There's nothing like lamenting the loss of a third pairing defenseman and wishing we'd traded for another third pairing defenseman.
Confirmed with Link: Devils trade 2nd and 4th rounders for Mirco Mueller and 5th rounder
- Thread starter NJDevs26
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But just do not compare either to the 3rd pair defenseman you acquired - at a higher price than the other two guys in the conversation. Thats off limits.
somebody in the devils organization that has pull .... thinks Mueller is going to be a good player... one that can be a good NHL regular... so they think he is good.. or at least better than Merrill or they would have protected merrill and never made this trade...
the discussion on mueller needs to be sidelined.. we can talk about it again in January 2018 if Mueller is in the lineup and contributing and playing solid it was a great trade. if mueller is in the AHL playing well but not ready for NHL it still would have potential for being a good to great trade.. if Mueller is waived cut or healthy scratched in AHL then it was a bad trade
So you know what Mueller is going to be 2-3 years from now? Maybe you could use your divine insight to tell us which of Nico or Nolan is going to be better. Please call Ray up with that info so he makes the right choice!
Lets hope this philosophy is also adopted if/when the devils trade down for cale makar. Didnt seem that way in the draft thread here this morning.
lets remember also that Sclemko was also twice in two or three years allowed to walk....he isn't that good.. i like him .. he would be a good defensman on the devils and he can move the puck but he isn't a superstar..
Jets012
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I mean I think people do have the right to be upset when the arguable 2nd pairing defenseman goes for nothing while we traded a lot more for the 2nd pairing AHL defenseman who albeit "might" have some potential.
Blender
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Blender
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Fair enough. It is funny how like 6 months ago half the board would have bought Merrill a plane ticket to Vegas and driven him to the airport personally, but now we lost a quality player for nothing.
mtnet
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Kind of what I've been wondering as well, addition by subtraction tbh. Merrill had lots of chances to solidify his standing in the lineup but the only consistency he could ever find seemed to be injuries or cringe worthy gaffes. He had a stretch of really nice play this past season after coming back from that long hiatus and I thought he might be turning the corner but it wasn't long before he reverted to the player he is, which is not that good.
That said, yeah we paid a bit more than I'd want to for Mueller but he's here now so agonizing over it at this point...well it is what it is. I'm unimpressed with what we know so far but let's wait and see what he's got. If our D wasn't such a hot mess we'd probably never even hear of Mirco Mueller but as it stands, here we are. He will get opportunities here that he would never get with SJS so it's up to him to either sink or swim...let's just hope it's the latter.
JimEIV
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Merrill wasn't a 3rd pairing guy. He averaged close to 19 minutes during his career here.
Would anyone call Mark Fayne a 3rd pairing guy while he was here?
Fayne was routinely called a "top line" defenseman by many here and averaged almost exactly the same TOI as Merrill during their time here. Merrill actually averaged 10 seconds more.
Merrill is/was better than Fayne, never a had a partner as good as Greene but could stand on his own.
A 19 minute defender isn't a 3rd pairing guy. John Moore averaged 15 minutes a game his first 6 years over 200+ games before he came to New Jersey.... THAT is a 3rd pairing Dman.
Would anyone call Mark Fayne a 3rd pairing guy while he was here?
Fayne was routinely called a "top line" defenseman by many here and averaged almost exactly the same TOI as Merrill during their time here. Merrill actually averaged 10 seconds more.
Merrill is/was better than Fayne, never a had a partner as good as Greene but could stand on his own.
A 19 minute defender isn't a 3rd pairing guy. John Moore averaged 15 minutes a game his first 6 years over 200+ games before he came to New Jersey.... THAT is a 3rd pairing Dman.
Blender
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Just because he played a lot doesn't make him third pairing around the league. His stats while doing so are pretty terrible in comparison to peers.
By your logic Zajac is a #1 center.
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