Confirmed with Link: Viktor Loov traded to NJ for Sergey Kalinin

[Bleedred]

Apparently you didn't watch any of the games last year

Kalinin started on the 3rd/4th lines last year and created a lot of scoring chances. Could have potted in 30 pts if he finished his chances off, but he hit 15 and was doing well and got upgraded to the second line.

This year, he doesn't create any scoring chances. He's gotten slower and I really think he's playing through some sort of injury, probably his back.

He wouldn't have scored 30 points, he's lucky he scored 15. He never even scored 30 points over in the KHL. He's a terrible offensive player, so terrible that a lot of goals seemed to come by complete accident.

You blamed Zajac for stifling his offense, I give him credit for him even getting more than 10 points last year. Guy had the offensive creativity of Ilka Pikkarainen and wasn't much more offensively gifted than Stephen Gionta. Mike Sislo could have scored 15 points in that situation last year.

Kalinin sucks. Of all the guys we could have signed out of that league. I wonder how many skilled players from the K are jealous that he played in the NHL and they probably never will.

 

[tr83]

Kalinin is no way a 30 pt scorer. 20 would blow my expectations away. 15 seems to be his ceiling.

This is a guy with no shot, rather slow, no hands, terrible on faceoffs, etc. I think the only goal he scored that looked skillful was the goal against Lundpads.

He's had 125 some-odd games to show what he's got. He's got nothing.

 

[ChrisCall]

I'm a Toronto fan who watches plenty of AHL hockey and has seen Loov play dozens of times, so here's my opinion, for what it's worth.

Viktor Loov is an excellent stay at home D-Man who can give you a few points. He has a heavy shot, and genuinely great first pass out of the zone. He hits like a gas tanker barrelling down the wrong side of the freeway.

Don't be mislead by his lack of NHL experience. This guy is plenty good enough for the NHL. He's good enough he could be a solid #4, but even as a #5/6, you're going to love the fact he makes the smart play and wrecks opposing players.

For whatever reason, he wasn't in out plans. It's situational as much as anything i guess. Our top 3D are locked down, then #4 is on a kind of play him or lose him spot but he's playing well enough to stay. #5 is a vet that the coach would die for despite the fact he's not amazing, on contract, and the #6 spot has been a revolving door that Loov has IMO, unfairly not been given a real long look at.

I don't know if he'll get that with you. God i hope he does... he's an NHL D-Man, all the way. No matter if it's #4, 5, or 6. He belongs in the NHL.

I'm genuinely sad to see him go. I just hope he gets the opportunity he deserves with you.

 

[Bleedred]

Kalinin is no way a 30 pt scorer. 20 would blow my expectations away. 15 seems to be his ceiling.

This is a guy with no shot, rather slow, no hands, terrible on faceoffs, etc. I think the only goal he scored that looked skillful was the goal against Lundpads.

He's had 125 some-odd games to show what he's got. He's got nothing.

He scored a skillful goal on Rask this year too.

It was so skillful, it had to be an accident. He kicked the puck onto his stick or something and tapped it in.

I can't believe he's ever done that. Total accident for someone with as little skill as him.

 

[Classic Devil]

I'm a Toronto fan who watches plenty of AHL hockey and has seen Loov play dozens of times, so here's my opinion, for what it's worth.

Viktor Loov is an excellent stay at home D-Man who can give you a few points. He has a heavy shot, and genuinely great first pass out of the zone. He hits like a gas tanker barrelling down the wrong side of the freeway.

Don't be mislead by his lack of NHL experience. This guy is plenty good enough for the NHL. He's good enough he could be a solid #4, but even as a #5/6, you're going to love the fact he makes the smart play and wrecks opposing players.

For whatever reason, he wasn't in out plans. It's situational as much as anything i guess. Our top 3D are locked down, then #4 is on a kind of play him or lose him spot but he's playing well enough to stay. #5 is a vet that the coach would die for despite the fact he's not amazing, on contract, and the #6 spot has been a revolving door that Loov has IMO, unfairly not been given a real long look at.

I don't know if he'll get that with you. God i hope he does... he's an NHL D-Man, all the way. No matter if it's #4, 5, or 6. He belongs in the NHL.

I'm genuinely sad to see him go. I just hope he gets the opportunity he deserves with you.

Sounds like Mozik with a different skillset.

 

[devilsblood]

I'm a Toronto fan who watches plenty of AHL hockey and has seen Loov play dozens of times, so here's my opinion, for what it's worth.

Viktor Loov is an excellent stay at home D-Man who can give you a few points. He has a heavy shot, and genuinely great first pass out of the zone. He hits like a gas tanker barrelling down the wrong side of the freeway.

Don't be mislead by his lack of NHL experience. This guy is plenty good enough for the NHL. He's good enough he could be a solid #4, but even as a #5/6, you're going to love the fact he makes the smart play and wrecks opposing players.

For whatever reason, he wasn't in out plans. It's situational as much as anything i guess. Our top 3D are locked down, then #4 is on a kind of play him or lose him spot but he's playing well enough to stay. #5 is a vet that the coach would die for despite the fact he's not amazing, on contract, and the #6 spot has been a revolving door that Loov has IMO, unfairly not been given a real long look at.

I don't know if he'll get that with you. God i hope he does... he's an NHL D-Man, all the way. No matter if it's #4, 5, or 6. He belongs in the NHL.

I'm genuinely sad to see him go. I just hope he gets the opportunity he deserves with you.

So we won?

Sounds like this guy can maybe play some PK? That could be something.

And if this helps make it easier for Shero to trade Quincey, then all the better.

I very much like the trade, Kalinin was taking up space, this guy brings depth to maybe our thinnest organizational spot.

I kind of expect to see him get a shot in NJ at some point this year.

 

[devilsblood]

Ha, Loov in the NHL 4 games, 2 assists and a +4.

 

[MadDevil]

At the very least Loov sounds like an upgrade on Helgeson.

 

[devilsblood]

At the very least Loov sounds like an upgrade on Helgeson.

Ya, a physical lefty presence. If he can skate a little more, move the puck a little better(and his AHL #'s suggest he can) then maybe we have something.

Doesn't seem to be a scrapper though. Which is something Helg did well.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

Nice trade by Shero. Kalinin gone to open a roster spot for Blandisi. And Loov is nice depth that will probably be needed soon as I can Shero trading Quincey for a draft pick.

 

[ChrisCall]

He's absolutely the kind of player who would fare better in the NHL than the AHL. Speed is not at all the issue.

He was runner up for rookie of the year in the SHL and called a 'great talent' by the papers over there 2013-2014. I don't think expectations were ever exceptional for him, but we all expected he would break camp in the NHL and stick during the 2015-2016 season. Talk was that he could be a solid #3/4 guy, and that was legitimised by being a top pairing anchor in the SHL at 21, and following that up with a great rookie year in the AHL at 22.

After that, Toronto's management group changed, and we all kind of noticed how the prospects drafted by the previous group started to disappear and get replaced and those that stayed got moved out down the depth chart. Connor Brown is the notable exception to that.

I'd say with Loov, the trouble is he was never enough of an A-List prospect that he really forced the issue. New management had some new guys who they tried out first. Hunwick got signed. etc etc. Loov looked great in camp but he was moved back to the AHL in favor of these new #5/6 guys and we thought, well, that's unfair, but he'll get his chance.

He went out there and did his thing. He played his game. He didn't dominate so much as to force the issue, but that isn't his game. He's a stay at home d-man with a heavy shot, great first pass, and hits like a dumptruck out of control down a steep hill. Meanwhile, the capable, NHL established guys did their thing on the 3rd pairing, the guys that the new management group picked themselves got first dibs, and frankly, we had no real injury problems either.

He got 4 games last year at some point as you'll see. He played great, and that was the consensus on the boards as a whole. He posted two very pretty assists ... then he went back down again and that was that.

Cue this year where Polak gets signed again as a free agent and Loov just keeps doing his thing. More new prospects shuffle in and he's not really moving down the lineup or anything so much as well, yeah, we can all see he's not going to get a chance here.

I don't know what your management group is going to do, but as i wrote above, this guy is absolutely good enough to play in the NHL.

I'd say you absolutely won the trade.
A classic case of fleecing a player from another organisation that was just a bit too much in the muck to get the chance he deserves. It happens all the time. Not necessarily the case where you end up with some multi-million dollar star defender, but you end up with a quality player of higher value than what you gave up. Someone who can do useful things. And frankly, with his winning personality, someone you'll love.

That said.... worst case scenario he's a rock on your AHL team till he goes back to Europe and gets paid for the next decade.

Unless Kalinin is a really good player.

 

[Balance]

Bleedred you really don't know what you're talking about with Kalinin. You're using his season this year to talk a lot but you were pretty quiet last season.

Why were you quiet? Because Kalinin was our best player on different nights through the season. The defining factor was that although he was never fast, he had more speed then this season. This is why I think he's been injured, he has no acceleration whatsoever. He use to have a jump to him and would have good boardplay.

Kalinin last season was the ultimate grinder, and he was upgraded from 4th to 3rd to the 2nd line. Plus, that 2nd line was a shutdown line. Kalinin easily could have had a lot more points, I can tell you either didn't watch or your letting this season cloud your mind. It's really simple: if he played the way he did last year he'd be a perennial 30 pt player.

So back to the main point: This season has clouded people's minds about Kalinin. Check out the GDT's from last season, everyone remarked about how good he was and how he wasn't finishing off his chances. This season it's opposite and it's well deserved. He hasn't played even 50% of what he was giving off last year.

 

[JimEIV]

I'm a Toronto fan who watches plenty of AHL hockey and has seen Loov play dozens of times, so here's my opinion, for what it's worth.

Viktor Loov is an excellent stay at home D-Man who can give you a few points. He has a heavy shot, and genuinely great first pass out of the zone. He hits like a gas tanker barrelling down the wrong side of the freeway.

Don't be mislead by his lack of NHL experience. This guy is plenty good enough for the NHL. He's good enough he could be a solid #4, but even as a #5/6, you're going to love the fact he makes the smart play and wrecks opposing players.

For whatever reason, he wasn't in out plans. It's situational as much as anything i guess. Our top 3D are locked down, then #4 is on a kind of play him or lose him spot but he's playing well enough to stay. #5 is a vet that the coach would die for despite the fact he's not amazing, on contract, and the #6 spot has been a revolving door that Loov has IMO, unfairly not been given a real long look at.

I don't know if he'll get that with you. God i hope he does... he's an NHL D-Man, all the way. No matter if it's #4, 5, or 6. He belongs in the NHL.

I'm genuinely sad to see him go. I just hope he gets the opportunity he deserves with you.

Thank you for your opinion.

I've heard more than a few people say he's not a good skater. Any comments on his skating ability?

 

[Bleedred]

Bleedred you really don't know what you're talking about with Kalinin. You're using his season this year to talk a lot but you were pretty quiet last season.

Why were you quiet? Because Kalinin was our best player on different nights through the season. The defining factor was that although he was never fast, he had more speed then this season. This is why I think he's been injured, he has no acceleration whatsoever. He use to have a jump to him and would have good boardplay.

Kalinin last season was the ultimate grinder, and he was upgraded from 4th to 3rd to the 2nd line. Plus, that 2nd line was a shutdown line. Kalinin easily could have had a lot more points, I can tell you either didn't watch or your letting this season cloud your mind. It's really simple: if he played the way he did last year he'd be a perennial 30 pt player.

So back to the main point: This season has clouded people's minds about Kalinin. Check out the GDT's from last season, everyone remarked about how good he was and how he wasn't finishing off his chances. This season it's opposite and it's well deserved. He hasn't played even 50% of what he was giving off last year.

LOL WRONG!

Why was I quiet? I was not quiet on Kalinin last year, I've been saying he's overrated and that his ceiling was a 4th line center since September or October of 2015. I'm pretty sure I was referring to him as Pikkalinin as early as last October.

You're the one that's wrong. Also blaming Zajac last year more than once for stifling Kalinin's offense and being the cause of Zajac's offensive allergy.

And don't deny it, because I will use the search feature to dig it up. Unless you beat me to it and edit the posts.

 

[ChrisCall]

Thank you for your opinion.

I've heard more than a few people say he's not a good skater. Any comments on his skating ability?

Not great, not bad? I'd say it's enough. I'm by no means qualified to break down the details of his skating technique, but i don't see him as a 'slow' player. He's not going to cover for other parts of his game with his speed, but i wouldn't say he necessarily needs to.

He's at his best staying in good position and not needing to move far, and then making that great first pass out of the zone (see his two NHL assists last year). He can bomb the odd shot too. If anything, he has been guilty of going for the big hit when he shouldn't, but he's intelligent overall.

In Toronto, we've got Roman Polak playing in our #6 position, and much as i like Polak, that's a guy who is slow. There's no reason why Loov couldn't have stepped into that role. Loov isn't slow. He's not fast...

I'd say my key observation with him is that he really needs structure to excel to his potential. He really shines when things are that way, and less so when things are completely out of control. In that sense, he's far better suited for the NHL than the AHL. Not as a speed issue but as a structure issue.

Sorry if that's not really the best answer... but it's the best i can describe, haha, unless someone out there who has seen him play and has real knowledge on technique can chime in.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

Welcome to the organization, Victor. As for Kalinin, the highlight of his Devils career for me was his Gordie Howe hat trick and assuring us that even in Siberia they know what that is.

 

[Harold Ballard]

[/QUOTE]

 

[Zippy316]

With Merrill's emergence and Santini playing well, this really spells the end for Quincey for me.

On the LD side: Greene - Merrill - Moore - Helgeson ||-|| Auvitu - Loov - Stollery - Gormley - MacWilliam
On the RD side: Severson - Santini - Lovejoy ||-|| Mozik - Scarlett - Jacobs

You've got a full AHL team and a full NHL team there. You've got some capable stopgaps in Stollery/Auvitu/Loov on the left-side and Mozik on the right too.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Kalinin did have a few games last season where he looked dominant, he was Zubrus-esque. Thought he would have done well as a 4th liner this year but he just never had any of those strong nights anymore. Glad he has been traded for someone who can still have an impact in the NHL or at least the AHL. It also gives our kids a better look on the 4th line.

Very interested to see how this Loov guy plays.

 

[Zippy316]

Kalinin was dominant that game, probably one of the best Devils performances of last year.

On a side note, look at Merrill on goal number one He's come so far

 

[GeNeXt]

Like this move. Not sure how his defensive game is, but he sure looks very physical. I doubt he can be much worse than Volchenkov was here those last couple years, if he were to be called up. Wouldn't hurt to see him get a chance if there's an injury to the left side, which obviously hasn't been healthy at all this year. Maybe he could be a replacement for Helgeson next season, since he is a couple years younger.

 

[Bleedred]

I just never liked what I saw from him, he never struck me as anything better than an AHL lifer that gets injected into the NHL, like Mike Sislo. I think it was a waste of a signing too, as there's plenty of skill guys out of that league, who will never get a chance. Never saw any upside with him. If anything, he looked like a better skating twilight era Zubrus last year. Like barely an improvement over the 14-15 Zubrus, who was also overplayed in the top 6/9 and on the PP. His KHL career high in points was 25 in 58 games. That's a decent 3rd liner if he was doing it in the NHL.

Balance is citing how everyone loved him last year, but I have been a non-believer of his since his debut. I was critical of him before it became cool. I never understood why people were so impressed, considering that he did nothing special for the ice time and PP time that he got. If he had scored 15 points in 78 games playing with Gionta and Tootoo, that would be a different story. He scored those points while playing with Zajac , Palmieri and on the PP. That's no success story.

I wonder if Shero was like ''Lou found him! Maybe he wants him!'' or if he called up Lou and was like ''Hey Lou! Ray Shero here, do you want Kalinin for a contract?'' or if Lou called up and said ''If you take back a contract, we'll take Kalinin from you''

 

[njdevils1982]

i wanna know what love eeeeeezzzz

i wanaht you to showoh meeeeeeeee

 

[Bleedred]

i wanna know what love eeeeeezzzz

i wanaht you to showoh meeeeeeeee

Haha

Better than that awful ''I wanna know if you'll be my girl'' that they play every home game.

 

[Zippy316]

I just never liked what I saw from him, he never struck me as anything better than an AHL lifer that gets injected into the NHL, like Mike Sislo. I think it was a waste of a signing too, as there's plenty of skill guys out of that league, who will never get a chance. Never saw any upside with him. If anything, he looked like a better skating twilight era Zubrus last year. Like barely an improvement over the 14-15 Zubrus, who was also overplayed in the top 6/9 and on the PP. His KHL career high in points was 25 in 58 games. That's a decent 3rd liner if he was doing it in the NHL.

Balance is citing how everyone loved him last year, but I have been a non-believer of his since his debut. I was critical of him before it became cool. I never understood why people were so impressed, considering that he did nothing special for the ice time and PP time that he got. If he had scored 15 points in 78 games playing with Gionta and Tootoo, that would be a different story. He scored those points while playing with Zajac , Palmieri and on the PP. That's no success story.

I wonder if Shero was like ''Lou found him! Maybe he wants him!'' or if he called up Lou and was like ''Hey Lou! Ray Shero here, do you want Kalinin for a contract?'' or if Lou called up and said ''If you take back a contract, we'll take Kalinin from you''

Eh. It was his first pro year and you visibly saw Kalinin adjust to the NHL game over time. He also came to the Devils with no Russian players and seemingly knowing very little Russian as well. I think there were some clear tools Kalinin had. His size/boardwork combo was very Zubrus-esque but it seemed like he lost some of his effectiveness there this year. He also showed some bursts of speed last year off the rush that I think made people think he could be an effective crash the net type fourth line forward who would be a pain to play against.

I could definitely see where people had some hope for Kalinin from last year. But at the same time, he never looked strong at center and at LW he's got tons of competition who are just as good if not better than him so I don't blame the Devils from moving on. I like the idea in getting Kalinin, but it clearly didn't pan out.