GDT: Devils vs. Blue Jackets - 7:00 PM - MSG+

[tr83]

Shero’s biggest mistake was buying this offseason to impress Hall when they should have status quoed or sold.

If that was his idea he deserved his firing. If ownership pushed him to do it to impress Hall, we might be more royally ****ed.

I wouldn't put it past private equity investors. Everything they do is short term and abrupt

 

[Sir Fenwick Corsi]

DVR’d this piece of shit and deleted it after Columbus abused Cory the second time. Was totally disgusted after that. Not shocked at all that they got bitch slapped again. They’re nothing but spineless against the jackets and I’m so sick of it already. We’re talking years of this shit at this point.

Oh and for the love of God Steve, stop calling the goalie by his first f***ing name. That was driving me crazy.

 

[R8Devs]

If they're gonna do another rebuild then the only rationale for getting rid of Shero is he doesn't deserve another rebuild. But he likely would be a better GM for a rebuild than anyone else they bring in. It's the whole turning rebuild into a contender thing that they were struggling with and why they made a change.

I don't think it has to be a full tear down. You have your top 6 centers here. They'll have assets to work with if they trade those guys (Vatanen/Palmieri/Coleman) to get young NHL players on the team next year. Just like they did with Palmieri/Johansson. They have a top pick in the 2020 draft. They have to sign a goalie next year too. I'd try to re-sign Gusev mid-way through next season if he keeps it up. It sucks that it didn't work out but there's enough flexibility within the team to recover and make a better effort next year while making a better future.

 

[NJDevs26]

I wouldn't put it past private equity investors. Everything they do is short term and abrupt

Not everything, they've pretty well stuck to the side their first six years until now.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Trying to impress Hall when he likely had no intention of giving him a max deal anyway was an extremely narrow tightrope to walk. They would have had to have the complete opposite start they did for that strategy to have a chance to work.

Everything we have is ownership wanting that. We have it on record Harris really wanted Hall to stay long term.

We have reports Shero was not comfortable with the Subban trade.

All we have is one rando on this board with zero connections trying to claim ownership is the ones who really want to sell and Shero wanted to buy.

 

[Blender]

Not everything, they've pretty well stuck to the side their first six years until now.

Besides, when they bought the team most of the talk was about the arena value. Investing in an arena is a long term thing as you're mostly relying on leasing revenue.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I don't think it has to be a full tear down. You have your top 6 centers here. They'll have assets to work with if they trade those guys (Vatanen/Palmieri/Coleman) to get young NHL players on the team next year. Just like they did with Palmieri/Johansson. They have a top pick in the 2020 draft. They have to sign a goalie next year too. I'd try to re-sign Gusev mid-way through next season if he keeps it up. It sucks that it didn't work out but there's enough flexibility within the team to recover and make a better effort next year while making a better future.

They have to rebuild the blueline from total scratch.

Maybe they can be plucky overachievers next season, but the blueline is too far away to be retooled.

 

[BenedictGomez]

We have reports Shero was not comfortable with the Subban trade.

Do you have a link on that? I hadnt heard that one, Shero's immediate post-trade commentary seemed giddy with happiness.

 

[njdevils1982]

What's Jaromir Jagr up to these days?

you know, the usual……banging models half his age...

 

[Billdo]

Blackwood finished the game with a .929%.

Schneider finished with a .765%.

Sounds about right.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Do you have a link on that? I hadnt heard that one, Shero's immediate post-trade commentary seemed giddy with happiness.

It was Friedman 31 thoughts. Shero felt “pulled in multiple directions” on that trade. When he was implying the analytics department had a role in his departure before walking that back when Wysh called him and Dreger our.

 

[R8Devs]

They have to rebuild the blueline from total scratch.

Maybe they can be plucky overachievers next season, but the blueline is too far away to be retooled.

Well Subban is going to be here next year. I'd bet on one of Vatanen/Severson being here next year as well. So you have two RHD down. Maybe they can go after Sergachev with the assets they get back from deadline deals. TJ Brodie/Krug are UFAs that could possibly go in on the left side. Maybe a guy like Hanifin might be on the table for Coleman/Palmieri(with contract retention). It would save Calgary on the cap and they might lose him/or a player of value in the expansion draft anyway so at least this way they could save themselves from it and have more money to chase after Hall on July 1.

 

[Guttersniped]

No. A Devils scout was sent to Finland to watch a few HIFK games, because there was a player on that team the Devils were interested in.

Ironically, the Devils scout was tepid on that player he specifically went to watch, but was impressed by this Rafalski player, and was surprised when he found out he was American (IIRC he just assumed he must be Russian or Polish, etc... due to the "ski" in his name) that was basically unknown in Liiga. The rest is Devils' history.

Rafalski wasn’t a secret, a lot of teams were after him.

“In his final year in Finland, he scored 19 goals and 53 points in 53 games, and won the Kultainen kypärä, awarded to the top SM-liiga player of the season, as voted by fellow players. Notably, he also became the first non-Finnish player to win the award.”

“Rafalski was named by Sporting News in 1999 as the best hockey player in the world not playing in the NHL. On May 7, 1999, Rafalski was signed by the New Jersey Devils as a free agent at the age of 26 to start the 1999–2000 season.”

Brian Rafalski - Wikipedia

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

Saying Nico and Hughes are busts is crazy.
It could of been far worse. Nolan Patrick could have been taken instead of Nico . In hindsight Pettersson would of been awesome to draft but if Shero went that far off the board for the first pick and he busted...
A lot of other teams passed on Pettersson too.
Same with Hughes . No way in hell any NHL GM takes Makar at 1 .
Mackinnon and Stamkos was very lack lustre his first season or two . Give Hughes a break . He is playing on the 30th place team right now and had a garbage coach playing a terrible system that has / had everyone putting up career worst numbers so far.

Nico is clearly not a bust, Jack could still be. He has been very disappointing, let’s not sugarcoat it. Points aren’t everything, but anyone that would say they were okay with the rate he’s producing at now is probably lying.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Nico is clearly not a bust, Jack could still be. He has been very disappointing, let’s not sugarcoat it. Points aren’t everything, but anyone that would say they were okay with the rate he’s producing at now is probably lying.

He isn’t strong enough or playing with the right linemates to be a big enough 5on5 presence to make up for the lack of PP points, and no one is scoring on the PP because it’s awful.

He is going to have a very bright future. The odds of him busting are low.

 

[Guttersniped]

Bad game against a bad team.

They’re 12-2-2 in their last 16 games before beating us, they’ve been white hot.

 

[My3Sons]

Nico is clearly not a bust, Jack could still be. He has been very disappointing, let’s not sugarcoat it. Points aren’t everything, but anyone that would say they were okay with the rate he’s producing at now is probably lying.

Jack’s season has been a mess. He is 18 slight of frame and has never experienced any hockey adversity until now. He’s had some bumps and bruises to go with terrible coaching and linemates that don’t complement him. He’s been disappointing but he’s also been somewhat set up to fail.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Trying to buy low on defense has been one of our big problems.

The biggest D trades during Shero’s tenure have involved assets we didn’t have or didn’t want to trade. 1st round picks usually included.

You can do that with forwards. We have done that. There isn’t any shortcuts with building a blueline.

 

[Unknown Caller]

Do you have a link on that? I hadnt heard that one, Shero's immediate post-trade commentary seemed giddy with happiness.

That’s not what the report said. It said Shero was “pulled in different directions” on the trade. Meaning he probably wanted Subban and the analytics team was advising ownership against it. It was never stated that Shero was opposed to the Subban trade. Just that there was a disagreement within the organization on whether to do it.

Given that Shero texted the notorious green check mark to Hall after the deal happened and said he really pushed Poile on it, it’s safe to say that Shero was advocating for the trade.

 

[Eggtimer]

Enough with the talk of Hughes being a bust . He is about 1/2 way through his first NHL season ... If he still is putting up numbers like this in 3 years then we can talk about him being a bust .
No doubt this team is terrible right now but we have a very good base moving forward .
#1/2 Centers are there . It’s nearly impossible to obtain those via trade . Other teams have been trying for years to obtain just one ( Preds /Habs Rangers etc etc)
Next hardest to get are legit 1/2 D . Smith may be a 2 or 3 D man , we will have a very high pick next draft with a chance of the Yotes pick being 10-15 and able to get two high end players .
Add in whatever we may get from trade deadline deals and it’s not as bad and all doom and gloom .
Sign a UFA goalie stop gap like Halak / Lehner / and try for Muzzin .
With some luck and good decisions by our GM , being competitive and a playoff wildcard team as early as next year isn’t completely insane to think is possible

 

[haak84]

Bratt and/or zacha on the first line is criminal. That’s the stuff that gets gm’ s and coaches fired.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Bratt and/or zacha on the first line is criminal. That’s the stuff that gets gm’ s and coaches fired.

Bratt is not the issue.

 

[Billdo]

Calling Columbus a bad team is kind of silly, no? They're 17 points ahead of us.

 

[njdevils1982]

Calling Columbus a bad team is kind of silly, no? They're 17 points ahead of us.

a lifetime of futility might say otherwise

 

[Camille the Eel]

Jack’s season has been a mess. He is 18 slight of frame and has never experienced any hockey adversity until now. He’s had some bumps and bruises to go with terrible coaching and linemates that don’t complement him. He’s been disappointing but he’s also been somewhat set up to fail.

I thought Hughes was much better tonight than in his last 2 games. The only thing that concerns me with him is how easily he coughs up the puck and gets beaten in puck battles. They literally just brush him aside and take the puck from him. He’s started looking nervous about it: looking around when someone closes on him to get rid of the hot potato as fast as he can. I think he’s not got a lot of confidence at the moment but then also he was sick two games ago and he was much more aggressive and creative tonight.

The loss tonight was largely Schneider wetting the bed on those two or 3 easy goals after we had exhausted ourselves and not scored. The air went out of our tires after that.

I am sorry to see folks want to just tear down the entire roster in the aftermath. We should hold Palms and one of either Vats or Severson. Definitely hold Coleman. We are going to get nothing but picks if we move people like that, and if we do we are just digging a hole with one hand and filling it back in with the other. Endlessly running in place; endlessly building and tearing down and getting nowhere. We - I - want a competitive team next year. No reason why that - with some additions to D, sound coaching and better goaltending - we can’t have that.