Confirmed Signing with Link: [NJD] Dougie Hamilton signs with the Devils (7 years, $9M AAV) [Part II]

[Habs Halifax]

So you could say the same thing about literally any move that the team makes to improve itself, no?

All I am saying is I would have went for more lottery picks. And the potential rise up the standings is something I would have delayed

 

[Blackjack]

All I am saying is I would have went for more lottery picks. And the potential rise up the standings is something I would have delayed

What is the correct number to get? The Devils have picked #1, #1, #4, #6, #8, and #12 in the last six years. They've supplemented these early picks with another half dozen mid-late 1st round picks.

 

[Habs Halifax]

What is the correct number to get? The Devils have picked #1, #1, #4, #6, #8, and #12 in the last six years. They've supplemented these early picks with another half dozen mid-late 1st round picks.

The correct number is when you hit and you have pieces in many places. The next two drafts are good ones and they come and go in waives. Hughes, Holtz, Hischier, Smith are a good start but I'd go with it for a bit longer yet. Just stock pile them so you limit the holes moving forward.

Look at the Leafs. Rielly, Nylander, Marner, Matthews and then what? The minute you move up, your picks become 15-30 range and you probably consider trading them for short term gains that may or may not work out.

Look at Yzerman. He's going to stay at the bottom for as long as he can IMO.

 

[Jerzey Devil]

What is the correct number to get? The Devils have picked #1, #1, #4, #6, #8, and #12 in the last six years. They've supplemented these early picks with another half dozen mid-late 1st round picks.

Yeah both Smith and Mercer were around 18th OA picks.

Then there Mukhamadulin and Stillman who were late first round picks and Nolan Foote who was a late first round pick who was acquired by trade.

That’s a lot of first rounders. Obviously not all are going to be stars but it’s a pretty good collection of players for 6 years of drafting.

 

[Jerzey Devil]

The correct number is when you hit and you have pieces in many places. The next two drafts are good ones and they come and go in waives. Hughes, Holtz, Hischier, Smith are a good start but I'd go with it for a bit longer yet. Just stock pile them so you limit the holes moving forward.

Look at the Leafs. Rielly, Nylander, Marner, Matthews and then what? The minute you move up, your picks become 15-30 range and you probably consider trading them for short term gains that may or may not work out.

Look at Yzerman. He's going to stay at the bottom for as long as he can IMO.

The only real hole the Devils have due to drafting is RHD. That’s the only position they didn’t address through the draft over the last 6 years. Signing Hamilton greatly makes up for that. These are their 1st round picks since 2015:

Zacha - C, LW
McLeod - C
Hischier - C
Smith - LHD
J Hughes - C
Holtz - RW, LW
Mercer - C, RW
Mukhamadulin - LHD
L Hughes - LHD
Stillman - RW

Foote - LW (trade)

 

[My3Sons]

The correct number is when you hit and you have pieces in many places. The next two drafts are good ones and they come and go in waives. Hughes, Holtz, Hischier, Smith are a good start but I'd go with it for a bit longer yet. Just stock pile them so you limit the holes moving forward.

Look at the Leafs. Rielly, Nylander, Marner, Matthews and then what? The minute you move up, your picks become 15-30 range and you probably consider trading them for short term gains that may or may not work out.

Look at Yzerman. He's going to stay at the bottom for as long as he can IMO.

I think that as a secondary market team, you want to create something other than a perpetual losing atmosphere. You want your players to be open to sticking around. At this point, the team already has to make decisions on guys like Zacha and Bratt. They were only drafted in 2015 and their UFA status is almost here. Some of that can be avoided by keeping guys from turning pro quickly but only for an extra year or two at most. NJ seems to have sorted that out finally but for years they rushed guys. Staying bad and drafting at the top only works for so many years. Look at VAN and the issue with Petterson. I'm sure they'd love to have him sign long term and would find a way to make room if they had to, but based on his statements he's apparently not open to it. If Jack Hughes wants out based on a losing atmosphere are you hoping the next guy drafted high will say ok to a long rebuild? NJ has been bad for a long time now with one good year as a breather. Guys drafted now are not likely to help for at least two or three years.

I understand the idea of moves that only incrementally help don't move the team forward enough, but I think the difference this time for NJ is that the guys acquired aren't expected to be core players. They are supposed to be good support players, with the exception of Hamilton.

Nobody is counting on Tatar and a guy to transform the NJ offense. In my view, I think he's a third line guy that gets spotted in the top six for injuries. I know some see him playing with Hughes but given the relative success of Sharangovich, Hughes, and Kuokkanen playing together with the potential for organic improvement I'm not sure Tatar is guaranteed that spot. Hischier, Zacha and Bratt are buddies and in their limited time together their underlying numbers are apparently good and that in a season when Hischier was hurt and Bratt arrived late after a holdout. They are likely to play well together this season in my view, especially when it's a contract year for Bratt and Zacha.

Bernier is more of the same. NJ isn't asking him to be number one goalie. The hope is he can play as a solid number 2 but the team certainly expects a healthy and more mature Blackwood to be the goalie he was pre-Covid.

Hamilton is a different case but to be fair, Subban's deal is coming off the books at the end of this season and the year after that Severson will be coming off the books. NJ won't be paying top dollar to anyone else on defense for some time and having a competent top pair guy when you don't have one just doesn't sound all that risky. In retrospect it's not like Subban hurt NJ in terms of getting high picks. Once he goes either the young players get better or having Hamilton won't matter.

 

[NinjaKick]

good on the Devils for taking advantage of their cap space... they could afford to overpay a little.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Regarding the 3c it doesn’t look like the Isles are bringing Zajac back. He’d be a fine option for 3c it just depends if he wants to stay close to his family, chase a cup with a contender, or retire.

Zajac is cooked

no chance he should be relied upon to be a 3rd liner

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Zajac is cooked

Except last year he was the Devils top center quite a few nights.

no chance he should be relied upon to be a 3rd liner

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

no he most certainly was not.

He got hot for like 2 weeks, and shot 20% as a Devil

He is shot. And I love Travis.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

No to Zajac coming back.
Ruff gave McLeod extra ice time and responsibilities after Zajac was traded, and I thought he handled it well.

 

[Guttersniped]

The correct number is when you hit and you have pieces in many places. The next two drafts are good ones and they come and go in waives. Hughes, Holtz, Hischier, Smith are a good start but I'd go with it for a bit longer yet. Just stock pile them so you limit the holes moving forward.

Look at the Leafs. Rielly, Nylander, Marner, Matthews and then what? The minute you move up, your picks become 15-30 range and you probably consider trading them for short term gains that may or may not work out.

Look at Yzerman. He's going to stay at the bottom for as long as he can IMO.

We’ve been bad enough to pick in the top 10 for a decade.

2011: we were 8th but we won the draft lottery which jumped us to 4th for Larsson.

2012: Cinderella SC run.

2013: Lou trades the 9th pick for Schneider.

2014: What should have been the 10th pick transmogrified into the 30th due to the Kovilchuk contract penalty.

2015: 6th
2016: 11th > traded down to 12th
2017: 5th worst team, win 1OA
2018: 17th
2019: 3rd worst team, win 1OA
2020: 6th worst team, drop to 7th
2021: 3rd worst team, drop to 4th

We’ve been bad for a real long while and can’t sell a fanbase hope forever and you can’t raise your young players in never ending misery factory. Detroit has only been picking in the top 10 since 2017 and Yzerman only got hired in April 2019.

Without getting too much in the weeds here the biggest issue before 2018 was giant black hole that existed instead of offense but after 2018 goaltending became the biggest issue. Crawford was supposed to help solve that and Bernier is really a key signing here.

And while Dougie was a huge signing, the only other additions we made were Tater (on a two year deal) and Bernier (on a two year deal). We traded for Graves, who has two years on his deal left. Some people weirdly keep bringing up Subban’s cap hit like it matters… news flash, he’s a UFA at the end of the year. We have a ton a cap flexibility.

So yeah we made a huge commitment to elite defenseman, but if we didn’t a chunk of that money could easy end up being spent on a cheaper but worse UFA defenseman. It’s a big contact, it be a problem in the future but that’s life.

And the plan is to better. This is a excellent draft with a lot of great RHD, which is exactly what we need, but we weren’t going to tank anyway (who would at this stage?). I very much hope we don’t trade our 1st and we don’t actually have to. Lou immediately went from seller to buyer when he was with the Leafs. Maybe that was Shannaplan thing too but I would grab a RHD with the 1st. Carolina is good example of team that collects assets to keep their prospect pool growing while making trades to be competitive.

 

[TBF1972]

Pressure to rise faster than you should rise usually results in middle of the pack teams going nowhere. Devils had opportunity to play more lottery and reinforce the young core around what they already had. I get it, loosing sucks but remember this... if the Devils turn into a middle of the pack team, management and fans look back in 5 years with regrets.

You are right, it's much deeper than just this year.

i would love to see your brain gymnastics!!!

2020-16 kaiden guhle
2019-15 cole caufield
2018-38 alexander romanov
2017-13 nick suzuki

 

[ninetyeight]

Pressure to rise faster than you should rise usually results in middle of the pack teams going nowhere. Devils had opportunity to play more lottery and reinforce the young core around what they already had. I get it, loosing sucks

If you take out that Hall MVP year, Devils' last playoff year was that 2012 cup run. So one could say they've been rebuilding for almost a decade soon, and you think it's still too early to start trying?