Offseason

[irishwhip03]

Loki would prob succeed more on the 1st line
but can't see em dropping Zajac to 3rd..atleast we have some options though.

That's all we could've asked for.

 

[MCDevils]

Thing I like about clowe is he seems to be a leader which is needed

It's a steep price, but you're pretty much always going to overpay even slightly in the UFA market, unless you are considered the SC favorite. IE everyone wants to play with Sid and Malkin and see if they can get a cup.

Lou said that even though he's aware that people were thinking the Devils paid too much, he was willing to give a little extra to get the deal done right away. Obviously Lou went into the day with a plan and wanted to execute it. He said there were a lot of teams in on Clowe so this was how to get him. He's not super old yet either and he did play pretty well for the Rangers when he was healthy.

Ryder deal is excellent. As i posted he scored more than anyone on the Devils last year, AND half his points were on the powerplay!

 

[CalamityX11]

I do agree with the notion of Lokti with Kovy... I think that's where Lokti has been the most successful and why break it?

 

[MCDevils]

Loki would prob succeed more on the 1st line
but can't see em dropping Zajac to 3rd..atleast we have some options though.

That's all we could've asked for.

Honestly, I wouldn't be remotely surprised if they move Henrique to wing. They're not especially deep right now, and he has a really good shot. We're all in love with the depth that we theoretically have down the middle with Zajac, Loki, JJ, Carter, Henrique. Loki has a mental block about moving to the wing so we'll see what happens. Zajac, Henrique or Loki on the third line seems like a waste to me. Zajac, Henrique, Loki, Kovy, Elias, Ryder should be the top 6.

 

[MCDevils]

Holy cow, TG seemed to think earlier this evening (after all the signings) that Lou was still working the phones to try and improve via a trade. Working overtime. Can you tell this guy wants to find a way to get Marty another cup? haha.

 

[devil421]

We got Ryder?

Alright there's some light ahead for us... I wonder if we can snag Iggy...

I'll bet Lou is done. He's always been FA savvy and prefers bringing guys up through the system than signing random "star" players. A big trade and a nice signing in Ryder (btw Ill trust him on Clowe) is very Lou-like.

Ryder will be a Parise replacement that we missed last year.

The Devils franchise is a system not a roster. I love Lou.

 

[nj_cup]

acrroding to everyone in the nhl we gave out the worst contract yesterday

 

[Vortimous]

Holy cow, TG seemed to think earlier this evening (after all the signings) that Lou was still working the phones to try and improve via a trade. Working overtime. Can you tell this guy wants to find a way to get Marty another cup? haha.

Yeah, unfortunately last season (the short one) was probably the best chance seeing how Marty would only be facing a half season of games. This year will be a full season... I think we see his games be limited even more... but time will tell. Hopefully this newly constructed team will be able to score some more and lets pray the injury bug doesn't strike us again....

 

[TiLoBrown]

Actually Ray threw his pen in disgust at another contract that wasnt Clowe's contract yesterday. And we all know the Clarkson one is worse, regardless of him being the #1 free agent. If he didn't go Canadian McGuire would be singing a different tune.

 

[DevilishWon]

acrroding to everyone in the nhl we gave out the worst contract yesterday

Everyone in the NHL?

lol

 

[DevilishWon]

Actually Ray threw his pen in disgust at another contract that wasnt Clowe's contract yesterday. And we all know the Clarkson one is worse, regardless of him being the #1 free agent. If he didn't go Canadian McGuire would be singing a different tune.

If he is the Clowe from 2008-2012 or the last month or so of 2013 its a very good contract. If its Jan-Mar 2013 its awful

Clarkson for 7 years would have been bad

 

[rp2five]

They addressed problems that we saw last year.
1) I like Hedberg, but when Marty was hurt, Moose was very average to not so good. When we needed him, he picked a bad time to go on a cold streak. CS and Marty is a much better sounding duo

2) The Clowe contract is risky, but if healthy, you get a top 6 guy, who plays the PP, has been successful in shootouts throughout his career, a leader which this team really hasn't had much of, a guy who can score, and also puts up a good amount of assists (something Clarkson never did).
Also, the fact that we took him from NY is good. NY tried to resign him and will miss him.

3) I didn't expect Ryder before yesterday, but you get another top 6 forward who has playoff experience and should put up 25-30 goals.

Team got deeper. Lets not forget some of the younger guys who should challenge for spots on the team. Boucher probably wont make the team, but he will be at camp. Guys like Teds will be given a final shot. If they don't make it, they become trade bait. Its much easier to trade guys like that when you team is deeper.

Not sure how you can say the team is not in better position than it was 2 weeks ago.
Also, we keep hearing Lou is still trying to make deals out there.
Improvements we see should be at goalie, PP, shootouts (another minus last season and cost us many points), leadership.

 

[linebackeru]

acrroding to everyone in the nhl we gave out the worst contract yesterday

Not according to Lou and his track record is much better than MOST of the NHL.....proof in results on ice, not who supposedly "wins" FA day. I'll trust teams assessment of Clowe and how he fits OUR system as opposed to how other so called "experts" feel about it. Am I thrilled with the price tag, no, but I'd be far more pissed if we gave Clarkson what he got. That is by far and away worst contract in FA so far.

Would still love to see a trade, but I'm happy with offseason so far. Aquired goalie to replace Marty, Ryder upgrades offense on Wing and Clowe replaces Clarky at a price tag less than what Clarky would have commanded to stay.

 

[irishwhip03]

The only thing that worries me about Clowe is the injuries. Concussions are a scary thing and hard to avoid if you have a history of em.

But in my mind he is better all around then Clarkson is..just fell out of favor in San Jose and when he was in the lineup wasn't given a chance to put up points.

 

[TiLoBrown]

2) The Clowe contract is risky, but if healthy, you get a top 6 guy, who plays the PP, has been successful in shootouts throughout his career, a leader which this team really hasn't had much of, a guy who can score, and also puts up a good amount of assists (something Clarkson never did).
Also, the fact that we took him from NY is good. NY tried to resign him and will miss him.

A Rags fan friend (not the fiance) tried to say we got their sloppy seconds, so I decided to point out the SJ trade and correct her that its more like dirty thirds

 

[DevilishWon]

Not according to Lou .

But cup says so...

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Lou said he overpaid a bit for Clowe. He said he threw in some extra just to guarentee the deal got done and done quickly so that he could move on to other players. If throwing Clowe an extra mill or an extra year was the difference between landing Ryder or not landing Ryder then it was worth it.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

If we can get a big rebound season out of Zajac (which I fully anticipate) and Truth takes the next step our top 6 is unbelievably solid and our bottom 6 is second to none. Goaltending should be the best tandem in the league. D needs to come up big. Hopefully a full training camp and preseason gets ghese guys plugged in.

 

[linebackeru]

If we can get a big rebound season out of Zajac (which I fully anticipate) and Truth takes the next step our top 6 is unbelievably solid and our bottom 6 is second to none. Goaltending should be the best tandem in the league. D needs to come up big. Hopefully a full training camp and preseason gets ghese guys plugged in.

Yeah, hopefully a young D-man or 2 can step up. Need Larsson to make a big jump in his development and play like #4 overall selection.

 

[TiLoBrown]

The D is my biggest concern. I doubt everyone will have the same scoring problems as last year but the D worries me