozen)?
I am not looking to start a pissing contest here, I am curious about thoughts. Again, I'm happy the Rangers won't have to make the decision; I'm certain somehow they'd screw it up.
Maybe 10 years ago but it's a different game now, guys like Johnny Gaudreau and Brayden Point are superstars and are smaller than Hughes. Nico also isn't that undersized he's 6'1 just needs to fill out more. There's also a winger on the Blackhawks that scored 40 goals and is 5'7. Speed and skill is taking over. Can't go wrong with either though just different styles, and the tiebreaker should always go to the center imo.
Agree on all points. Size is not a disqualifying thing here and there.
The year the Rangers lost to the Kings, we got killed by the size that they had down the middle. So, I guess my question was more about "too many" of the same sized player.
Definitely like your thought about the center position though. The right center can make the wingers SO MUCH BETTER.
Earlier, someone suggested the Devils need a top pair dman, and then mentioned Karlsson, I would stay away from that. As talented as Karlsson is, his strength is offense, and I think the Devils' needs lie with protection in front of the net. (The Rangers have a few pylons if you guys are interested. LOL)
I've long thought that year in, year out, the Flyers tried to address their goaltending "problem". All the while they ignored the fact that their blue line was stationary. Decent enough players, but it was right about the time the game was changing to more mobile dmen. So, they were addressing the wrong issue.
You're right, I think 2 years after Bobrovsky got traded he won the Vezina. Go figure. Sometimes it's more about having enough of the RIGHT parts.
And Bobrovski did have a pretty good D in front of him for his 1st Vezina Trophy...Nikitin, Wisniewski, and Jack Johnson. He's since brought home a second Vezina in 2017
Who here said he needed to make a big splash, so how about you not overreacting? But you don't lose one of your regulars (John Moore) on the blue line on an already weak unit and not bring in any worthy bodies, even if we stayed healthy that defensive unit was going to sink us. And while John Moore was shaky, he was a capable veteran.
I agree with staying the course but that doesn't mean neglecting what you have on hand.
I'm very superstitious so I purposely avoided checking out Hughes because I figured if I did it would jinx us in winning the lottery, but now that I have I think he's a no-brainer, the skating edge he has might exceed's Connor McDavid and because of that ability when opposing defensemen see him take the ice, they're going to back up 5-10 feet for the fear of him skating right past him and making them look stupid. Also he's quite the sniper. Checking him out I came across this:
But his size is definitely a concern because he might actually be smaller than Mattias Tedenby.
However, there is another reason that would make it hard for Shero to pass on Hughes, he knows if he don't draft him then he's going to need to sleep with one eye open because the Devils marketing team might want to kill him in his sleep. Hughes being American is going to make their job so much easier.
From all I've read, you're right, his skating sets him aside from the rest.
I expect he'll make a few dmen look stupid even after backing up 5-10.
I never said from here. And John Moore is terrible so could not care less about him. There were no needle movers available, you draft and develop your own defenseman or make a hockey trade. Trouba could be available since Winnipeg might not be able to afford him, situations like that are how patience pays off.
Moore wasn't good but he wasn't terrible either and he drove me nuts too but he did score 23 goals in three seasons for us and he was uncanny how clutch he was in OT. And again I'm not talking about needle movers, more of a defensemen like Tommy Albelin, maybe they don't work out but if they do they can make a big difference.
And Trouba would be perfect, he's exactly the kind of defenseman we need to get. But if he goes on the trading block I bet at least a dozen teams would be interested.
Troubas been available for quite a while now. Problem is he's gonna want a ton of money (as does Winnipeg Re trade proposals) and has something like only 2 seasons where he played more than 65 games.