Devils 2014-2015 Off Season Thread

[BostonNala370]

they both only have one year left plus the devils are going to have close to 40mil to spend next year.  also buying them out will effect your cap for the next 2yrs[/quote

So you are saying it is better to keep them and scratch them every night ? Both are a waste.

[NewarkDevil5]

they both only have one year left plus the devils are going to have close to 40mil to spend next year.  also buying them out will effect your cap for the next 2yrs

 

Not to mention that if you buy them out, for better or worse you've got to replace their spots in the lineup. Assuming a Clowe retirement, not re-signing Ryder and Havlat among others, even with bringing in Boucher and Matteau from Albany you're still looking at holes to fill up front. Buying guys out just because you don't like seeing their names on the roster at their salary cost doesn't make sense.

[BostonNala370]

Ruutu has several tears left, the thing is we dont need the cap space, nor is Ruutu a problem in a bottom 6 role

Don't agree unless you want to fill space I'm bottom 6. He does nothing out of position mostly.

[sokar]

Ruutu has several tears left, the thing is we dont need the cap space, nor is Ruutu a problem in a bottom 6 role

2015-16 is when Ruutu contract with the devils ends

[William D'Aquila]

Ruutu, isn't an issue, he is effective, and sets a physical presence. The Devils problems are related to their top 6 players, their bottom 6 is probably one of the strongest in the league.

[Louismydad]

Ruutu, isn't an issue, he is effective, and sets a physical presence. The Devils problems are related to their top 6 players, their bottom 6 is probably one of the strongest in the league.

Yes, this is what I have been trying to say.

[Zubie#8]

Looks like Henrique had some surgey on his arm. Saw some pics floating around with him in a cast.

Edited April 18, 2015 by Zubie#8

[William D'Aquila]

Yes, this is what I have been trying to say.

 

A lot of people on here don't get it, they simply think "oh, he doesn't score, he must be sh!tty"

[CommonDreads]

I wonder if we could get someone like Emerson Etem for Gelinas, I think Etem has somewhat been falling out of favor in Anaheim, only played 45 games this year for the NHL team. Has speed and is marketed as a goal scorer, worth the project IMO.

 

EDIT: Also seeing that they're both RFA this summer, could be a swap of RFA for RFA in that scenario.

Edited April 19, 2015 by CommonDreads

[hystyk28]

I wonder if we could get someone like Emerson Etem for Gelinas, I think Etem has somewhat been falling out of favor in Anaheim, only played 45 games this year for the NHL team. Has speed and is marketed as a goal scorer, worth the project IMO.

EDIT: Also seeing that they're both RFA this summer, could be a swap of RFA for RFA in that scenario.

wouldn't think twice about making that deal. Gelinas is not suited for the west. Maybe Corey perry could scare him into playing physical, that dude is intense.

[Jas0nMacIsaac]

This will be an interesting summer. If NJ can move Gelinas for a similar young forward and maybe move a 2nd for struggling high end prospect. I feel like NJ will instantly be set up better moving forward.

 

My dream summer:

 

NJ trades 6th overall pick to Columbus for 8th overall pick and 59th overall pick. Columbus drafts Provorov

 

NJ drafts Mathew Barzal 8th overall

NJ drafts Anthony Beavillier 36th overall

NJ drafts Jeremy Bracco 41st overall

 

NJ drafts Michael Spacek 59th overall

 

NJ trades Eric Gelinas to Dallas for Brett Ritchie.

[Mayday]

Aside from the obvious resignings (Larsson, Matteau, etc.) and let them walk (Salvador, Ryder, Havlat, etc) I'd like to see this:

 

1. Trade/Free agency --> move some combo of Gelinas/Merrill + 2nd (both if needed) + any prospect (if the trade is worthy enough I'd be OK with trading someone like Santini. Although it would need to make a lot of sense longterm). Ideally, when its all said and done working the trade market gets NJ a top 6 forward. In the free agent market it is slim pickings and NJ can't afford to sign fillers and keep Boucher/Matteau waiting for no reason. So if a good signing is there do it but no more Ryder/Havlat experiments. With one of Merrill/Gelinas traded signing a familiar guy like Oduya will solidify the backend. NJ seems pretty high on Helgeson/Hrabarenka so one will probably gain a spot. Harrold is good insurance.

 

2. Draft --> pretty simple here, draft Marner/Barzal. Pick up a Bracco/Korostelev/etc. in the 2nd with the other pick that isn't used in a trade.

 

3. Outside the NHL acquisition? - Guys like Panarin/Tikhonov are  unlikely to come here but wouldn't mind if NJ aggressively pursued a overseas guy.

 

4. Bottom 6 decisions --> It more than likely Zubrus and Ruutu are here to stay. Josefson also has a spot. Bernier deserves to resign. Gionta + Tootoo are question marks.

 

Preliminary lineup:

 

Henrique-Gomez-Boucher

Cammalleri-Zajac-Trade

Elias-Josefson-Matteau

Ruutu-Zubrus-Bernier

Gionta? Tootoo?

 

Greene-Larsson

Merrill-Severson

Oduya-Helgeson

Harrold

 

Schneider

Kinkaid

 

Ideally you add another top 6 but its always hard to add 2 top 6 forwards in one offseason. When its all said and done the major changes are a new top 6 forward, Oduya/vet D brought in, Matteau and Boucher full time, and Helgeson a rookie.

 

Thats a realistic possibility. At best a bubble team, but thats the reality of the situation.

[maniacdevsdude]

Aside from the obvious resignings (Larsson, Matteau, etc.) and let them walk (Salvador, Ryder, Havlat, etc) I'd like to see this:

 

1. Trade/Free agency --> move some combo of Gelinas/Merrill + 2nd (both if needed) + any prospect (if the trade is worthy enough I'd be OK with trading someone like Santini. Although it would need to make a lot of sense longterm). Ideally, when its all said and done working the trade market gets NJ a top 6 forward. In the free agent market it is slim pickings and NJ can't afford to sign fillers and keep Boucher/Matteau waiting for no reason. So if a good signing is there do it but no more Ryder/Havlat experiments. With one of Merrill/Gelinas traded signing a familiar guy like Oduya will solidify the backend. NJ seems pretty high on Helgeson/Hrabarenka so one will probably gain a spot. Harrold is good insurance.

 

2. Draft --> pretty simple here, draft Marner/Barzal. Pick up a Bracco/Korostelev/etc. in the 2nd with the other pick that isn't used in a trade.

 

3. Outside the NHL acquisition? - Guys like Panarin/Tikhonov are  unlikely to come here but wouldn't mind if NJ aggressively pursued a overseas guy.

 

4. Bottom 6 decisions --> It more than likely Zubrus and Ruutu are here to stay. Josefson also has a spot. Bernier deserves to resign. Gionta + Tootoo are question marks.

 

Preliminary lineup:

 

Henrique-Gomez-Boucher

Cammalleri-Zajac-Trade

Elias-Josefson-Matteau

Ruutu-Zubrus-Bernier

Gionta? Tootoo?

 

Greene-Larsson

Merrill-Severson

Oduya-Helgeson

Harrold

 

Schneider

Kinkaid

 

Ideally you add another top 6 but its always hard to add 2 top 6 forwards in one offseason. When its all said and done the major changes are a new top 6 forward, Oduya/vet D brought in, Matteau and Boucher full time, and Helgeson a rookie.

 

Thats a realistic possibility. At best a bubble team, but thats the reality of the situation.

Getting back Oduya would be gold!

[hystyk28]

Aside from the obvious resignings (Larsson, Matteau, etc.) and let them walk (Salvador, Ryder, Havlat, etc) I'd like to see this:

1. Trade/Free agency --> move some combo of Gelinas/Merrill + 2nd (both if needed) + any prospect (if the trade is worthy enough I'd be OK with trading someone like Santini. Although it would need to make a lot of sense longterm). Ideally, when its all said and done working the trade market gets NJ a top 6 forward. In the free agent market it is slim pickings and NJ can't afford to sign fillers and keep Boucher/Matteau waiting for no reason. So if a good signing is there do it but no more Ryder/Havlat experiments. With one of Merrill/Gelinas traded signing a familiar guy like Oduya will solidify the backend. NJ seems pretty high on Helgeson/Hrabarenka so one will probably gain a spot. Harrold is good insurance.

2. Draft --> pretty simple here, draft Marner/Barzal. Pick up a Bracco/Korostelev/etc. in the 2nd with the other pick that isn't used in a trade.

3. Outside the NHL acquisition? - Guys like Panarin/Tikhonov are unlikely to come here but wouldn't mind if NJ aggressively pursued a overseas guy.

4. Bottom 6 decisions --> It more than likely Zubrus and Ruutu are here to stay. Josefson also has a spot. Bernier deserves to resign. Gionta + Tootoo are question marks.

Preliminary lineup:

Henrique-Gomez-Boucher

Cammalleri-Zajac-Trade

Elias-Josefson-Matteau

Ruutu-Zubrus-Bernier

Gionta? Tootoo?

Greene-Larsson

Merrill-Severson

Oduya-Helgeson

Harrold

Schneider

Kinkaid

Ideally you add another top 6 but its always hard to add 2 top 6 forwards in one offseason. When its all said and done the major changes are a new top 6 forward, Oduya/vet D brought in, Matteau and Boucher full time, and Helgeson a rookie.

Thats a realistic possibility. At best a bubble team, but thats the reality of the situation.

I like a lot of this but Oduya would be wasted in your bottom pairing.

[Mayday]

I like a lot of this but Oduya would be wasted in your bottom pairing.

You're right. I'll slot Mark Fraser in there or just cross my fingers and hope for the best with Merrill and Helgeson on the ice together.

[hystyk28]

You're right. I'll slot Mark Fraser in there or just cross my fingers and hope for the best with Merrill and Helgeson on the ice together.

Oduya would arguably be the best defensemen on the team. Why would you pay him a decent salary to get him and then play him on the 3rd pair? And people want LL fired.

[vadvlfan]

Oduya looks good because he's on an excellent team! And look at who he;s playing with, fellow Swede. Put Oduya on Devils?  as much as many here don't like him,

Fraser is the only d man that plays mean & will fight you at the drop of a hat. None of our top 4 (greener/Lars, Merrill, or Severson) play "mean". This is not a criticism, Lou likes one of them to play this way. He'll pursue this type of D-man.

[Mayday]

Oduya would arguably be the best defensemen on the team. Why would you pay him a decent salary to get him and then play him on the 3rd pair? And people want LL fired.

Oduya is in the same tier as Greene, Larsson, and Severson. And the defensive pairings aren't fixed where one plays drastically less time. The whole point of bringing in Oduya is to have 3 competent pairings. We aren't a team that plays its first pairing almost 30 minutes a night.

[Devilsfan118]

I don't know what the upcoming UFA pool contains, but you'd have to imagine Lou keeps one "tough guy" (aka useless) defesneman on the roster.

 

He's proven that he values that in a bottom pairing guy.  Even if he's terrible at..you know, playing defense.

[CommonDreads]

In the Draft i'd like one of Crouse or Barzal at #6 (Marner is who I want most but I think that's a pipe dream), then in the 2nd Round look at Thomas Novak, Filip Chlapik, Nikita Korostelev, or Daniel Sprong at #36 and #41, if one of the bigger Americans (White, Bracco, Boeser) falls to 36 i'd be ecstatic but I don't expect it to happen. In Round 3 I love Dmytro Timashov, would really like him at #66.

 

Maybe we could pick Andrew Mangiapane in one of the later rounds as well, Blandisi's linemate this year in Barrie.

Edited April 21, 2015 by CommonDreads

[Jerzey]

Updated op. I'll add a few Harris quotes so it's not a total shameless bump.

http://fireandice.northjersey.com/fire-ice-1.174987/devils-co-owner-josh-harris-no-shortcuts-in-rebuild-but-wants-to-be-consistent-cup-contender-1.1330426

You also own the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and you seem comfortable with going through a long rebuild with them. Do you envision something similar with the Devils?

“God, I hope not. They're two totally different situations. It's very hard to draw parallels, but I think our goals are pretty much the same. We didn't do this to be second best. We want to build an elite organization and what that means is that we're consistently in the mix deep in the playoffs for a Stanley Cup, we ultimately deliver a Stanley Cup or a number of Stanley Cups. That's not easy to do. Twenty nine other owners want to do that. They're all really smart, they're all really resourced and there aren't really any shortcuts. So, we're going to really put in place plans that allow us to do that and every decision that we make will be oriented around that and, ultimately, I believe we'll be successful.

“So, I don't see the two situations as similar. I think the goals are similar.”

Do you have a timetable you can tell the fans for when you think this team can get back to the playoffs?

“There are no shortcuts, so what I would tell the fans is that it matters to ownership, it matters to the front office. We're going to put our life forces and our wallets if needed into this and we're going to make decisions that allow us to be an elite team and that's not being one and done in the playoffs. Being one and done in the playoffs is not really interesting from my point of view. So, that means being deep in the playoffs and in the hunt for the Stanley Cup and ultimately competing for the Stanley Cup and winning the Stanley Cup. So, putting a time frame on it, if it takes a little time to achieve that, we're going to make decisions that are consistent with that goal. And I can't put a time frame on it. I can tell you I want it to be as fast as possible.”

How important to you is it for the team to qualify for the playoffs next season?

“Not being in the playoffs next year would be disappointing for me, but, like I said, setting the team up to be one and done in the playoffs isn't really my goal. I want to set the team up to be competing for the Stanley Cup for a long time. Therefore, there are decisions you could make to produce short-term results and sacrifice the long run. I think we're going to make decisions that are consistent with being a long-run winner. A lot of times those decisions are similar, but sometimes they're not. That would be the best way I would answer what we want to do.”

If the team gets an offer for the sixth pick overall in this year's draft, would you trade it?

“Again, there are three ways to improve our team – the draft, free agency and trades – and everything is on the table. The way that you set yourself up to win is to be very opportunistic about picking up those players and those people that make themselves available and if you have a direction or another direction and you're tied to that direction, I think you're foreclosing options. We're going to be very busy as an organization over the next couple months trying to do our best to improve our team and everything is on the table.”

So, what went into the decision to raise season ticket prices this year?

“We raised ticket prices in some cases and we lowered ticket prices in other cases. We certainly are looking to add value to that experience across the board whether that be literally having people standing at the train station, having the staff training, whether that be the food people are eating and the performances that go on before and after the games. So, I think we've done a lot of different things. In some case, we raised ticket prices and some cases we lowered them, but I think for me as a person it's important that a family be able to go to this arena and afford it and I think they're still able to do that. There are tickets as low as $10.

“The owner side of me doesn't love that, but I think that's the right thing to do and I think we're happy to do it as an organization.”

[DJ Eco]

Good questions by TG.

 

 

So essentially, Lou's "we're 2 players away from being good" view at the close of the season doomed his future, and rightfully so, in my opinion.

Edited May 12, 2015 by DJ Eco

[jagknife]

Good questions by TG.

 

 

So essentially, Lou's "we're 2 players away from being good" view at the close of the season doomed his future, and rightfully so, in my opinion.

 

100% percent agree.

 

There's hope, then there's delusion. Sure he won't admit publicly that the team is a wreck, but from the sounds of it, he actually believed we were 1-2 away.

[MadDog2020]

Love Harris' comments. Fully on board.

[Devilsfan118]

Absolutely agree MD.  Love this one especially:

 

How important to you is it for the team to qualify for the playoffs next season?

“Not being in the playoffs next year would be disappointing for me, but, like I said, setting the team up to be one and done in the playoffs isn't really my goal. I want to set the team up to be competing for the Stanley Cup for a long time. Therefore, there are decisions you could make to produce short-term results and sacrifice the long run. I think we're going to make decisions that are consistent with being a long-run winner. A lot of times those decisions are similar, but sometimes they're not. That would be the best way I would answer what we want to do.”

 

Pretty much the opposite of Lou's mentality as of late.  Hope this means no more overpaying 30+ year old players.