Devils 2020-21 team discussion (news, notes and speculation) - part III

[TonySoprano]

I would absolutely re-sign Gusev, but I don't think bringing Palmieri back after this season would be a smart decision. He'll be 31 in the first year of his extension and that contract would look pretty terrible pretty quickly. I absolutely love the player, but if we're detaching emotions from decision making, we would be better served getting a haul of futures for Palmieri and reallocating his salary to pieces that better fit the structure of this team. There's just no way I conceivably see Palmieri being a positive contributor when this team is truly ready to contend and the opportunity cost of keeping him in light of what we could get back is immense.

31 isn't that old. IDT he would be opposed to say a 3 or 4 year deal either. Also IMO I feel like Palms will be ok into his mid 30s due to his play style compared to say a Taylor Hall or Zach Parise.

At some point you need guys who can provide vet leadership, can't have a whole team comprised of guys under 26. Plus I think there's a real shot he's the captain after an extension

 

[Guadana]

Zajac shows everybody his special ability - who can do something real - can develop near him. Hall start to change his direction and his line with travis was best in shot against with more than 300 min or something like that in 16/17 season. Coleman turned into the best third liner and pk beast. Gusev ceased to be a black Swan and became a white one.
Zajac is one season away from his best in the post Parise period. And i think if Fitz sign Hoffman or Toffoli - Zajac and competent winger can help Jack to be a real pro.

*get the basket for tomato

 

[Darkauron]

Sanderson is not remotely NHL ready. How can you say a dman playing on the USDP is NHL ready or remotely close to it?

C'mon.

Key word *could*.He is the most nhl ready D in the first round. That doesnt mean I think he should be playing in the nhl.

 

[Bleedred]

Zajac shows everybody his special ability - who can do something real - can develop near him. Hall start to change his direction and his line with travis was best in shot against with more than 300 min or something like that in 16/17 season. Coleman turned into the best third liner and pk beast. Gusev ceased to be a black Swan and became a white one.
Zajac is one season away from his best in the post Parise period. And i think if Fitz sign Hoffman or Toffoli - Zajac and competent winger can help Jack to be a real pro.

*get the basket for tomato

Zajac is 35 years old, so I highly doubt he’s one season away from his best in the post Parise period.

 

[Guadana]

Zajac is 35 years old, so I highly doubt he’s one season away from his best in the post Parise period.

18/19 was his best or second best. You shouldn`t be picky.

 

[Lindys Lazy Eye]

You need some vets on a team. You can't just have all rookies and in prime players

Likewise you can't have a team like the 2014 devils where we were quite literally the oldest team in the NHL.

A Gusev or Palms extension won't hurt this team provided the terms and conditions are favorable

 

[Nicomo Cosca]

Sanderson is not remotely NHL ready. How can you say a dman playing on the USDP is NHL ready or remotely close to it?

C'mon.

Yeah, Jack is the only player to ever even make that jump directly. And we saw how that went. And ofc defensemen typically take even longer to develop.

 

[njdevils1982]

Zajac is 35 years old, so I highly doubt he’s one season away from his best in the post Parise period.

time flies…..at this point in his career parise has played more seasons and games for the wild then the devils

 

[Edmonton East]

Key word *could*.He is the most nhl ready D in the first round. That doesnt mean I think he should be playing in the nhl.

Don't try to shift the goal posts with your last 2 sentences. You said a dman coming out of the USDP is NHL ready or could be. Yea, and I COULD win the lottery next week.

Strawman strawman strawman.

 

[Bleedred]

18/19 was his best or second best. You shouldn`t be picky.

I think I understand what you meant now. That we are only a year removed from his best season in the post Parise era. And I think that’s fair. 13-14 with Jagr was really good for him too.

 

[Darkauron]

Don't try to shift the goal posts with your last 2 sentences. You said a dman coming out of the USDP is NHL ready or could be. Yea, and I COULD win the lottery next week.

Strawman strawman strawman.

I am not shifting anything at all.

I said they could be in the NHL. Which has been said by many scouts and analyst about Sanderson multiple times. Take a chill pill.

 

[Forge]

31 isn't that old. IDT he would be opposed to say a 3 or 4 year deal either. Also IMO I feel like Palms will be ok into his mid 30s due to his play style compared to say a Taylor Hall or Zach Parise.

I'm not going to pretend to know what kind of person that Palms is, or what he values or wants or anything like that, but you have to keep in mind that there is like 0 incentive for him to take that type of deal (which is one of the reasons that I'm fine with shipping him, because i Have no interest in signing him for longer than that time period). People his age are still signing 5-6 year deals, so what you're proposing could cost him anywhere between like 7 - 21 million dollars in salary. It's unlikely that he's cashing in again after a 3 or 4 year contract at that kind of AAV, so I don't know why he would be amenable to 3-4 years. Maybe covid changes things, or he really would be okay with that type of deal for some reason, I don't know.

 

[Forge]

You need some vets on a team. You can't just have all rookies and in prime players

Likewise you can't have a team like the 2014 devils where we were quite literally the oldest team in the NHL.

A Gusev or Palms extension won't hurt this team provided the terms and conditions are favorable

I mean, vets are always available. That part isn't a problem. I think the concern is more about committing long term to vets who are getting close to a perceived expiration date.

 

[RSeen]

My realistic dream offseason:
Acquire Yanni Gourde for peanuts from tampa
Sign Brendan Dillon to a 3 year deal
Acquire Vince Dunn for one of the 1sts
Sign Cam Talbot to a 2 year deal
Bratt and Blackwood get 6 year extensions at reasonable price tags

I feel taking Gourde would be helping Tampa. Consdiering his term and that he is coming off a second downward trending season, I wouldn't want him. I think he has a NMC or NTC anyways.

Dunn crushes it in 3rd pair minutes, but I think he is redundant given we have Butcher.

Dillon I wouldn't be opposed to on that type of term.

Getting Bratt and Blackwood to long-term deals would be great if we could keep the AAV's down.

 

[Forge]

Dunn crushes it in 3rd pair minutes, but I think he is redundant given we have Butcher.

Butcher is kind of a pain in the ass working around tbh. It sucks that he's basically the only LD we have on the roster at this point...I don't think he's completely without value in terms of a trade, but I Don't know that we can actually afford to trade him. He's not awful, and in the right situation, he's just fine. But just trying to mix and match him with what we have, pushing him up or down the lineup...it's really a pain.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Dunn skates like the wind and Butcher skates slower than me

 

[RSeen]

Butcher is kind of a pain in the ass working around tbh. It sucks that he's basically the only LD we have on the roster at this point...I don't think he's completely without value in terms of a trade, but I Don't know that we can actually afford to trade him. He's not awful, and in the right situation, he's just fine. But just trying to mix and match him with what we have, pushing him up or down the lineup...it's really a pain.

Butcher crushed it in a 3rd pairing role his first 2 years and was fine this past year. I am fine with having Butcher here in that type of a role. Dunn is certainly coming off a better season but with adding him, having Butcher and Smith, you likely have one or 2 players playing too high in the line up next year.

 

[Forge]

Butcher crushed it in a 3rd pairing role his first 2 years and was fine this past year. I am fine with having Butcher here in that type of a role. Dunn is certainly coming off a better season but with adding him, having Butcher and Smith, you likely have one or 2 players playing too high in the line up next year.

Yeah, but then what are you doing with Smith, who will also need to be sheltered and definitely couldn't be paired with butcher if he played his off hand (though I think we have played him on his proper side in camps)

 

[MichaelJ]

Dunn skates like the wind and Butcher skates slower than me

Yea, Butcher doesn’t make Dunn unnecessary or a redundant acquisition. Acquiring Dunn paves the way to send Butcher out.

 

[RSeen]

Yeah, but then what are you doing with Smith, who will also need to be sheltered and definitely couldn't be paired with butcher if he played his off hand (though I think we have played him on his proper side in camps)

That is my point. With Smith coming up, I don't think Dunn is a fit given we would have Smith and Butcher. While Dunn could be an upgrade of Butcher, I don't know if it is significant enough to warrant trading a first.

I'd rather use the picks or look for a different type of player than Dunn.

 

[Billdo]

Dillon-Subban
Dunn-Severson
Mueller/Butcher-Smith/Carrick

sign me the hell up.

 

[Balance]

You'd really have to be crazy to not resign Gusev. And that's with the hope that Gusev would even want to resign here.

He had 44 pts in 64 games with a bad team and while having difficulty at the beginning getting both points and ice time. He finally gets a coach that doesn't hate Euros and he literally goes on a PPG pace.

Beyond anything, I think the Coleman trade happened because of what management saw in Gusev. They realized that we have a big time producer along with Hischier and Hughes and realized that the team can trade a forward in order to improve the defense down the line with additional picks.

 

[Unknown Caller]

31 isn't that old. IDT he would be opposed to say a 3 or 4 year deal either. Also IMO I feel like Palms will be ok into his mid 30s due to his play style compared to say a Taylor Hall or Zach Parise.

At some point you need guys who can provide vet leadership, can't have a whole team comprised of guys under 26. Plus I think there's a real shot he's the captain after an extension

So you sign a vet like we did with Boyle a few years ago or Simmonds this year to a short term deal. Imagine having a 34 year old Palmieri eat up $6.5 million when Nico and Hughes are in their prime and we’re trying to add talent around them. Would just be a really shortsighted decision to extend him for more than a couple years. Especially when we can get incredibly valuable assets for him.

 

[Lindys Lazy Eye]

So just give Gusev a three year deal and trade out Palms due to him being the more valuable trade piece out of the two.

 

[RSeen]

You'd really have to be crazy to not resign Gusev. And that's with the hope that Gusev would even want to resign here.

He had 44 pts in 64 games with a bad team and while having difficulty at the beginning getting both points and ice time. He finally gets a coach that doesn't hate Euros and he literally goes on a PPG pace.

Beyond anything, I think the Coleman trade happened because of what management saw in Gusev. They realized that we have a big time producer along with Hischier and Hughes and realized that the team can trade a forward in order to improve the defense down the line with additional picks.

Are you kidding me? Hynes is the one who got Gusev going and put him in a position to succeed. Some of you guys just want to blame the coach but reality is no coach can make this team make the playoffs, its a weak NHL roster.

Gusev was terrible when he started...reality is he needed time to adjust. Hynes did a great job getting him going.

How does Coleman have anything to do with Gusev? They are not even close to similar players and play different roles.