devilsrule33

Picking #9 is a complete crapshoot. Here are the last bunch of players picked at #9. A couple of stars, a few average players, and a bunch of garbage. If we have to give up a defenseman and #9 to move up to pick at #5, it might be very worth it. Players picked at #5 are almost always impact+ NHLers.

 

Brent Krahn
Tuomo Ruutu
Petr Taticek
Dion Phaneuf
Ladislav Smid
Brian Lee
James Sheppard
Logan Couture
Josh Bailey
Jared Cowen
Mikael Granlund
Dougie Hamilton
Jacob Trouba

I couldn't care less about historic drafts. It is irrelevant to this one. Firstly, this draft is deeper than others, and secondly, I don't care what previous GMs have done in the 9 spot. In 2005, the Senators took Brian Lee, but just as easily could have taken Anze Kopitar who went 11th. In 2002, Florida takes Petr Taticek, but just as easily could have drafted Alexander Semin who went 13th. I could go on and on. On the flip side, The Sharks could have passed on Logan Couture with the 9th pick in 2007 and drafted Keaton Ellerby, who went 10th. Does that make the 9th spot less appealing?

@TSNBobMcKenzie: With Alain Vigneault withdrawing himself from DAL job, expectation is he has an offer to coach NYR tho no one has officially confirmed that.

That be a shame if they hired him and not Messier.

The Julien situation, to me, is the biggest mystery in team history. I have trouble buying that puck shooting situation because that behaviour would never be tolerated by Lou. 

Anyway, here is an article about it from Chere:

Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello is a man who never admits to having regrets. If he has them, as he must, he won’t say so.

But with the Boston Bruins reaching the Stanley Cup Finals for the second time in three seasons, you have to wonder whether Lamoriello would like to have a mulligan on his decision to fire Claude Julien as Devils’ coach back on April 2, 2007.

 

Since Julien took over the Bruins in 2007-08, he has won 256 regular-season games. The Devils have won 250.

More importantly, Julien has guided the Bruins to 48 playoff victories (and counting), winning one Stanley Cup. The Devils have won 19 playoff games over that time without a Cup.

 

Lamoriello denies he has any regrets about letting Julien go with three games remaining in the 2006-07 season and the Devils tied for first place in the Atlantic Division.

 

"No, because I made the decision at that time with the information I had in front of me," Lamoriello told The Star-Ledger. "If you could go back and make decisions again, knowing what you know now, things would be different.

 

"You can’t look back. You’ve got to trust the position you’re in and the information you have. Nobody else has that information."

http://www.nj.com/de...no_regrets.html

Hell of a game!! And why any Devils fan was rooting for LA is beyond me. With that said, hats off to the Hawks. Well done.

I don't get why any fan dislikes LA. If you are tired of them sure, but THEM beating the Devils in the finals was irrelevant to me. Only thing that mattered was the Devils losing. Besides, there wasn't one bit of hostility between the teams or the fans during the finals. It was pretty ho-hum. I respected LA for taking care of business. 

I'm happy the Blackhawks won, but it has nothing to do with the 2012 Finals.

Jim Nill's first signing as an NHL GM is very Joe Nieuwendyk-ish. Gonchar gets 2 years and $10 million.