Around the League 2018-19 Offseason Part II

[Devils Dominion]

Carolina, sure. Isles? No shot.

Trotz will get them to play a system and they have a lot of young talent

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Islanders lost their best player and missed the playoffs by like 17 points

its going to be REALLY hard for them to even be in the playoff picture

 

[TheUnseenHand]

They don't have to look much further than last seasons Cup runner up to see what a mediocre at best team that is well coached and has a chip on their shoulder can do. They are missing a MAF, though.

 

[NJDevs26]

Vegas had unproven guys who got bigger roles and thrived in them plus backstopped by Fleury and a decent vet defense, the Isles guys are basically exactly what they are at this point. Not to mention Vegas was also in a far weaker division last year than the Metro is.

 

[Tundra]

Trotz will get them to play a system and they have a lot of young talent

Their biggest hole at the moment is #2 center. Other than that they have balanced scoring, especially with Beauvillier down in the lineup. They need to get something out of Boychuk. He can't be hurt and out of the lineup, given what they are paying him.

 

[Billdo]

Trotz will get them to play a system and they have a lot of young talent

They DO NOT have "a lot of young talent".

 

[Blender]

They DO NOT have "a lot of young talent".

Yup, their team isn't even very young. Most of their roster is 25+ and is what it is. New York Islanders - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps

The average age of their roster is actually older than ours is.

 

[Stephen Gionta]

Minnesota's signing of Dumba at $6 million a year is a bit more than I had expected. They are going to have trouble keeping everybody on their roster. Would love for Ray to find a way to pry Niederreiter or Coyle from that team. Or even Brodin.

 

[nugg]

I definitely don't hate him. Lou was undeniably the architect of the '95, '00 and '03 teams. And those teams weren't just Marty, Scott and Patty, either. They ran like Swiss watches. Lou is to hockey what Enzo Ferrari was to Formula 1, a stubborn old genius who perfectly understood his own era, but got left behind by time.

He also got us Shero, IMO the best GM in the game

 

[BahlDeep]

Trotz will get them to play a system and they have a lot of young talent

Are they making the playoffs over the Devils?

 

[MadDevil]

Are they making the playoffs over the Devils?

Well, everybody in the Metro is making the playoffs over us if you believe DD.

I don't think they'll be a playoff team, but I don't think they'll be Buffalo Sabres bad either. Lehner should be motivated since it's likely his last chance to be a starter in this league. If he isn't though, they could be absolutely terrible.

 

[Devils Dominion]

Are they making the playoffs over the Devils?

It's certainly possible

 

[MadDevil]

 

[Emperoreddy]

Carolina, sure. Isles? No shot.

I am not convinced with Carolina. Hanafin and Lindholm out for Dougie and de Haan? That is better on the back end, more so because of Dougie, but how much?

D was not their issue last year. It was horrendous goal tending and no one around to score goals. Do we believe those issues were solved?

They should be better then the Islanders and Rangers at worst though.

 

[Bleedred]

Yeah but the Canes signed Mrazek. That instantly fixes their goaltending!

 

[MadDevil]

Yeah but the Canes signed Mrazek. That instantly fixes their goaltending!

Sadly now that they got rid of Peters their goaltending might actually not suck.

 

[glenwo2]

It's certainly possible

It's also certainly possible that I win the Mega Millions.

Or that Mark Messier grows a pair and stops crying.

 

[My3Sons]

Minnesota's signing of Dumba at $6 million a year is a bit more than I had expected. They are going to have trouble keeping everybody on their roster. Would love for Ray to find a way to pry Niederreiter or Coyle from that team. Or even Brodin.

Meh. MN will probably try to force NJ to take an anchor like Parise.

 

[NJDevs26]

Now that you bring it up I could actually see Lou do something like that lol, take a Parise and a defender back for whatever the Wild want in terms of prospects. Not like they have anything else to spend THEIR cap on either

Realistically though I don't think they can move the Parise contract 'at all', even to Lou.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

talking up a bottom 5 team in the NHL in the Islanders is a really low point for many on this board

sheesh. You guys are suckers for punishment.

 

[My3Sons]

Other than TOR did any team really change its personality or talent level this summer? The UFA market seemed pretty blah. Maybe BUF but I’m not sure a teenager is ready to turn that battleship.

 

[MadDevil]

Other than TOR did any team really change its personality or talent level this summer? The UFA market seemed pretty blah. Maybe BUF but I’m not sure a teenager is ready to turn that battleship.

St. Louis maybe? They added ROR, Bozak, and Maroon.

In the division, Carolina seems to be playing musical chairs, moving guys out for similar or slightly less productive players. If they keep Faulk and Skinner maybe they finally take the step that's been predicted the last 2-3 years. Although they've got a rookie head coach in Brind'Amour, and the franchise legend player to head coach thing seems to fail more often than not. Philly did add some offense with JVR, but as usual their goaltending is suspect. Pittsburgh and Washington will probably be at the top as usual and didn't really change much. Columbus it kind of depends on what happens with Panarin and Bobrovsky. The Rangers are rebuilding. The Islanders could either be an annoying team to play or completely terrible.

Which is why I think the "everybody but us got better" narrative from the usual Debbie Downers is overblown.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Other than TOR did any team really change its personality or talent level this summer? The UFA market seemed pretty blah. Maybe BUF but I’m not sure a teenager is ready to turn that battleship.

Not in the east at least. Tampa potentially if they can get the EK deal done.

Carolina is just playing musical chairs on D as Mad said, and D was never their problem.

Philly maybe? JVR will help them score more, but honestly I don’t see Philly being that much different. Extremely streaky and they either make it or miss depending on what streak they end the season on.

Buffalo has way too many holes on D still even with Dahlin. I do really like their center prospects, but they aren’t ready to carry the load with ROR now out of town.

Isles certainly did not get better. They will be bad with structure now instead of without.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Philly will likely be the team to keep an eye on next season not because of JvR, but because of the progression of their young defenders. Just like teams will have to keep an eye on us because of the progression of our young forwards.

 

[devilsblood]

Philly will likely be the team to keep an eye on next season not because of JvR, but because of the progression of their young defenders. Just like teams will have to keep an eye on us because of the progression of our young forwards.

Very possible we start the season with 4 defenders 24 or younger.

We've seemed to have lost faith in Sev's ability to mature as a player, I know I have to an extent, but if he could stabilize his game it would go a long way towards us cementing ourselves as a playoff team.