GDT: Devils @ Flyers 7pm MSG+: Just how many more of these are there??!!

[OmNomNom]

lol @ this commercial they always air for JAG. the girl has a lehigh valley phantoms practice jersey

 

[Jersey Fresh]

With parity in the league such as it is, I don't think any team is ever really 5-6 years away.

Of course, management still needs to make the right decisions.

 

[R8Devs]

We only get to play the blame Lou card for so long, eventually they have to do something with all this cap space and start going forward. It's not like they're having to run out bad contracts first, the decks were already cleared for the most part other than a few pieces.

What honestly could Ray have done that would make this team much better in the short term without sacrificing the long term? He acquired Palmieri and Hall in his first two seasons here. UFA was bare. He inherited some bad contracts with Clowe, Cammalleri, Zajac, and Greene. Before people get mad I'm not saying they are bad players I'm saying I don't think teams would sign those guys to what is remaining on their contracts. He didn't have one star skater on the team or a hotshot prospect on the team he inherited either. You can look at all the new GMs in the past five years and see they had more than what Shero inherited in terms of assets. And they haven't gotten lucky in the lottery yet either. It

Only Devils fans on hf act like this team is a couple small pieces away. The pieces the Devils don't have would make any team great if they added it (#1C, #1D). No team in the league would have traded their roster/prospects for the team that Lou left behind.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Its all about drafting well ladies and gentlemen, this takes time. If our kids become legit then that makes other players expendable and you can find more trades. We still don't have enough assets to make big move. Gotta hope Castron finds us gems and Shero can find more trades.

 

[Blender]

With parity in the league such as it is, I don't think any team is ever really 5-6 years away.

Of course, management still needs to make the right decisions.

Quite a few teams have turned things around quicker than that. Of course management needs to make the right decisions and you need a little bit of luck as well. The opposite side of things is being like the Oilers where you keep drafting the same type of player every year and none of your picks after the first round work out, and you end up with a decade long rebuild.

 

[Bleedred]

In two seasons they added Palms and Hall which is good. They have to keep landing these pieces and draft well. Thats all they can do. Dip into free agency when its needed.

What else can be done? They have to wait until this next wave of kids comes up and see how they pan out.

I think this is a completely valid expectation and request if you don't improve next year. If we don't improve next year, Shero needs to think about canning his boy. Nasreddine too, as he handles the defense.

Our PP hasn't been good this year, but I'd sooner spare Ward.

 

[NJDevs26]

What honestly could Ray have done that would make this team much better in the short term without sacrificing the long term? He acquired Palmieri and Hall in his first two seasons here. UFA was bare. He inherited some bad contracts with Clowe, Cammalleri, Zajac, and Greene. Before people get mad I'm not saying they are bad players I'm saying I don't think teams would sign those guys to what is remaining on their contracts. He didn't have one star skater on the team or a hotshot prospect on the team he inherited either. You can look at all the new GMs in the past five years and see they had more than what Shero inherited in terms of assets.

I'm not saying he had to win in two years, but when I see all this talk about taking 5-6 years I'm sorry there's no real reason for it to take that long when the one thing Lou did leave us is cap flexibility. Yeah they have to draft well and I'm not expecting miracles next year but if the rebuild is really gonna take that much longer then they really gotta explore this offseason or next what they can get for Cory, Hall, etc. Since none of those guys are going to be around at the end anyway if it is going to be a 5-6 year process.

 

[OmNomNom]

any good D to look forward to as UFAs in 2018? i see fowler potentially

we need to go hard after shattenkirk this offseason, but if we don't, we're gonna have to up our defense somewhere, because god knows we don't have anything in the pipeline

 

[ScottyK]

If we strike out on Shattenkirk I see Shero over-paying a bit for Schultz. The D-men have to become more mobile, just having Sevs...an to a extent Moore, isn't enough.

I can see up to 3 new d-men here next year. Shattenkirk/Alzner( I know he doesn't fit the mobile bill )/Schultz - Trade + Whomever replaces lovejoy when Vegas takes him.

 

[NjDevsRR]

I think summer of 2018 is where we dip heavily into free agency. By then we will know how Zacha Wood Blandisi Santini McLeod JQ Speers Gignac Rykov White Blackwood Kapla Jacobs Bastian Anderson look in the NHL and AHL.

 

[Tundra]

What honestly could Ray have done that would make this team much better in the short term without sacrificing the long term? He acquired Palmieri and Hall in his first two seasons here. UFA was bare. He inherited some bad contracts with Clowe, Cammalleri, Zajac, and Greene. Before people get mad I'm not saying they are bad players I'm saying I don't think teams would sign those guys to what is remaining on their contracts. He didn't have one star skater on the team or a hotshot prospect on the team he inherited either. You can look at all the new GMs in the past five years and see they had more than what Shero inherited in terms of assets. And they haven't gotten lucky in the lottery yet either. It

Only Devils fans on hf act like this team is a couple small pieces away. The pieces the Devils don't have would make any team great if they added it (#1C, #1D). No team in the league would have traded their roster/prospects for the team that Lou left behind.

Great summation.

 

[R8Devs]

I'm not saying he had to win in two years, but when I see all this talk about taking 5-6 years I'm sorry there's no real reason for it to take that long when the one thing Lou did leave us is cap flexibility. Yeah they have to draft well and I'm not expecting miracles next year but if the rebuild is really gonna take that long then they really gotta explore this offseason what they can get for Cory, Hall, etc.

They have cap flexibility because they don't have talented players taking away that cap space. There is only so much you can do with that flexibility anyway like signing UFAs (barren for the last couple years), or taking on bad contracts. The bad contracts traded was Datsyuk in which the Coyotes gave up a lot to move just four spots in the draft, Teravainen/Bickell in which Carolina had to give up a 2nd and a 3rd, and Bolland which landed the Coyotes Crouse but we don't know if the Devils brass even likes Crouse or if Florida would have traded him to an Eastern Conference team when there's a Western Conference option.

I don't think it should take 5-6 years either but a huge part of that is just luck. They can get Hischier + Dahlin in the next two years and their outlook would be completely different than if they got non-top 3 picks.

 

[Bleedred]

Why wasn't the emergency backup allowed to come in? Carolina did it with their equipment manager for 8 seconds a couple months ago. Wasn't it the same situation?

 

[Bleedred]

I never thought I would be saying this earlier this year, but it really needs to be said now.

We've been horrific defensively without him, even more than usual.

#freemerrill

 

[Blender]

Why wasn't the emergency backup allowed to come in? Carolina did it with their equipment manager for 8 seconds a couple months ago. Wasn't it the same situation?

Stolarz was being pulled by choice, not because of an injury or equipment issue.

 

[Bleedred]

Stolarz was being pulled by choice, not because of an injury or equipment issue.

What Ward being pulled for equipment issue in the game where the Canes equipment guy played for 8 seconds?

 

[Blender]

What Ward being pulled for equipment issue in the game where the Canes equipment guy played for 8 seconds?

I don't remember the exact situation, but I thought he came out for one play for an issue, and went back in after.

 

[tr83]

I think summer of 2018 is where we dip heavily into free agency. By then we will know how Zacha Wood Blandisi Santini McLeod JQ Speers Gignac Rykov White Blackwood Kapla Jacobs Bastian Anderson look in the NHL and AHL.

We were saying the same thing 3 years ago about that crop of prospects. Jim was gushing about Graham Black, Blake Coleman, Ryan Kujawinski, and Blake Pietila. Even Adam Larsson's ceiling seems lower than it should.

Any list of prospects will not get me excited. This team has an abysmal track record for developing players.

Tell me. Have any of the kids gotten significantly better as the year has gone on? I see the same **** night in and night out.

They all show flashes, but zero consistency. That has to fall on the assistant coaches AND the ****ing skills guy.

 

[Emperoreddy]

We were saying the same thing 3 years ago about that crop of prospects. Jim was gushing about Graham Black, Blake Coleman, Ryan Kujawinski, and Blake Pietila. Even Adam Larsson's ceiling seems lower than it should.

Any list of prospects will not get me excited. This team has an abysmal track record for developing players.

Tell me. Have any of the kids gotten significantly better as the year has gone on? I see the same **** night in and night out.

They all show flashes, but zero consistency. That has to fall on the assistant coaches AND the ****ing skills guy.

If you can't see the big difference between our current crop of kids vs back then, I don't know what to tell you.

Team phoning in the last 5 games means literally nothing for next year. This is a really silly game for this board to go into chicken little mode over.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Devils don't have nice pieces. Please Dano.

Yes they do. What an insanely nonsense comment.

 

[NjDevsRR]

We were saying the same thing 3 years ago about that crop of prospects. Jim was gushing about Graham Black, Blake Coleman, Ryan Kujawinski, and Blake Pietila. Even Adam Larsson's ceiling seems lower than it should.

Any list of prospects will not get me excited. This team has an abysmal track record for developing players.

Tell me. Have any of the kids gotten significantly better as the year has gone on? I see the same **** night in and night out.

They all show flashes, but zero consistency. That has to fall on the assistant coaches AND the ****ing skills guy.

So you are comparing Contes horrible recent track record to this current crop that haven't even reached the AHL yet? OK.

Like the other poster said; if you can't see the difference between this group currently in the minors than the Kuja Coleman Pietla group then you are out to lunch.

 

[Emperoreddy]

So you are comparing Contes horrible recent track record to this current crop that haven't even reached the AHL yet? OK.

Like the other poster said; if you can't see the difference between this group currently in the minors than the Kuja Coleman Pietla group then you are out to lunch.

It isn't even a fair comparison too. That crop were late round fodder.

This crop features a top 10 pick in Zacha and a top 15 in McLeod along with a first rounder in JQ. we absolutely should be expecting big things from them as they are players on a total other level from the Colemans of the world.

 

[NjDevsRR]

It isn't even a fair comparison too. That crop were late round fodder.

This crop features a top 10 pick in Zacha and a top 15 in McLeod along with a first rounder in JQ. we absolutely should be expecting big things from them as they are players on a total other level from the Colemans of the world.

Then add potential in Speers Gignac Bastian White Blackwood Rykov

 

[Emperoreddy]

Then add potential in Speers Gignac Bastian White Blackwood Rykov

And another crop from this draft that could feature a top 5 or even top 3 pick.

 

[NjDevsRR]

And another crop from this draft that could feature a top 5 or even top 3 pick.

I think the 2018-2019 season is where we should spend money and try to make the playoffs. We should have enough kids competing for spots by then and more assets to move. Next two drafts are critical if we want to limit this rebuild to 3-4 seasons.

Who knows, if Shero takes advantage of this expansion draft and finds another steal we can be looking a totally different roster again this September and you never know what can happen, especially if Cory has a bounce back season.