Confirmed Trade: [BOS/NJD] Reilly Walsh for Shane Bowers

[BigEezyE22]

E5: Reilly Walsh, Riley Nash and Ryan O'Reilly for Morgan Rielly, Reilly Smith and Mike Reilly

Trade em all for Riley Steele.

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

I know Boston traded for the ghost of Pavel Zacha and he had an ok year for them, I guess. But as a reminder, if Fitzgerald is trading a player away, the team receiving that player is not exactly getting the better end of that deal.

(Cringe)

Zacha had his best year in the league yet.

Even with a good year for Haula, you’d be delusional to call that trade anything better than a tie for the Devils after one season.

 

[Avelanche]

Walsh is better with higher upside, I think the Bruins win this trade, if you can call it that with guys like this. Walsh could conceivably be a pp2 kinda guy

Problem is a lot top teams like the Bruins just stack the pp1 unit and play them most of the time. Seems like pp specialist dmen are not common anymore.

 

[Lateralous]

(Cringe)

Zacha had his best year in the league yet.

Even with a good year for Haula, you’d be delusional to call that trade anything better than a tie for the Devils after one season.

I'm a Devils fan and that trade seems like a classic win-win. Both sides clearly got what they wanted out of it.

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

I'm a Devils fan and that trade seems like a classic win-win. Both sides clearly got what they wanted out of it.

So far, that’s exactly what it is.

 

[My3Sons]

So far, that’s exactly what it is.

Is that the Battersea power station?

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

Is that the Battersea power station?

Indeed it is.

More specifically, it’s the cover art to Pink Floyd’s ‘Animals’ album.

 

[My3Sons]

Indeed it is.

More specifically, it’s the cover art to Pink Floyd’s ‘Animals’ album.

I thought that's what it was. Always happy to see some classic rock references on this site.

 

[AfroThunder396]

(Cringe)

Zacha had his best year in the league yet.

Even with a good year for Haula, you’d be delusional to call that trade anything better than a tie for the Devils after one season.

And yet Boston fans are so eager to celebrate the "real" Zacha after one good season on the best team of all time while selectively ignoring his previous 5 years of disappointment and frustration.

 

[JoeSakic13]

He had a good freshmen college year that got us all excited and then just didn't produce anything anywhere. His hands must be completely useless cause he always looked decent in preseason games flying all over the ice.

Didn’t help Bowers’ development that for some reason we seemingly refused to ever call him up. Even when we had tons of injury troubles.

Never understood that.

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

And yet Boston fans are so eager to celebrate the "real" Zacha after one good season on the best team of all time while selectively ignoring his previous 5 years of disappointment and frustration.

What are you talking about?

I said it was his best season yet. Meaning better than the prior five.

AFTER ONE SEASON, the trade is a "good for both sides" trade. I have no clue after last season how you could say the Devils are somehow the "winners" of the trade. We certainly need more time to draw any conclusions either way. No one is claiming Pavel Zacha is a HOF'er.

 

[HugeInTheShire]

Why is this thread yet another Zacha vs Haula thread?? Both teams are happy with their player and nobody else cares!

 

[ORRMAN]

What are you talking about?

I said it was his best season yet. Meaning better than the prior five.

AFTER ONE SEASON, the trade is a "good for both sides" trade. I have no clue after last season how you could say the Devils are somehow the "winners" of the trade. We certainly need more time to draw any conclusions either way. No one is claiming Pavel Zacha is a HOF'er.

It seems there's a NJ bitterness over Zacha's development this past season. He was an excellent all-around player; there were many nights when he was our best player. The trade to Boston, and the influence of Bergeron, Marchand, Montgomery (and others), may have been a reset for Zacha. His fiancé lives in the Boston area, and they are getting married this summer. I'm glad that Haula is doing well in NJ. For me, this was one of Sweeney's best moves. Peace.

 

[My3Sons]

It seems there's a NJ bitterness over Zacha's development this past season. He was an excellent all-around player; there were many nights when he was our best player. The trade to Boston, and the influence of Bergeron, Marchand, Montgomery (and others), may have been a reset for Zacha. His fiancé lives in the Boston area, and they are getting married this summer. I'm glad that Haula is doing well in NJ. For me, this was one of Sweeney's best moves. Peace.

I don’t think your characterization of NJ fans is accurate. I think the average NJ fan will tell you that Zacha is the same player he has always been. He’s always shown the ability to do anything and everything required of a top NHL player. I think a segment of NJ fans got annoyed at the segment of Boston fans who early made some comparisons of Zacha for Haula as extremely lopsided like Hall for Larsson or Forsberg for whoever trade. Few NJ begrudge Zacha who seems like a good kid. I think Zacha failed in NJ because he was asked to be more than he is. He was the fist puck when the team finally stared to rebuild in 2015. He could never be the top six center the team wanted and slowly got passed by later picks in Bratt Hischier Hughes and Mercer. The Devils went out to get Meier to be a big physical top six forward they probably hoped they’d have had in Zacha. Boston on the other hand didn’t expect anything specific from Zacha. They just put him ina complementary wing role and he had a strong team to play on without a demand he be a core player living up to the hopes of a struggling team. Boston didn’t need leadership or compete from Zacha and NJ did. NJ got the leadership and compete from Haula they needed. As others have noted it’s a win win. Both players were extended by their teams so I’d say both were happy and you have to ignore the extreme opinions on both sides to avoid painting any group whtba broad brush stroke.

 

[ORRMAN]

I don’t think your characterization of NJ fans is accurate. I think the average NJ fan will tell you that Zacha is the same player he has always been. He’s always shown the ability to do anything and everything required of a top NHL player. I think a segment of NJ fans got annoyed at the segment of Boston fans who early made some comparisons of Zacha for Haula as extremely lopsided like Hall for Larsson or Forsberg for whoever trade. Few NJ begrudge Zacha who seems like a good kid. I think Zacha failed in NJ because he was asked to be more than he is. He was the fist puck when the team finally stared to rebuild in 2015. He could never be the top six center the team wanted and slowly got passed by later picks in Bratt Hischier Hughes and Mercer. The Devils went out to get Meier to be a big physical top six forward they probably hoped they’d have had in Zacha. Boston on the other hand didn’t expect anything specific from Zacha. They just put him ina complementary wing role and he had a strong team to play on without a demand he be a core player living up to the hopes of a struggling team. Boston didn’t need leadership or compete from Zacha and NJ did. NJ got the leadership and compete from Haula they needed. As others have noted it’s a win win. Both players were extended by their teams so I’d say both were happy and you have to ignore the extreme opinions on both sides to avoid painting any group whtba broad brush stroke.

I agree with everything you wrote. I just don't get that sense from some other vocal NJ fans. There has been a "just wait and see what he turns out to be" attitude. And, who knows, maybe they'll be right. But, I can tell you that he took off zero nights and was one of our six best forwards throughout the season. I liked Haula and glad he's doing well.

 

[My3Sons]

I agree with everything you wrote. I just don't get that sense from some other vocal NJ fans. There has been a "just wait and see what he turns out to be" attitude. And, who knows, maybe they'll be right. But, I can tell you that he took off zero nights and was one of our six best forwards throughout the season. I liked Haula and glad he's doing well.

I get that. I just think the pushback from NJ fans was based on the over the top crowing of a segment of overzealous Boston fans. We see that too often on hfboards and it is unfair to see fan bases as monolithic group think units. Everyone's posts are their own. Left alone I like to think most fans would be able to see the pluses and minuses.