You're the GM, it time to make changes Part II

[Devilsfan992]

Almost one year later since Part I was created and the Devils have made some improvements, but still obviously lack the pipeline for young scoring forwards.

We have 7 young defensemen with potential (Gelinas, Larsson, Santini, Severson, Merrill, Jacobs, and Hegelson)

We have 3 definite NHL forwards (Quenneville, Matteau, and Boucher)

In the next 2-3 years we will lose Elias, Jagr, Zubrus, Ruutu, and possibly Ryder, Havlat and Brunner. Clowe may be another guy who won't be around for other reasons.

In our top 9, Henrique, Zajac, and Cammalleri are our only definite players who are currently in the starting lineup. Josefson is also a probable in our top 9, but not a definite.

How do you address the scoring woes?
Do you make changes to any of the coaches?
Do you stick with all the young defensemen?

You're the GM, what do you do?

Click to read more...

 

[Devils090]

Jagr-42
Elias-38
Zubrus-36
Ryder-34
Havlat-33
Cammo-32
Clowe-32(might as well be 70 the way he skates)
Ruutu-31
Gio-31

that is so laughable it hurts, no other good team even comes close to having this many 30+ guys as their regulars. get rid of most of them and get some damn youth and speed in here. i dont care what it takes, just do it.

 

[Uli Hiemer]

starts with the draft......

 

[Devilsfan992]

I thought last year could have been a great year to ship off a Jagr or a Zidlicky. There stocks were high and could have gotten us anywhere from a late 1st to a second round pick. We CANNOT continue signing overaged free agents.

 

[EnglishDevil]

I'll start with this season because it's blatantly obvious this team is going nowhere fast; i fire Pete DeBoer and i accept that this season is a write-off and use it as a chance to get some of the kids some game time.

If Clowe actually has another concussion, then i wipe my hands of him, LTIR for the rest of the season and future seasons to come; if he attempts another comeback then just buy him out at the end of the season and consider it an expensive lesson learned.

I trade away the last year of Zubrus to whoever will take him, retain some salary if need be i'm sure someone would take a punt for a late round pick.

As the deadline approaches, attempt to trade all of the veterans with expiring contracts; goodbye Brunner, Ryder, Jagr, Havlat, Zidlicky and even Salvador if someone will take him. Maybe you can pick up a couple of 2nd-3rd rounders for some of those guys and use them to draft heavy on offense.

Play out the season with the kids and finish wherever we end up, probably won't have a great shot at the top two picks but there's plenty of talent available in the upcoming draft.

 

[Devils090]

problem is Lou will never concede the season and would rather trade for another slug than get rid of guys like Jagr, Zids etc.

he did it last year and he'll do it this year

 

[Devils Dominion]

starts with the draft......

And what forwards has Conte got us in the last decade?

 

[Uli Hiemer]

And what forwards has Conte got us in the last decade?

Zajac and Henrique?

yeah, it hasn't been good forward wise.

 

[EnglishDevil]

problem is Lou will never concede the season and would rather trade for another slug than get rid of guys like Jagr, Zids etc.

he did it last year and he'll do it this year

Then we're doomed to continue repeating this cycle of mediocrity if that's the case.

None of the veterans look like they even care at this point, i'd rather call up some of our AHL youngsters or even keep journeymen like Sislo and Timmins around on the roster over them.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Draft all the forwards!

I'd keep Pete, try to flip the geezers for future assets (picks mostly), get the young D experience, and just raid the draft for forwards.

 

[NJDevs26]

I thought last year could have been a great year to ship off a Jagr or a Zidlicky. There stocks were high and could have gotten us anywhere from a late 1st to a second round pick. We CANNOT continue signing overaged free agents.

I don't see why you can't get someting for Zidlicky this year, he's still on a 10 goal, 40 point pace. Jagr we might be getting a 2 instead of a 1 'if' he was traded this year as opposed to last.

 

[Devilsfan992]

In the last two years Lou has signed or traded for :

Jagr: 42/43
Cammallerri - 32
Clowe - 31
Ryder - 33
Havlat -33
Brunner - 27
Ruutu - 31

Thats more than half of our starting 12 signed in the matter of two years. Average age: 33.

 

[NJDevs26]

In the last two years Lou has signed:

Jagr: 42/43
Cammallerri - 32
Clowe - 31
Ryder - 33
Havlat -33
Brunner - 27

Thats half our starting 12 signed in the matter of two years. Average age: 33.

Jagr, Ryder and Havlat can all dissapear if neccesary this offseason...at this point Clowe might dissapear too. There just isn't enough youth to replace them with at the moment though.

 

[Devils Dominion]

Jagr, Ryder and Havlat can all dissapear if neccesary this offseason...at this point Clowe might dissapear too. There just isn't enough youth to replace them with at the moment though.

We would have more in the pipeline if Lou had smartly dealt Clarkson at the deadline in 2013.
And Zids last season.

 

[StnTwnDevil]

Almost one year later since Part I was created and the Devils have made some improvements, but still obviously lack the pipeline for young scoring forwards.

We have 7 young defensemen with potential (Gelinas, Larsson, Santini, Severson, Merrill, Jacobs, and Hegelson)

We have 3 definite NHL forwards (Quenneville, Matteau, and Boucher)

In the next 2-3 years we will lose Elias, Jagr, Zubrus, Ruutu, and possibly Ryder, Havlat and Brunner. Clowe may be another guy who won't be around for other reasons.

In our top 9, Henrique, Zajac, and Cammalleri are our only definite players who are currently in the starting lineup. Josefson is also a probable in our top 9, but not a definite.

How do you address the scoring woes?
Do you make changes to any of the coaches?
Do you stick with all the young defensemen?

You're the GM, what do you do?

Trade from their strength, which is obviously their young D-men. I personally think Severson and Merrill should be untouchable. Guys I would target are Kane, Wheeler, and O'Reilly, if available.

I really don't see the coach being an issue. Last year's roster was not impressive and actually was on the cusp of overachieving. I think making the playoffs would have been over-achieving. This year's team is probably a playoff team, if healthy. And that's a big "if." If this team is not healthy, as they are already showing, this roster will need to overachieve to make it. There are simply not enough scorers on this team, when not healthy, to win consistently in the NHL.

 

[Mgd31]

I'll start with this season because it's blatantly obvious this team is going nowhere fast; i fire Pete DeBoer and i accept that this season is a write-off and use it as a chance to get some of the kids some game time.

If Clowe actually has another concussion, then i wipe my hands of him, LTIR for the rest of the season and future seasons to come; if he attempts another comeback then just buy him out at the end of the season and consider it an expensive lesson learned.

I trade away the last year of Zubrus to whoever will take him, retain some salary if need be i'm sure someone would take a punt for a late round pick.

As the deadline approaches, attempt to trade all of the veterans with expiring contracts; goodbye Brunner, Ryder, Jagr, Havlat, Zidlicky and even Salvador if someone will take him. Maybe you can pick up a couple of 2nd-3rd rounders for some of those guys and use them to draft heavy on offense.

Play out the season with the kids and finish wherever we end up, probably won't have a great shot at the top two picks but there's plenty of talent available in the upcoming draft.

Cammalleri-Zajac-Ruutu
Elias-Henrique-Boucher
Clowe-Josefson-Matteau
Bernier-Gionta-Zubrus

Greene-Severson
Merrill-Larsson
Gelinas-Hegleson

That what you are looking at?

 

[Devilsfan992]

Jagr, Ryder and Havlat can all dissapear if neccesary this offseason...at this point Clowe might dissapear too. There just isn't enough youth to replace them with at the moment though.

That's the issue at hand and we need to address this. I know Jim has hope for guys like Black, Bell, Coleman, Thompson etc as do I, but I'd like to have some more sure-fire type prospects. Lou had a chance of increasing his odds on one in the draft, but he drafted Jacobs instead, when we were obviously stacked on defense anyways. Unless he planned on trading one of the young defensemen, I don't get that draft move.

 

[Devils Dominion]

Cammalleri-Zajac-Ruutu
Elias-Henrique-Boucher
Clowe-Josefson-Matteau
Bernier-Gionta-Zubrus

Greene-Severson
Merrill-Larsson
Gelinas-Hegleson

That what you are looking at?

Clowe might be Prongered soon.

 

[Devils090]

well they always draft the "best player available" regardless of position, which i guess is ok, but when you're starved for forwards i dont see justifying drafting another defenseman in the top 3 rounds next draft.

 

[MadDevil]

Blow it up! Fire everybody! Trade everybody!

Seriously though, it's all about adding younger, faster legs up front. Problem is it won't be a quick or easy process. Even if we start cutting some of the dead wood, we don't really have anybody to replace them with. The kind of forwards we really need either have to be drafted, or we're going to have to pay a hefty price to pry one away from somebody.

 

[Devils090]

Trade from their strength, which is obviously their young D-men. I personally think Severson and Merrill should be untouchable. Guys I would target are Kane, Wheeler, and O'Reilly, if available.

I really don't see the coach being an issue. Last year's roster was not impressive and actually was on the cusp of overachieving. I think making the playoffs would have been over-achieving. This year's team is probably a playoff team, if healthy. And that's a big "if." If this team is not healthy, as they are already showing, this roster will need to overachieve to make it. There are simply not enough scorers on this team, when not healthy, to win consistently in the NHL.

we would give up too much to get one of them. Cheveldayoff is an idiot but we aren't getting Kane or Wheeler unless we give them Larsson or Merrill and a 1st imo.

 

[Devils Dominion]

well they always draft the "best player available" regardless of position, which i guess is ok, but when you're starved for forwards i dont see justifying drafting another defenseman in the top 3 rounds next draft.

You have to draft the BPA in the first few rounds.

When they focused on a position it came back to haunt them.
Ex: Tedenby over Carlson, Damphousse and Ahonen in the 90s

 

[Devilsfan992]

I really hope Ryder keeps it up. He'd be a perfect guy to trade at the deadline. He can possibly get a second round pick if he stays at .50 - .75 PPG while netting 15ish goals by the deadline.

 

[NJDevs26]

That's the issue at hand and we need to address this. I know Jim has hope for guys like Black, Bell, Coleman, Thompson etc as do I, but I'd like to have some more sure-fire type prospects. Lou had a chance of increasing his odds on one in the draft, but he drafted Jacobs instead, when we were obviously stacked on defense anyways. Unless he planned on trading one of the young defensemen, I don't get that draft move.

Hence why I said in another thread it might take five years to get the neccesary forward core to win. Most of those guys are like 2-3 years away from making the NHL and presumably another couple years away from being solid contributors if they make it.

 

[Devils090]

I really hope Ryder keeps it up. He'd be a perfect guy to trade at the deadline. He can possibly get a second round pick if he stays at .50 - .75 PPG while netting 15ish goals by the deadline.

Ryder was moved for a 3rd back in the lockout year(had 14 points in 19 games at the time) i'd take that if we could get it.