Devils team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - offseason part I

[MartyOwns]

Not really

he's basically saying we have players who don't want to go out on the ice or into the weight room, and his solution to that is to bring in guys who will in essence "force" them to.

0 accountability. if you can think of a dumber fitz quote, i'm all ears.

 

[MasterofGrond]

he's basically saying we have players who don't want to go out on the ice or into the weight room, and his solution to that is to bring in guys who will in essence "force" them to.

0 accountability. if you can think of a dumber fitz quote, i'm all ears.

Christ, this is why nobody ever gives real quotes. Always the most disingenuous read of any public statement.

Even if every dude you had was a practice and training warrior, wouldn’t you want more guys like that?

 

[Nocashstyle]

he's basically saying we have players who don't want to go out on the ice or into the weight room, and his solution to that is to bring in guys who will in essence "force" them to.

0 accountability. if you can think of a dumber fitz quote, i'm all ears.

He means he wants guys leading by example. He wants Nathan Mackinnon type competitive levels.

It ain’t that deep.

 

[MartyOwns]

Christ, this is why nobody ever gives real quotes. Always the most disingenuous read of any public statement.

Even if every dude you had was a practice and training warrior, wouldn’t you want more guys like that?

disingenuous read?

it's a dumb quote that lets the entire current roster off the hook. he's going to what, assign a coach's responsibility to some incoming UFA's? as i said, it's the dumbest fitz quote i've ever heard. feel free to disagree.

 

[Better Call Sal]

I often put very little stock into what coaches and GMs say to the media, because of course there's going to be some sort of spin behind what they're saying. They're rarely going to put themselves in a precarious position with what they say, as well as avoid from throwing anyone under the bus publicly.

I think he has a good idea on what he wants from a coach for this team going forward. I think he's also trying to say that he wants guys to hold themselves to a higher standard in the locker room at the same time.

He did a 1 on 1 with Matty too, here it is.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

I dont really care what Fitz or anyone in management says to the public in an end of year press availability. He was always going to be cordial re: Green, he wasnt gonna come out and say "You know, I thought he f***in sucked."

its a nothing-burger IMO

 

[Emperoreddy]

 

[Emperoreddy]

He doesn't need to publically shit on Green, but he also doesn't need to keep him or any of these other coaches employed right now either.

GMs fire underperforming staff all the time.

 

[Emperoreddy]

 

[Camille the Eel]

Who said it’s the best contract in the world? There’s a place between extremes.

No one likes that contract, it really needs 1m & 1 year knocked off to be not gross.

But Palat was pretty useful this year.

He made lines he played on better. He’s two-way forward who helped us defensively and is strong on the board. We don’t have much of that on the line-up.

The production is underwhelming for 6m but it’s in line with 3rd line production.

From an Oct 2023 article that estimates the average production of players on each line.


This isn’t about being blindly rah rah about Palat’s future either.

If his production and/or play falls off next year, that could force the team to buy out his last two years. The contract would be a brutal failure if that happened, but that’s a worst case scenario.

Palat’s game has aged well and is the kind that should continue to age well. I don’t see particular reasons to think he will drop off badly in the next couple of seasons.

He was actually healthier this year, following groin surgery in 2022-23, and seems to have fully recovered from the issues that plagued him that prior season and had a correspondingly better year. If his durability health wise is the issue, it looks to be okay. And if something serious occurs, there’s always long term injury reserve where his cap hit won’t be a problem.

I sure am happy we have him under contract instead of Johnny Hockey at nearly twice the price.

 

[HBK27]

 

[Xirik]

Sounds like Sal should move into the coaching side of things. He was a beast in the Gym when he was on the team.

 

[Better Call Sal]

He doesn't need to publically shit on Green, but he also doesn't need to keep him or any of these other coaches employed right now either.

GMs fire underperforming staff all the time.

He will likely make decisions on the rest of the staff with the new coach hire. It's not a big deal that he didn't just clean house as soon as the season ended. We'll see what decisions are made once the new coach is named. But the fact he's willing to cast a wide net is a good thing.

 

[JimEIV]

I just finished watching Fitz's press conference...all gathered was something about checking boxes.

 

[Satans Hockey]

I wish we had more media that was tuned into the fan base and would ask someone, anyone in charge of this team about how do you justify raising season ticket prices 9% for a team that performed this badly and missed the playoffs and ask about the awful concessions and the state of how some of the arena is in.

Would love to see that goof Jake Reynolds try to worm his way out of any real questions.

 

[NJDevs26]

I wish we had more media that was tuned into the fan base and would ask someone, anyone in charge of this team about how do you justify raising season ticket prices 9% for a team that performed this badly and missed the playoffs and ask about the awful concessions and the state of how some of the arena is in.

Would love to see that goof Jake Reynolds try to worm his way out of any real questions.

I don’t think the media gets that kind of no-holds barred access to the CEO’s anywhere, much less here.

 

[My3Sons]

Not really

It's not a great look in my view. What players don't want to play? I can understand some guys don't want to lift weights or workout but I don't see how you can get to the NHL if you are not enjoying the game itself. Maybe you don't love it but if it's that much of a chore to just play a game there are too many guys with talent who will do anything to play.

 

[McDuffz88]

I think the real problem is owners/management hell bent on whatever head coach they bring in has a collaborative effort with them. Just hire a coach to do his job. If you hire a coach let him make his decisions. Let him bring in his own staff. Let him bench/implement whatever strategies he wants. If I'm a coach who has a mindset on how to fix this team but my boss insists on surrounding me with yes men to the organization who have disagreements about my coaching philosophy then why am I the head coach?

 

[Goptor]

Sounds like Sal should move into the coaching side of things. He was a beast in the Gym when he was on the team.

There's a lot of ex-players who would have been great coaches but they didn't want to deal with the crazy workload.

Sal's starting to get national attention as a broadcaster, likely gets paid well, and still has enough free time to spend it with family. Is it even worth it to pick up coaching at a lower level?

 

[Better Call Sal]

There's a lot of ex-players who would have been great coaches but they didn't want to deal with the crazy workload.

Sal's starting to get national attention as a broadcaster, likely gets paid well, and still has enough free time to spend it with family. Is it even worth it to pick up coaching at a lower level?

He's also coaching his son's team I believe. I think Bill said he was away from a broadcast a few weeks back because they were traveling for a tournament.

I think Sal has stated he's happy with what he's doing right now.

 

[Satans Hockey]

There's a lot of ex-players who would have been great coaches but they didn't want to deal with the crazy workload.

Sal's starting to get national attention as a broadcaster, likely gets paid well, and still has enough free time to spend it with family. Is it even worth it to pick up coaching at a lower level?

And to add to that, only travels a little bit during the year and doesn't have to deal with stress of getting the team to perform and worry about getting fired. He's got a sweet gig and seems very happy with it and how can anyone blame him.

 

[guitarguyvic]

I think the real problem is owners/management hell bent on whatever head coach they bring in has a collaborative effort with them. Just hire a coach to do his job. If you hire a coach let him make his decisions. Let him bring in his own staff. Let him bench/implement whatever strategies he wants. If I'm a coach who has a mindset on how to fix this team but my boss insists on surrounding me with yes men to the organization who have disagreements about my coaching philosophy then why am I the head coach?

I know some posters over the years have connected dots and believe this kind of thing may be happening. I never took too much stock into it, but I've reached a point where I just see so many little red flags with this organization's leadership that I wouldn't be shocked. People on here love to just dismiss quotes and actions as isolated events that are being read too deeply...but when you add it all up over a long period of time and combine it with the shit results on the ice... it starts to not look so isolated and innocent.

 

[Guttersniped]

I know some posters over the years have connected dots and believe this kind of thing may be happening. I never took too much stock into it, but I've reached a point where I just see so many little red flags with this organization's leadership that I wouldn't be shocked. People on here love to just dismiss quotes and actions as isolated events that are being read too deeply...but when you add it all up over a long period of time and combine it with the shit results on the ice... it starts to not look so isolated and innocent.

I will keep “dismissing quotes” and no one can ever stop me.

Actions are unrelated to quotes that people projected upon, read into and freak out over.

None of these “quotes” are damning, good lord.

 

[Billdo]

Sometimes I'm embarrassed by this fan base. Some doofus on a FB page said we should just let Mercer walk, it wouldn't be a big loss bc he only had 33 points and was a -26 or whatever. You want to trade him, fine, but to say just let him walk is just stupid. There are so many of these ppl out there "representing" this team.

 

[guitarguyvic]

I will keep “dismissing quotes” and no one can ever stop me.

Actions are unrelated to quotes that people projected upon, read into and freak out over.

None of these “quotes” are damning, good lord.

There's plenty of questionable actions to go along with the quotes. That's sort of the point.