Guess we cant have too much good news in one night..

[DevilishWon]

I don't know if I would bring any of them back. Even though they're making minimum contracts, they still need to be able to produce somewhat... No way in hell JJ should ever be benched for one of those three.

I disagree only in as much as we are talking about them as a 4th (energy) line. I think they are well suited for that role and I also think JJ is not. If he isn't playing on at least the 3rd and probably a top 2 line he is a wasted roster space. And I'm still not sure if his talent level is top 2

 

[DevilishWon]

NHL Free Agents

There's what we have to work with UFA wise.

Wow some of those guys at the top of the list for forwards will be taking huge paycuts.

One FA D man I'd liek to keep (if we can shed Volchenkov and/or Salvador by trade or buyout) is Fayne. He turned out to be a bargain this year at $1.3 and even with a good increase would be less than them.

 

[DevilishWon]

Hahahaha 10 shutout this season?

Skill level on this team says it all. If one play can sum up this shit team. It's 2nd period off the face off bernier finds himself all alone on the goalie. He wiffs on the deke and doesn't get the shot off lol what a bunch of no talent on this team. Shutout by Kari fucking romo? At home needingthe win for the playoffs.

Ryder at the end can't lift the puck. Ruutu at the end out of position when jagr wraps it. You have to be crashing the cage with 5 seconds left not standing 5 feet away hoping for a rebound.


Team has so little offensive talent. How larrson doesn't get a look over harrold I don't kmow. You can't bring up Boucher or mattuea you bring in sesito? Who is the leading scorer down there why isn't he up here?

Dont know that I agree. We are actually great at PK and good at PP which are "skill" more than not. I'd say the makeup of this team is poor and the combinations we use make it worse. Dont get me wrong I'm not saying this team should be dramatically better than where we are (although there is no excuse for missing teh playoffs...we DO have a better team on paper than than a few teams that are likely in). I agree that trying differnt combos including Boucher and Matteau should have been tryed for longer than a game or two.

I dont think the talent level of this team is champ level or even near it...I also dont think it is as poor as our record. I think the peieces we have were poorly used mostly by PDB but also (callups) by Lou assuming those are largely his decision although I know the coach has input.

 

[KingOfNJ]

Lou's going to bring back Gionta for 4 years 6 million per

 

[nj_cup]

I don't get how the pp is so high that is really strange. Yet last night we need a big goal on the pp and can't get it go figure. Maybe with how many shots we take having the extra guy benefits from it?

I wouldn't bring back the 4th line just for some "change" need something to mix it up. I do think carter and gionta are coming back though. Bernier see ya

 

[Nasty_Magician]

NHL Free Agents

There's what we have to work with UFA wise.

So let's get some commitments here. Let's assume we bring Jagr back and we have cap space to play around with. It's silly to try and anticipate/predict trades because really we have no idea, but out of the free agents listed here, who do we want? Who do we absolutely want no part of?

I want no part of Vanek. He will get a max contract and will be too streaky. He's not worth crippling our cap for.

A guy that caught my attention, that could probably be had for cheap and isn't quite to the point of being really old is Dany Heatley. I haven't watched or paid much attention to the Wild so I can't say what the problem is, his numbers are terrible right now. Is he just flat out shot at this point or is there another underlying issue? For max money no way, for under $3? I'd take a gamble on a Brunner like deal.

 

[irishwhip03]

Nobody on that FA list excites me. Vanek is the best name out there but for max money he isnt worth it. Especially since he's already 30. Most likely his numbers for the next 5 years wont be anything close to what his last 5 years were.

As for Heatley Im not even sure he could play a full season at this point if he's giving top 6 forward mins..which he would be given here.

Id love to say wait til next summer and go hard after Bobby Ryan and David Krejci but who knows if they will even be UFA's still. Pavelski was tops on my wishlist for this summer til the Sharks re-upped him.

 

[MCDevils]

Nobody on that FA list excites me. Vanek is the best name out there but for max money he isnt worth it. Especially since he's already 30. Most likely his numbers for the next 5 years wont be anything close to what his last 5 years were.

As for Heatley Im not even sure he could play a full season at this point if he's giving top 6 forward mins..which he would be given here.

Id love to say wait til next summer and go hard after Bobby Ryan and David Krejci but who knows if they will even be UFA's still. Pavelski was tops on my wishlist for this summer til the Sharks re-upped him.

Everybody on that list is going to get overpaid, especially Callahan, Moulson, etc. If you're going to spend money, you might as well spend the big money on a guy like Vanek, but he's on the wrong side of 30 so no thanks.

If I were going to target anyone it would be Cammalleri, he might be a short contract kind of guy.

Check this site out, you can sort all NHL players by a bunch of categories like G/gp for the past three years.

For Example:

NHL Player Stats in Last 3 Seasons

Vanek - 24th in the NHL over the past 3 years with .382 G/gp. (31 G/season avg.)
Vrbata - 36th in the NHL over the past 3 years with .356 G/gp. (29 G/season avg.)
Cammalleri - 44th in the NHL over the past 3 years with .343 G/gp. (28 G/season avg.)

Callahan - 46th

When you look at it like that you have to wonder if it's worth giving Vanek 7yr/7M or do you give Camm 3yr/5.5 M.

It seems like an obvious choice to me.

 

[MCDevils]

Honestly, if you want to make a splash, you're going to need to trade Lars. But you can't trade out first rounder for 2015. Connor McDavid is too good to not have a 1st round lotto ball for.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Honestly, if you want to make a splash, you're going to need to trade Lars. But you can't trade out first rounder for 2015. Connor McDavid is too good to not have a 1st round lotto ball for.

I think a trade is where we'd need to make the biggest impact. Of the free agents, I'd prefer to go with a guy like Mike C as you mentioned, as opposed to breaking the bank on a guy that won't live up to the contract.

 

[nj_cup]

kinda the reason i wanted to move players for whatever picks we could've this year.

go into next year without the expectation of making the playoffs.

then if we do squeak into the 8th seed yay it will be a successful season. if not o well we werent expecting playoffs anyway and now we have a chance at mcdavid and we had a good draft the this year because we loaded up on picks

 

[MadCaptain]

Well Jagr should be back and he will still help out significantly. As for other UFA, I wouldn't mind bringing in either Hemsky or Michalek in for cheap. Michalek fits Pete's system and his recent struggles may make him cheaper. Hemsky can be brought in if Pete is dropped and he can bring in some playmaking talent which we have none of outside of Elias and Jagr.

You're right about the top end UFAs though. It should be a buyers market and only Vanek stands out from the top players. Vanek is good but will likely get around $8 mil, which is too pricey for what he brings.

As for our remaining UFA... Hopefully they all go elsewhere. The only guy I'd welcome back is Carter. I don't want another Pandolfo situation.

 

[Vortimous]

It just makes you wonder what kind of year we would of had if we had Kovy and Jagr.... but then again, would we really have gone out and gotten Jagr if Kovy wasn't here??? Both of them on this team and we would easily been a 4th or 5th seed for sure... now we are eliminated as of tonight... Blue jackets have a three goal lead in the third... they are playing for the last spot and it shows over there last few games... our team, anything but. But really, why are we surprised... this team hasn't shown any spark or desire to win all season long... why would we expect it now....

 

[nj_cup]

Can't make the playoffs if your longest win streak of the season is 3 games 1x


Can we finally say that lous "style" isn't working out? Need skill!

 

[rp2five]

kinda the reason i wanted to move players for whatever picks we could've this year.

go into next year without the expectation of making the playoffs.

then if we do squeak into the 8th seed yay it will be a successful season. if not o well we werent expecting playoffs anyway and now we have a chance at mcdavid and we had a good draft the this year because we loaded up on picks

Now that team is officially out, yes, team should have been sellers. We said it at the deadline. Lou said no way and now he has to regret it, even though he won't publicly. A few extra picks, even 2nd and 3rd rounders, would have been nice to have.

Was reading comments in Fire and Ice. One person said that stat wise, team was toward top of league with PP, PK, possession. Bottom line, the problem on this team was scoring goals.
5 on 5, OT, shootout, team didn't have enough goal scoring.
Mostly it was due to lack of talent, not lack of hustle (except for guys like Ryder).

 

[nj_cup]

this really just starts from the top and works down.

lou gets all the credit in the world for putting those teams together that won the cup. he gets the credit for all those late round draft picks those great trades.

yet no one thinks he should get canned.

lou put this team together
lou keeps the scouting department the same
lou has final word on draft picks
lou hired the coach
lou let his star players walk
lou refuses to sell at the deadline
lou adds wasted 3rd line scrubs at the deadline
lou loves giving out NTC on deals



gotta love the double standard A LOT of devil fans have with louie.

remember people saying "name a gm that has had more success then lou" yeah sure thats a good argument that does squat for us now. im sure there are a few gm's out there that have missed the playoffs 3x in 4 years. i bet there are a few that have made it past the 2nd round just once in 11 years!

lou is getting down to those "levels" of gm rankings.


nothing will change until he is gone. no i'm not a spoiled devil fan. i know the good times are over with this team. i'm a realist...i know lou isn't the guy to get this team to back to the glory days.

 

[nj_cup]

forgot to add on....lou is the reason we lost out on a possible top 10 pick and even a chance at the #1 pick this year. thanks to him and his stubborn thinking or maybe just fucking stupid thinking and keeping the #29 2 years ago. but nah he's untouchable!


i find it funny that he is going to do a "assessment" after the season is over. if i'm pdb and he brings me in to fire me...i would say you should go get a fucking mirror and tell me what have you done for this team lately. my 2 best players walk for free. you let other stars leave for free without acquiring anything in return that i can use now. you give me zubrus/ruutu/clowe? we should be drafting in the top 10 instead your picking last. yeah i'm fire? good riddance!


i'm fired up!!!!!!!

if harris had any hockey IQ he would let lou "retire" even though we know he got fired. except he is too stupid and worried about the money from the arena that he probably thinks if he did can lou that the fans would revolt. hell i think more fans would get upset that our goal song got changed then lou getting fired at this point

 

[rp2five]

I think a lot of fans blame Lou, at least somewhat. The ones I speak to do blame him. Maybe not exactly as much as you do, but we all bring up trades, draft picks, decisions, signings, etc.
I think the "in Lou we Trust" people are actually in the minority.

Even Marty put some blame on Lou when he said the organization let guys walk (Parise).

 

[MCDevils]

Well Jagr should be back and he will still help out significantly. As for other UFA, I wouldn't mind bringing in either Hemsky or Michalek in for cheap. Michalek fits Pete's system and his recent struggles may make him cheaper. Hemsky can be brought in if Pete is dropped and he can bring in some playmaking talent which we have none of outside of Elias and Jagr.

You're right about the top end UFAs though. It should be a buyers market and only Vanek stands out from the top players. Vanek is good but will likely get around $8 mil, which is too pricey for what he brings.

As for our remaining UFA... Hopefully they all go elsewhere. The only guy I'd welcome back is Carter. I don't want another Pandolfo situation.

Michalek is also a speed demon, which we desperately need.

 

[nj_cup]

rp you are right reading on tg's blog everyone hates him. but go to hf boards and they worship the guy like hes a saint. those fans on that site though take HOMER to the next level.


no on michalek. no no no no no no brunner was suppose to be our "speed" hes a flop. not saying michaelk isnt good but hes not what this team needs.


WE NEED PURE TALENT PURE GOAL SCORING. no more special 1 skill set guys. i dont want a powerplay specialist i dont want a guy that is fast i dont want a guy that has a great slap shot.

i want a guy that has ALL of that.


otherwise just wait it out until a deal falls into place. whats next years UFA look like? then again other teams tend to lock up their stars before that happens