Player grades

Blackjack

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No, I was the poster that got mad at you for demanding NJ keep Cory throughout the term of his deal with NJ and then your stubborn insistence that they negotiate a long term deal for him when it was obvious to everyone else that his hip was held together with paper clips and duct tape and those end of season runs where he played well were just illusions. How you missed that was beyond me.

Cut him a break, this guy believed in the Hamburglar when everyone else was ready to move on.
 
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Maine Fan

Defense Wins Chanpionships
Apr 19, 2015
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My opinion based on play this past season.
IMO no Devils player deserves an A+, A, A- for this past season.

Goalie

Wedgewood:C+
Blackwood:C+
Dell:F

Defensemen

Kulikov:B+
Smith:B+
Murry:B
Siegenthaler:C+
Bahl:C
Severson:C
Subban:C-
Tennyson;D
Carrick;D
Butcher;D
Vatanen:F

Offense

Zacha:B+
Sharangovich:B+
Hughes:B
Brett:B
Zajac:B
Wood:B
Kuokkanen:B-
Bastian:B-
McLeod:B-
Maltsev:C
Hischier;PASS
Palmieri:C
Boqvist:C-
Merkeley:C-
Foote:C-
Gusev:F
Johnson:F
 
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FooteBahl

Took a big shitz for Nemec
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Jul 19, 2005
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My opinion based on play this past season.
IMO no Devils player deserves an A+, A, A- for this past season.

Goalie

Wedgewood:C+
Blackwood:C+
Dell:F

Defensemen

Kulikov:B+
Murray:B
Smith:C+
Siegenthaler:C+
Bahl:C
Severson:C
Subban:C-
Tennyson;D
Carrick;D
Butcher;D
Vatanen:F

Offense

Zacha:B+
Sharangovich:B+
Hughes:B
Brett:B
Zajac:B
Wood:B
Kuokkanen:B-
Bastian:B-
McLeod:B-
Maltsev:C
Hischier:C
Palmieri:C
Boqvist:C-
Merkeley:C-
Foote:C-
Gusev:F
Johnson:F
C+ for Smith?!! Did he steal your kid’s bike or something? Lol
 

My3Sons

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My error thanks for pointing that out. I will fix I wanted it to be a B+

You are pretty tough on the young players as I have read your posts so it's interesting to see how you view them in summary. I think you are too hard on Hischier given the injuries and covid (which is why my grade for him was incomplete). He has a small sample size and it's predictably spotty after each injury return (excluding the first three games after each injury and he was 11 points in 16 games which isn't great but at least consistent with past performance). I think you were generous with Zajac, Palmieri, and Wedge. Hopefully the young players make a better impression next season. At least in theory they should all be better.
 

Maine Fan

Defense Wins Chanpionships
Apr 19, 2015
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You are pretty tough on the young players as I have read your posts so it's interesting to see how you view them in summary. I think you are too hard on Hischier given the injuries and covid (which is why my grade for him was incomplete). He has a small sample size and it's predictably spotty after each injury return (excluding the first three games after each injury and he was 11 points in 16 games which isn't great but at least consistent with past performance). I think you were generous with Zajac, Palmieri, and Wedge. Hopefully the young players make a better impression next season. At least in theory they should all be better.


I couldn't make up my mind about Nico. I could be swayed to give him a pass. I agree he had many obstacle to over come. When doing this you have no one to bounce off your reasons for the grades. I did not take into consideration the age of any player. I tried to stick with what did they do on the ice. COVID sure screwed up many players and some different than others, I didn't factor that in either. I constantly say that the Devils are terrible at defense and they do very little to improve it with giant steps so the team will suck, as it has, without defense. My defense included the goalies. Bandaids don't fix defense. Fix the defense and grow the offense.
 

Maine Fan

Defense Wins Chanpionships
Apr 19, 2015
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You are pretty tough on the young players as I have read your posts so it's interesting to see how you view them in summary. I think you are too hard on Hischier given the injuries and covid (which is why my grade for him was incomplete). He has a small sample size and it's predictably spotty after each injury return (excluding the first three games after each injury and he was 11 points in 16 games which isn't great but at least consistent with past performance). I think you were generous with Zajac, Palmieri, and Wedge. Hopefully the young players make a better impression next season. At least in theory they should all be better.


Thank you, after rethinking the fair thing for me to do is give Nico a PASS so I did.
 
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My3Sons

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Thank you, after rethinking the fair thing for me to do is give Nico a PASS so I did.

I agree with you the defense is a bigger issue than the offense. I will offer that if you look back at the pre-Covid games the team was rolling out a competent if unspectacular defense. Murray, Kulikov, Severson and Subban were not terrible when Blackwood was healthy and on his game. Presume Smith replaces one of the veteran left defenders in the top four. They can potentially roll out a competent if unspectacular group again. The problem will be the depth, especially on the right side. The left side looks to have depth long term but it might take some time for Bahl, et al to mature.
 
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glenwo2

LINDY RUFF NEEDS VIAGRA!!
Oct 18, 2008
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My opinion based on play this past season.
IMO no Devils player deserves an A+, A, A- for this past season.

Goalie

Wedgewood:C+
Blackwood:C+
Dell:F

Defensemen

Kulikov:B+
Smith:B+
Murry:B
Siegenthaler:C+
Bahl:C
Severson:C
Subban:C-
Tennyson;D
Carrick;D
Butcher;D
Vatanen:F

Offense

Zacha:B+
Sharangovich:B+
Hughes:B
Brett:B
Zajac:B
Wood:B
Kuokkanen:B-
Bastian:B-
McLeod:B-
Maltsev:C
Hischier;PASS
Palmieri:C
Boqvist:C-
Merkeley:C-
Foote:C-
Gusev:F
Johnson:F

Are you purposely misspelling his name? I don't get it.
 
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Maine Fan

Defense Wins Chanpionships
Apr 19, 2015
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I agree with you the defense is a bigger issue than the offense. I will offer that if you look back at the pre-Covid games the team was rolling out a competent if unspectacular defense. Murray, Kulikov, Severson and Subban were not terrible when Blackwood was healthy and on his game. Presume Smith replaces one of the veteran left defenders in the top four. They can potentially roll out a competent if unspectacular group again. The problem will be the depth, especially on the right side. The left side looks to have depth long term but it might take some time for Bahl, et al to mature.

The problem is that they got rid of their best defensemen. IMO he can't be replaced as they try to do with young bandaids. This has been an annual problem for the Devils IMO.
 
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The 29th Pick

Still Alive !
Dec 7, 2007
19,425
6,632
Northvale N.J.
My opinion based on play this past season.
IMO no Devils player deserves an A+, A, A- for this past season.

Goalie

Wedgewood:C+
Blackwood:C+
Dell:F

Defensemen

Kulikov:B+
Smith:B+
Murry:B
Siegenthaler:C+
Bahl:C
Severson:C
Subban:C-
Tennyson;D
Carrick;D
Butcher;D
Vatanen:F

Offense

Zacha:B+
Sharangovich:B+
Hughes:B
Brett:B
Zajac:B
Wood:B
Kuokkanen:B-
Bastian:B-
McLeod:B-
Maltsev:C
Hischier;PASS
Palmieri:C
Boqvist:C-
Merkeley:C-
Foote:C-
Gusev:F
Johnson:F
C for Palms? what is he your brother in law ??
 

PWiz30

I love to hockey!
Jan 3, 2013
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My thoughts. Anyone I didn't list is someone I don't have a strong opinion on and likely either earned a C in my mind or didn't play much.

A
Smith: He was asked to step right into a big role for a 20-year-old defenseman and ended up 1st in 5v5 CF% among Devils defensemen. Definitely some room for improvement in his overall game but he met or exceed all expectations I had for him this season.
Sharangovich: Made the most of his opportunity when the Devils were missing some key forwards early and I'm excited to see what he does moving forward.
A-
Zacha: Big step forward this year just in terms of assertiveness in the offensive zone. I had pretty much given up hope that he ever would turn the corner coming into this year and was pleasantly surprised.
Bastian: This one is purely based on the eye test for me but I thought he did a great job executing the role of a bottom 6 forward.
Wood: Tied for the team lead in goals while being a physical presence and a pain in the ass for opponents.

B+
Hughes: Did a much better job assessing risk when trying to walk opposing players or thread the needle with passes this season. Physical strength was obviously still a weak point but it was a much more manageable weakness this season with the gains he did make. The sky is the limit for him.
Severson: He played a lot of hard minutes this year and I thought his defensive game was greatly improved from previous seasons. Probably would have given him an A- with a little more offensive production, but the news about him playing through a busted toe for half the season may have had something to do with that.

B
McLeod: Showed a lot more poise than he ever did during his previous call-ups and made better use of his speed. He had his struggles during the middle of the season but definitely a step in the right direction.
Bratt: Would have liked to have seen him finish more but he created a lot of chances

B-
Kuokkanen: Rough start, but he's young and may have been the most improved player from the start of the season to the end IMO.
Boqvist: Same thoughts as Kuokkanen

C
Wedgewood/Dell: Neither was particularly good but the Devils were not an easy team to play behind this year and it would have been crazy to have had high expectations for either one of them going in. The total number of scoring chances this team allowed may not have been that high but when they did have breakdowns, they did it in the worst possible way.

C-
Murray: Seemed like he was always making bad reads on the PK and IMO was one of if not the biggest contributor to the team's struggles killing penalties. I probably would have given him an F based on the eye test, but his numbers at 5 on 5 weren't nearly as bad as I would have guessed and he managed to avoid significant injury so I'll give him some benefit of the doubt.

D
Johnsson: Invisible for all but a few games.

F
Gusev
Palmieri: He's gotta be the biggest disappointment on the 2021 Devils. When we drafted Jack Hughes my first thought was Palmieri will pot 40 goals a year with him.

Incomplete
Blackwood: COVID and the nightly defensive meltdowns clearly had a big impact on Blackwood. Those things are outside of his control but he battled all year and finished strong. Blackwood >>>>> Hart.
Nico: All indications are he had a great off-season until he broke his leg and got shut down for COVID. Then he was just starting to get up to speed when he got hit with PK's shot. Those things are out of his control and given how much time he was shut down, it would have been unreasonable to expect anything more from him.
 

My3Sons

Nobody told me there'd be days like these...
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The problem is that they got rid of their best defensemen. IMO he can't be replaced as they try to do with young bandaids. This has been an annual problem for the Devils IMO.

I think it’s hard to say. I presume you are talking about Kulikov. While he was very good I thought Murray was better if less physical. Kulikov is at that age where he alight fade quickly. NJ can probably bring Kulikov back if they want. I think when Bahl hits his stride he will offer the same elements Kulikov did.
 

Bleedred

Travis Green BLOWS! Bring back Nasreddine!
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May 1, 2011
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Smith scored some points and was great at that, but his defense sucks. Give me more Siegenthaler and Murray please.

yeah I’m just kidding, but I could see someone saying that, seeing as there’s still a fetish for defensive-defensemen here and this belief that all point scoring defensemen are no good.

Sucks I can’t get the white text to work on here anymore.
 

Peter Sidorkiewicz

Devils Army
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Oct 22, 2002
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Incomplete
Blackwood: COVID and the nightly defensive meltdowns clearly had a big impact on Blackwood. Those things are outside of his control but he battled all year and finished strong. Blackwood >>>>> Hart.
Nico: All indications are he had a great off-season until he broke his leg and got shut down for COVID. Then he was just starting to get up to speed when he got hit with PK's shot. Those things are out of his control and given how much time he was shut down, it would have been unreasonable to expect anything more from him.
Sorry but that incomplete grade is a cop out. They have both played enough games to be given a grade. Just call a spade a spade.

It is totally OK to give them a poor grade if you think they have both have disappointed this season.

Yes Blackwood has had health issues and been hang out to dry by the defense, but overall i'm a little bit disappointed with his season.

Same to Hischier, I dont want him to be a 2 way 40-50 point center. He is so much more talented than that. For a 1st overall pick, I expect more offensive production next season.
 
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billingtons ghost

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Smith scored some points and was great at that, but his defense sucks. Give me more Siegenthaler and Murray please.

yeah I’m just kidding, but I could see someone saying that, seeing as there’s still a fetish for defensive-defensemen here and this belief that all point scoring defensemen are no good.

Sucks I can’t get the white text to work on here anymore.

Exactly no one, even those of us with fetishes for defensemen who actually play defense, says "less of Smith" please. Smith would be an example of someone who actually knows how to play a 2-on-1 - and did everything well all season in all zones.... without being paid $9m to flop on his belly and slide out of the play.

Or for example our touted #1 defenseman - who plays 3/4 of a wonderful season, and then reverts to throwing bonehead passes around and being the idiot he has been for at least half of his entire career.

Don't you get that we actually win more, when we keep the puck out of the net, Bleed? It isn't all goalies making saves when the Shooting% is 100% because it is all cross-ice tap ins.

C'mon bro. You're better than that. You and I both know that we need SOLID defensemen, and Kulikov and Murray showed what even a #7 dman could do to bring stability to this squad after 5 years of absolute chaos on our backline.
 
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Edmonton East

BUT the ADvaNCEd STatS...
Nov 25, 2007
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Exactly no one, even those of us with fetishes for defensemen who actually play defense, says "less of Smith" please. Smith would be an example of someone who actually knows how to play a 2-on-1 - and did everything well all season in all zones.... without being paid $9m to flop on his belly and slide out of the play.

Or for example our touted #1 defenseman - who plays 3/4 of a wonderful season, and then reverts to throwing bonehead passes around and being the idiot he has been for at least half of his entire career.

Don't you get that we actually win more, when we keep the puck out of the net, Bleed? It isn't all goalies making saves when the Shooting% is 100% because it is all cross-ice tap ins.

C'mon bro. You're better than that. You and I both know that we need SOLID defensemen, and Kulikov and Murray showed what even a #7 dman could do to bring stability to this squad after 5 years of absolute chaos on our backline.
This place never changes. Many posters have indefensible positions, then get definitively proven incorrect, and proceed to double down on their incoherent, nonsensical stance anyway or shift the goal posts entirely. This eliminates actually interesting conversation/debate.

Example: A few of us were vocal for years that you couldn't construct a team entirely of undersized and/or soft defenseman. Even going a step further, I remember posting a height and weight analysis over the last couple decades that made it pretty damn clear an extremely undersized Devils' team was gonna be in trouble. Of course you have to take height/weight data with a grain of salt, which I preemptively acknowledged, but the delta was too big to simply ignore. Both of these viewpoints got ripped to shreds by the echo chamber on here. You "didn't understand the NEW NHL. Size doesn't matter." Or, you "wanted giant grenade handlers on the backend", like bleed is somehow still parroting.

Even more hilarious, my posts always proactively said I didn't want pure grenade handlers nor was I advocating for a size requirement entirely independent of skills. Didn't matter. Then comes the extreme strawman arguments, generally by the same handful of posters (NOT saying Bleed is one of these posters). Then people not involved in the initial discussion jump in by quoting the poster making the ridiculous strawman/incoherent retort instead of addressing the original post.....and the conversation proceeds to naturally go off the rails. :laugh:

Now let's bring this back to the thread. Ghost and I, who were two early advocates for needing some degree of reach/physicality/crease clearing/strong boardwork on the backend, both gave very high grades to Smith and destroyed Siegenthaler.
 

Maine Fan

Defense Wins Chanpionships
Apr 19, 2015
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Ocean Twp, NJ
I think it’s hard to say. I presume you are talking about Kulikov. While he was very good I thought Murray was better if less physical. Kulikov is at that age where he alight fade quickly. NJ can probably bring Kulikov back if they want. I think when Bahl hits his stride he will offer the same elements Kulikov did.


We will have to wait to see who can mature into an excellent defenseman. I was taking about Kulikov. I think it is so close comparing Murry and Kulikov it could go anyway let's agree to say they are equal. I don't think the Devils will go and get Kulikov, the Devils are not that smart with this rebuild. Sure he is of the age that he could start slipping but his worst slip is better than 86% of the Devils present D men so you offer 3 yrs. If he liked the Devils and he would like to come back he will. However, why would he, it is not exciting playing for a team with growing pains because they are taking so long with this rebuild. Show me an NHL team without a good solid defense and I will show you a loser. Defense wins games, series, playoff games, playoff series and Stanley Cups. The Cups the Devils won were won with defense. Remember I include the goalies with the defense. First Cup, '95 Devils, sweep Detriot with defense. Got to that series with defense.

Thanks for the discussion. You know your hockey, it is not emotions, it a hockey knowledge, you got it.
 
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My3Sons

Nobody told me there'd be days like these...
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We will have to wait to see who can mature into an excellent defenseman. I was taking about Kulikov. I think it is so close comparing Murry and Kulikov it could go anyway let's agree to say they are equal. I don't think the Devils will go and get Kulikov, the Devils are not that smart with this rebuild. Sure he is of the age that he could start slipping but his worst slip is better than 86% of the Devils present D men so you offer 3 yrs. If he liked the Devils and he would like to come back he will. However, why would he, it is not exciting playing for a team with growing pains because they are taking so long with this rebuild. Show me an NHL team without a good solid defense and I will show you a loser. Defense wins games, series, playoff games, playoff series and Stanley Cups. The Cups the Devils won were won with defense. Remember I include the goalies with the defense. First Cup, '95 Devils, sweep Detriot with defense. Got to that series with defense.

I think the defense under Shero was poorly constructed. Misfit players and seeming lack of any coherent plan until late in his run as GM. At some point, the light went off, and the team drafted Okhotiyuk, Vukojevic, and Smith. All talented and they offered projectile NHL games. Then they added Bahl. Again, a projectable NHL game. Then Fitz went with a bigger guy in the draft in Mukhamadullin and a bigger guy in a trade in Siegnethaler. He signed Kulikov and Murray and I doubt their stability on the backend was lost on him. The right side is in need of renovation behind Severson and PK, but at least Fitz seems to understand that your defense needs to both move the puck and make it difficult for the opposition in your own end. The left side seems to have depth of prospects in this regard. Hopefully they start to develop the right side also. At least they seem to have moved on from Butcher as a core piece on defense. The team is young and still figuring it out. If the plan and vision are there you expect at some point they will succeed even if it isn't as soon as we want.
 
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