Smantzas' Open Roster Discussion Thread

[DJ Eco]

Last year I felt over and over again like Lou did not give DeBoer anywhere near the tools he needed to succeed. Maybe it was the financial issues/internal cap, or some other factors, but wow, this year Lou's given his full vote of confidence in DeBoer. He's equipping him with a really good group of soldiers and I'm excited.

[Derlique]

Last year I felt over and over again like Lou did not give DeBoer anywhere near the tools he needed to succeed. Maybe it was the financial issues/internal cap, or some other factors, but wow, this year Lou's given his full vote of confidence in DeBoer. He's equipping him with a really good group of soldiers and I'm excited.

To be fair to Lou, no-one knew what the cap would look like after the new CBA and we were in financial peril. But yeah, Lou seems to really trust Deboer and he should...he's a fantastic coach Edited September 24, 2013 by SMantzas

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

How much cap room is left, if any?

[ATLL765]

How much cap room is left, if any?

Like $1.3-1.4M I think. I would imagine that the roster is basically set at this point. Just a matter of who's getting what spot. If any movement is happening now, it'll have to involve shipping out a roster player.

[mouse]

I see Carter getting more burn than Olesz, at least early on. He's an ideal 4th liner, willing to drop the gloves, able to kill penalties, a little bit of a rat. Olesz may have more tools, but for the role either one is going to get, Carter's worth more to the team.

[NewarkDevil5]

This looks like it'll be a 15 minutes/line roll them out kind of team. I don't see a standout 1st line, nor do I see a set of players destined for the traditional 3rd or 4th line duties. This is going to be four 2nd lines rolling out one after the other. I like that idea. It'll be very difficult to defend against and at the same time most all of the players are at least reasonably defensively responsible enough to take care of other team's first and second lines.

[Triumph]

I see Carter getting more burn than Olesz, at least early on. He's an ideal 4th liner, willing to drop the gloves, able to kill penalties, a little bit of a rat. Olesz may have more tools, but for the role either one is going to get, Carter's worth more to the team.

 

Olesz has better numbers over his career, and the Devils have been using Olesz on the PK a lot in the preseason.  I don't think they'll go this route, but they definitely could.

[NJDevs4978]

There's basically no way they can keep little Gio at this point.  He might as well start packing now, he's the 14th-15th best forward on the roster as constituted and the easiest contract to shed.  Trading Carter would be an asinine solution, he's one of the eleven forwards I pretty much have as guaranteed to make the roster (Elias-Zajac-Jagr, Clowe-Henrique-Ryder, Olesz-Zubrus-Brunner and Carter/Bernier). The other three spots are between Josefson, Loiktionov, Tedenby, Barch and Little Gio.  Barch is almost certainly staying since Lou/Pete are obsessed with having at least one 'goon'.  At least one of Josefson/Loiktionov have to stay.  

 

Tedenby probably goes on IR as a short-term salve until one of the geriatric forwards gets nicked up.  Shed him (temporarily) and Little Gio and voila there's your fourteen forwards for the time being.

Edited September 24, 2013 by NJDevs4978

[NewarkDevil5]

There's basically no way they can keep little Gio at this point.  He might as well start packing now, he's the 14th-15th best forward on the roster as constituted and the easiest contract to shed.  Trading Carter would be an asinine solution, he's one of the eleven forwards I pretty much have as guaranteed to make the roster (Elias-Zajac-Jagr, Clowe-Henrique-Ryder, Olesz-Zubrus-Brunner and Carter/Bernier). The other three spots are between Josefson, Loiktionov, Tedenby, Barch and Little Gio.  Barch is almost certainly staying since Lou/Pete are obsessed with having at least one 'goon'.  At least one of Josefson/Loiktionov have to stay.  

 

Tedenby probably goes on IR as a short-term salve until one of the geriatric forwards gets nicked up.  Shed him (temporarily) and Little Gio and voila there's your fourteen forwards for the time being.

 

I'll be rather upset if Loktionov is considered as anything but a permanent roster player at this point. I like Carter as a 13th forward with Barch as 14th at this point. As much as Josefson has done very well in the pre-season, I can't see giving a full-time roster spot to someone who has yet to be anything resembling healthy for a full season in his career. If he got waived and wound up doing phenomenally well somewhere else, ah well... and so it goes. With an older more injury prone contingent already existing within the roster, Josefson's fragile birdlike bone-structure is a potential liability we just can't afford.

[NJDevs4978]

I really don't see anything permanent about Loiktionov considering he had a 10-15 game spurt and then petered out to the point where he was a scratch a couple of times late in the season.  And I don't really see him as a 'third/fourth line center' type fit anyway.

[NewarkDevil5]

I really don't see anything permanent about Loiktionov considering he had a 10-15 game spurt and then petered out to the point where he was a scratch a couple of times late in the season.  And I don't really see him as a 'third/fourth line center' type fit anyway.

 

The whole team petered out later in the season. To me, the talent level he shows is too high to not keep in the lineup.

[Triumph]

Losing Josefson or Loktionov is a problem because the Devils don't have any centers behind this of note.  In the minors, it's Pelley, Sestito, and Darcy Zajac.  That problem isn't limited to just Albany either - it's Pietila, Kujawinski, and hopes and dreams behind them on the organizational depth chart.  

 

Giving up on Loktionov would be one of the worst personnel moves this team can make.  Waiving Josefson would also be up there as sheer idiocy.

[Bibby89]

Any chance they were in a way displaying his abilities by pairing him with Elias and Brunner in the Isles game? He looked good there. Maybe get an AHL type center as a stopgap for injury sake and then sign a center in the offseason...just a hypothetical.

Edited September 24, 2013 by Bibby89

[NewarkDevil5]

Losing Josefson or Loktionov is a problem because the Devils don't have any centers behind this of note.  In the minors, it's Pelley, Sestito, and Darcy Zajac.  That problem isn't limited to just Albany either - it's Pietila, Kujawinski, and hopes and dreams behind them on the organizational depth chart.  

 

Giving up on Loktionov would be one of the worst personnel moves this team can make.  Waiving Josefson would also be up there as sheer idiocy.

 

But the numbers game is dictating that we can't keep them both as centers on the team without getting rid of veterans that Lou and Petey like a great deal. If I had to pick one of the two, I'd pick Loktionov over Josefson because he's got a better scoring touch and is way more creative with the puck in general. My question to you is: why are we so concerned over our center depth? As I see it right now, we've got Zajac signed for 8 years as a center and Henrique locked up for another 6 years who can play center. If we choose the right one of either Loktionov or Josefson as the 3rd center to lock up long term, we'd have 3 centers locked up for the better part of the next decade. We could afford to lose one or the other of them, realistically at this point.

[Triumph]

But the numbers game is dictating that we can't keep them both as centers on the team without getting rid of veterans that Lou and Petey like a great deal. If I had to pick one of the two, I'd pick Loktionov over Josefson because he's got a better scoring touch and is way more creative with the puck in general. My question to you is: why are we so concerned over our center depth? As I see it right now, we've got Zajac signed for 8 years as a center and Henrique locked up for another 6 years who can play center. If we choose the right one of either Loktionov or Josefson as the 3rd center to lock up long term, we'd have 3 centers locked up for the better part of the next decade. We could afford to lose one or the other of them, realistically at this point.

 

Players get hurt.  Having players who can actually play as opposed to the S. Gionta/Barch/Janssen/Sestito/Pelley garbage that the Devils have insisted on leaving around as their 'depth' will go a long way towards making the team better.  Stephen Gionta simply cannot play a role more than a 4th line player, and even that is asking a lot.  When you have 'veterans you like a lot', you should examine why you like that player and what he brings to the team.  With Stephen Gionta, it's simply not enough.

[mouse]

Olesz has better numbers over his career, and the Devils have been using Olesz on the PK a lot in the preseason.  I don't think they'll go this route, but they definitely could.

No arguments. I just like having a couple real 4th line energy guys who are comfortable in different roles. If the Devils try to roll each line over 10 minutes, then maybe Olesz gets the spot, but if Debo wants to have 3 top lines and a 4th, Carter is more valuable IMHO.

[maxpower]

Sislo is green as goose sh!t but he does seem to have a good feel for offensive positioning.    Of course though, his defensive positioning is ghastly.   Not this year obviously but maybe he'll improve in Albany.

[Marshall]

I don't see how you waive Josefson after this pre-season. I get that teams will be trimming down their own rosters and might not be able to find room for him, but all you need is one team needing a C and with a tiny bit of cap space...

[Guadana]

what`s about...

 

young jj with brunner and elias

adam with old jj and ryder (i like what`s happened with giroux after plaing with old jj, so i wanna see something like cloude in adam)

loktionov with zajac and clowe

and 

olezh with zubi and carter\bernier

 

that`s how we have three seconds lines with young and veteran who can insurance and give some experience for young

they can keep in high movement

and we have strong skill 4th line they can play 10-15min(not 3-6 min as usually) and they will be useful in PP and PK

 

good material for coach this year

Edited September 25, 2013 by Guadana

[ATLL765]

Sislo is green as goose sh!t but he does seem to have a good feel for offensive positioning.    Of course though, his defensive positioning is ghastly.   Not this year obviously but maybe he'll improve in Albany.

He's already 25 and has spent two full years in Albany. I don't think he ever makes it.

[nessus]

what`s about...

 

young jj with brunner and elias

adam with old jj and ryder (i like what`s happened with giroux after plaing with old jj, so i wanna see something like cloude in adam)

loktionov with zajac and clowe

and 

olezh with zubi and carter\bernier

 

that`s how we have three seconds lines with young and veteran who can insurance and give some experience for young

they can keep in high movement

and we have strong skill 4th line they can play 10-15min(not 3-6 min as usually) and they will be useful in PP and PK

 

good material for coach this year

 

These could all be legitimate 2nd lines. Do teams ever do that- approximately equal minutes for all lines? If you spread the talent across all 4 lines, then it would be hard to decide which players get the better minutes. I can't tell if that would be a good idea or not...and when Barch fits in there for those games that you know he'll be playing.

[lucifer91]

The Devils returned some players to Albany/Juniors.  Urbom is still up with the Devils.  I think Gelinas is better than Urbom, so do you think the Devils thoughts are that the longer they keep Urbom up the less likely he is to be claimed off waivers?  Meaning more teams have their roster in place at the time he is sent down??

 

http://blogs.northjersey.com/blogs/fireice/merrill_gelinas_matteau_among_those_sent_to_albany_severson_returned_to_junior/

 

The Devils assigned eight players to Albany today, including defensemen Eric Gelinas and Jon Merrill and left wing Stefan Matteau. They also returned rookie defenseman Damon Sererson to Kelowna of the WHL. Also assigned to Albany today were goaltender Scott Wedgewood, defenseman Brandon Burlon and forwards Mike Sislo, Tim Sestito and Rod Pelley. - See more at: http://blogs.northjersey.com/blogs/fireice/merrill_gelinas_matteau_among_those_sent_to_albany_severson_returned_to_junior/#sthash.iXj84XEH.dpuf

Edited September 25, 2013 by lucifer91

[thefiestygoat]

I like that Urbom is still up over Gelinas and Merrill. He's paid his dues and is more NHL ready at this moment in my opinion, though I still think he gets cut unless a trade happens to one of the 7 established D. Whatever they do, I just hope they don't go with 8 D again. Nervous about one of my favorites, Fayne, getting dealt. Can't see anyone else moving on.

[Triumph]

They cut everyone who doesn't need waivers.  Keith Kinkaid doesn't require waivers either, but they are likely keeping a 3rd goalie in case they need one for Thursday's game.

 

Forward roster now is these players:

 

LW:  Elias, Clowe, Zubrus, Carter, Olesz, Barch

 

C:  Zajac, Henrique, Loktionov, Josefson, Gionta

 

RW:  Jagr, Ryder, Brunner, Bernier, Janssen, Tedenby

 

I imagine Janssen will be cut after the last pre-season game.  Tedenby can go on IR for the time being, though that will create problems.  

[ATLL765]

I like that Urbom is still up over Gelinas and Merrill. He's paid his dues and is more NHL ready at this moment in my opinion, though I still think he gets cut unless a trade happens to one of the 7 established D. Whatever they do, I just hope they don't go with 8 D again. Nervous about one of my favorites, Fayne, getting dealt. Can't see anyone else moving on.

I agree. Urbom has looked ok in the few NHL games he's gotten. He's certainly not flashy, but seems to be more of a stay at home guy with good mobility. Henrik Tallinder-esque maybe? But he's been sitting in the minors for a while and I think deserves a real look.