insanity_gallops

His acquisition of Kari Lehtonen for Vishnevskiy and a 4th round pick seems pretty impressive at this point, but giving up Neal and Niskanen for Goligoski hurts. Giving up Ribeiro for Eakin and a 2nd rounder will be interesting to watch.

 

It's weird, seems like Dallas didn't really want to commit to either rebuilding or retooling and walked a strange line in between. Then when prospects and picks are brought in, Nieuwendyk is shown the door. That being said, I'm not a Stars fan, so I clearly have a different perspective.

Don't we have 2 amnesty buyouts? While it may be an issue for our broke Owner, it shouldn't be a cap issue. Past those two, I'm not sure who we would want to save a buyout for next season considering Salvador will only have 1 year left on his deal.
To your other point, I guess I should have been more specific. Who becomes the freshman in 2-3 years as Lokti, Henrique and Larssen move into the sophomore range? I know we've got the defenseman but are we really putting all of our eggs in the Ried Boucher basket up front?

 

First of all, Lat, your long post is pretty much spot-on for how I feel. Just didn't want to quote it because, ya know, it's a long post. Re-up Elias, Zubrus, D'Agostini, Zidlicky, Henrique, Loktionov, Josefson.

 

That still leaves holes, obviously, but I'd like to see the Devils use their two amnesty buyouts on Volchenkov and Hedberg. 

 

Bring in a younger goalie who could at least handle a bigger workload at this point in his career - UFAs include Emery, Khudobin, Greiss as backups who could be take on more games, trade market is more of a guessing game (everyone always points to Bernier, obviously).

 

To fill holes up front, there are two players I've wanted to see the Devils sign: Mason Raymond and Ryan Clowe. Yeah, I know, Clowe's a Ranger right now, but I don't see how they possibly re-sign him with their upcoming cap issues (handful of RFAs who will not be cheap to re-sign). Raymond is a speedster and would fit in well, while Clowe acts as an upgrade over Ponikarovsky and even Zubrus (offensively).

 

Henrique-Loktionov-Kovalchuk

Elias-Zajac-Clowe

Raymond-Josefson-Zubrus

Carter-Gionta-Bernier

 

Of course, that's only if the Devils feel that their offense won't be so snake-bitten next season... otherwise it's really not a scoring upgrade. Latendresse could be a nice gamble, Damien Brunner would be great but I don't see how the Red Wings let him walk. Clarke MacArthur could work, too.

Sucks that's he's on the Rangers 'cause I actually like Clowe a lot. He has had no puck luck this year - check out the amount of shots on goal he's responsible for. He'll score some goals for the Rangers, without question... and he can be a real beast in the playoffs. Kinda like Zubrus level but with more offensive touch around the net.

 

I'm hoping the Devils can sign him as a UFA this summer when they let Poni walk. He'd be a serious upgrade.

I'm really hoping the Devils do some major trades and shake up the team. Why on earth do they seem complacent after coming so close to all the glory last season? you would think in this shortened season it would drive them to win it all.
I realize that as long as they make the playoffs it's a whole new game, but still. Lou needs to shake up the team a bit and bring in some new major faces to revitalize the team and hopefully go all the way.

Thing is, if Lou really wants to reshape the team, blowing it up only makes sense if it's another Arnott-Nieuwy type deal. Those are tough to pull off.

Haven't read all 10 pages here but I do believe that Clarkson is capable of scoring 20 goals a year. It's not a coincidence that his goal drought really became a problem when he jammed his wrist against the boards in a game (forgive me, can remember the specific game...road game though I think). he has had it taped since then and that is a contributing factor to why he cant hit the broad side of a barn right now.

That being said i do not think he WILL score 20 goals a year... 15is an average year for him, 20 a good year, 25+ a very good year. He has a good shot now when healthy, he has picked the corner with some real nice shots...and he is damn good at deflections. Someone will pay him.

Edit: actually if Buffalo moves Stafford, Clarkson could be a nice fit there. Toughness, leadership, scoring, defense... and echoing sentiments from another thread, if BUF keeps Ott then Clarkson doesn't have to be the a-hole either, teams will focus more on Ott for that.