Speculation: Travis Zajac out 4-6 months; Do Devils need to add now?

[Ryuji Yamazaki]

Step right up, step right up!

Look no further my friends. I've got the centerman for you.

At 6'6, 220+lbs, Nick Bjugstad is your man. Don't let his zero hockey IQ and glass bones fool you, this man is your key to beating yourselves....

Yes, he may wear the Panthers uniform, but his plan is to gain the opponents trust by letting them walk by and score on numerous occasions. This will payoff in the long haul when 7 years down the line they forget which team he REALLY plays for.

Don't pass up this opportunity.

 

[Jumptheshark]

My first thought was RNH for Andy Greene. Salaries are close. Oilers would save 1M going fwd. Not sure how both fanbases feel about this?

I guess you missed the part where greene is 34? and signed till he is 37 and on a healthy oilers blue line he a third pairing D-man. Nuge is 24

when the oilers move nuge it wont be for a 34 d-man

 

[TheTakedown]

the Oilers fans are going to hate it and the Devils can't afford to be trading from their (already) thin D corps

Green is 34 years old.... they may as well sell him if there is a chance to get RNH... Devils would have to add.

Henrique is already a 2C/3C tweener player. RNH is similar, could be better playing with Hall (don't know about his stats in EDM with Hall at the moment). Nico could eventually push his way up to #1C

Hischier
Nugent-Hopkins
Henrique

Would be decent center depth, especially with Palmieri and Hall on the wings to start. Hell if Henrique can **** to 2nd line wing, that's a nice top 6 considering the hand the devils have right now.

At the very least, the devils would be able to get by on stellar goaltending and have some exciting hockey games, which is what the franchise needs right now considering attendance has been an issue the last few years. They will absolutely bleed goals against, but it's not like Greene will be around when they are ready to contend anyways

 

[Esq]

I was under the impression the Devils needed to add anyway...

 

[JoeCool16]

Slim to none chance that Jagr would sign with a non playoff team like the Devils.

That's exactly who he'd sign for... the worse the team, the better the chances he'll get a major role. Unfortunately for him, he's probably not very good on the draw and probably wouldn't do well as a centre

 

[DaJackal]

Jagr is a wing and does not fit into what Shero wants to do. He has nothing to do with losing Zajac.

Somebody just commented that Devils have got players who can play C. Some help on the wing would be welcome, because their offense is (ahem) not that impressive - even with Zajac.

What Shero wants I have no idea of, though.

 

[KovalSNIPE]

My best guess:

Hall - Rico/Zacha - Palmieri
Johansson - Zacha/Rico - (FA stop-gap)
Quenneville - Hischier - Noesen
Wood - Boyle - Blandisi

A lot of unknowns, but not the absolute worst given the circumstances...

 

[THall4]

Green is 34 years old.... they may as well sell him if there is a chance to get RNH... Devils would have to add.

Henrique is already a 2C/3C tweener player. RNH is similar, could be better playing with Hall (don't know about his stats in EDM with Hall at the moment). Nico could eventually push his way up to #1C

Hischier
Nugent-Hopkins
Henrique

Would be decent center depth, especially with Palmieri and Hall on the wings to start. Hell if Henrique can **** to 2nd line wing, that's a nice top 6 considering the hand the devils have right now.

At the very least, the devils would be able to get by on stellar goaltending and have some exciting hockey games, which is what the franchise needs right now considering attendance has been an issue the last few years. They will absolutely bleed goals against, but it's not like Greene will be around when they are ready to contend anyways

FWIW - RNH and Hall barely played together the last 2 years Hall was here. Hall's last season here he played with Draisaitl and Purcell/Yakupov. Year before that was revolving door of C's (Lander, Gordon, Arcobello) and Purcell at RW. While Nuge played with Eberle and Pouliot.

RNH and Hall are pretty good together.

 

[Rebels57]

Hall is probably looking at 2020 at the earliest as the first time he will get into a Playoff game if he stays in NJ.

 

[rent free]

Hall is probably looking at 2020 at the earliest as the first time he will get into a Playoff game if he stays in NJ.

That's would be 10 years after he got drafted. Sucks for him.

 

[BoredBrandonPridham]

So we basically traded zajac for a top 5 pick? Not bad
But I'm all seriousness hope he gets better asap. Huge loss

No you're trading Zajac and a top 5 pick for a top 5 pick.

 

[MessierII]

Huge loss for the devils. Zajac is a great matchup centre.

 

[Captain Controversy]

If the oilers are trading Nuge, zajac is coming back.i don't care if he is injured. Need the face off win and cap save of 500 k

 

[Seedling]

So we basically traded zajac for a top 5 pick? Not bad
But I'm all seriousness hope he gets better asap. Huge loss

They were gonna get a top five pick before Zajac was out. Not it's likely top 2 again.

Taylor Hall is the lottery king. He'll get you a good player you can draft. Man, he has to be so frustrated with the teams he's been on.

 

[Bleedred]

Never fear, we have one of the league's very best head coaches, we'll persevere!

Didn't you see all the times he got those so-so Penguins AHL teams to the playoffs? A lot of scrubs on those teams. It's not like any of them have done **** in the NHL or been contributing members to any Stanley Cup winning teams.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

The Devils were never going to be good this season and they were an extreme playoff long shot as they play in a very tough division.

Keep building through the draft, take the top 5 pick in a very good draft class.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Oilers wouldn't trade RNH for Andy Greene in my opinion. Don't save enough cap space to sign anyone we need to and getting ten years older runs counter to the strategy Chiarelli's been employing.

That and we've been bitten in the ass acquiring vets his age (Ference, though Greene is a hell of a lot better than Ference ever was) and we're pretty happy with our defence when it's healthy.

 

[Soundwave]

I think Taylor Hall will quietly ask for a trade next summer if the Devils don't make the playoffs this upcoming season and I don't think he can be really blamed.

Just a lot of things seem to go bad for him where ever he goes other than winning the draft lottery.

 

[thadd]

I think it would be very costly for them to try to find a replacement given their current situation. I had them pegged for landing the 8th-12th overall pick next year before Zajac's injury was revealed. If they spend assets to find a plug it's not going to be for a player nearly as good.

Sadly, NJ is much better off going with what they've got and hoping that the team plays together as a team regardless of how many wins and loses that they get so that come the following season the GM will feel like he's got less work to do before they're expected to be vying for 16th-30th overall.

 

[Seanaconda]

Hall got them a pretty decent center they will probably be okay. Not gonna win but doesn't matter during a development year anyways

 

[Spoiled Bratt]

Shero isn't making any trades to cover the loss of Zajac. We're a bottom 10 team with Zajac, so now losing our #1 option down the middle when it comes to faceoffs and defensive zone coverage, we're looking at a bottom 5 finish IMO.

If there's a year where finishing near the bottom won't bother me, it's this year. The crop of talent in the top 10 is very impressive and whoever will land Dahlin will have their new #1 dman for the next decade+. If we can't pull out the 1st overall pick in back to back years, there's still some very solid options on the blueline in the top 10.

Let's bite the bullet, see what our kids can do and draft properly... the end.