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This last week has been a very disappointing situation for the overall health of NJDevs.com. I was dismayed to find out in the midst of moving that some members of the website decided to take crap posting to a new level. Some members revealed themselves to be quite racist and insensitive and some members egged these members on. As I said, I was directing movers, and packing frantically. I don't have time to babysit. Quite frankly, the New Jersey Devils as a product are at their best in years and look to hopefully make the playoffs...but some of you are still miserable and bringing the rest of us down. You will notice some popular people did not make the return with the website. I won't name names but suffice to say the three of them have either run off or controlled the topics on this site for too long. I tried to placate them, joked along with them to get them to settle down but they would just return and begin it all anew. The fourth member posted some unfortunate posts himself and will also not be back. If you are reading this and can't log in, you were probably banned, I don't owe you an explanation, you knew what you were doing. No, you won't be coming back, it's forever this time Its not us, it was you. To the rest of us, let's get back to enjoying the forum to talk about the Devils and Thank you to everyone that literally called or texted me to find out what happened. Thanks, DM

Normally, I'd put an off topic post in another sub, but I feel it is important enough to post here. As the holidays arrive, please, look out for one another, including your friends and family. This time of year is rough for some as they don't always feel included or just feel like they aren't valuable to anyone. I bring this up because about 24 hours ago, I found out a coworker whom I looked up to and went to often for advice took his life in his home, leaving behind a family. He tragically becomes the fourth person I know this year to take their own life. I had no clue. He was always funny, laughing, telling stories and never gave any indication that something was wrong. I'm writing this to remind everyone that there is always another answer. There is always someone out there who is 100% willing to talk, about anything, if you're feeling awful and like there is now help. I'm not looking for sympathy, I just HATE feeling like I'm a bystander, so if you're having problems or whatever, direct message me here, find me on twitter [its the same as my handle here] or any other way and I'll be there to help. Below are contact information for groups of people who are also willing to help and are just an anonymous phone call away. National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255 [This is also the recommended number for Veterans' Suicide Prevention] In Canada each province has their own, but here is a link to find the one you may live in http://thelifelinecanada.ca/help/call/ Please please please look out for one another, if anything, we all have the thread of being Devils' fans in common. Never know, that small bond could end up being the ice breaker that could save someones live. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and any other holidays being celebrated this time of year! All the best & Let's go Devils, Jag

To everyone.. thank you. Thank you so much. Your kind words.. I mean, they just mean so much. It just.. it means a lot that you guys are so compassionate to a person and his family who most of you haven't met. Thank you. I don't think I've cried during many hockey games in my adult life, but last night felt special to me. We watched the whole game and honestly couldn't believe our eyes. I don't want to get too "out there" with this post (and I'm already rambling) but I can't help but feel she had a hand in some of those strange bounces in our favor last night. Here's hoping she saved some magic for the rest of the road trip. Thanks again to everyone here. This forum is a special place. The only thing I ask is that none of you handle me with kid gloves going forward - if I post something stupid, let me have it

It was very cool that the Devils welcomed my daughter into the world with a big win. Needless to say, I was unable to watch the game.

Somewhere, Daneyko is looking into a mirror and saying “Sharangovich” 10,000 times. All of them will be incorrect.

My wife made my 6 month old a zamboni that fits over his walker.

Can we shoutout @DevilMinder for keeping this place alive during the dark years? Couldn't have been a ton of traffic while the team was collecting draft picks. Feeling incredibly lucky to be able to celebrate with y'all right now. LFGD!

I will be there with my dad tonight. First time I have gone to a game with him in about 4-5 years.

Sometimes, you have a great day. Watched my daughter sing with her choir. Nothing more angelic than hearing a children's choir sing. My dad is fully recovered from his prostate cancer treatment and his PSA is about as low as it can be. Damned near ZERO. A rough year for him has finally come to end. Recorded the game and watched it in full with him. Taylor Hall...goddamn. Guy is doing it all AND finishing. Who knows if he can keep THIS up (guy is as hot as hot can be), but man it will be fun as hell to watch him try. Hopefully some have learned that there is life after slumps...especially with THIS group, because these guys can score. It's the low-scoring teams that you have to worry about, as far as that goes. Happy for KK and his snagging a couple of wins.

Back on January 13, 2020, it was hard to tell exactly where the Devils might be headed; Ray Shero, the man tasked with trying to build something out of the rubble and ashes left behind by Lou, had just been shown the door, much to our collective shock. Just one month before, a key building block and the player responsible for one of the most dynamic regular seasons ever for a Devils forward in Taylor Hall had been dealt for a bunch of pieces that didn't figure to bring any immediate help. In 2017-18, even if it was partly fool's gold, there seemed to be every reason to believe that the Devils might be headed in the right direction; less than two years later, we were back to wondering if the Devils were ever going to get this thing turned around...even with a pair of promising 1OAs in the lineup, in Nico and Jack, the future still felt very murky and uncertain. And of course as we know, it didn't exactly get better right away. Gotta give Fitz a ton of credit here, even if he obviously inherited a hell of a lot more than his predecessor did. For one, when the Devils needed to sell, he did a hell of a job selling. For another, with the assets that he snagged from those deals and through other smart dealing, he was able to turn those assets into useful players who have helped to turn things around much more quickly than we really had any right to hope for...Dawson, Muk, Siegs, Marino, VV, etc. He then went and managed to pull off something no one ever thought he could: land a big UFA fish, in Dougie Hamilton. And though people act like the Devils have never struck it big with big names at or near the deadline (guess people forget about Lou acquiring Gilmour, Mogilny, and Kovalchuk, among others), Fitz obviously hit the big time in snagging Meier. No GM even bats 1.000 and not like Fitz has been perfect, and I don't think the mess that was the Devils' season last year was a part of his plan, but enough went wrong (especially with the goaltending) that even with the overwhelming frustration that came with what felt like another "punt it away" kind of season, Fitz was right to ignore our pleading and bitching in not trying to make any quick-fix moves that wouldn't have moved the needle all that much. The fact is that nASS and Recchi were still in the fold and no player acquisitions were going to be able to overcome those two. Fitz wisely held onto his bullets and lost the battle to win the war, and we're in a much better position today because he was willing to be that little bit more patient than most of the rest of us. From this fan (and I'm sure many others), thank you Tom. Not since Lou's finest days have I felt this confident about the Devils' future being in the right hands. You were spoken of highly in terms of being a potentially excellent GM someday, and all you've done is prove everyone right. You've not only made watching this team fun again, but it sure feels like you're making New Jersey a destination that players actually WANT to come to; that's no easy task. Thank you for restoring pride to our New Jersey Devils! The future is suddenly blindingly bright.

As we approach the holiday season with Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanza next week, I am doing my annual bump of this thread in memory of my friend(s) and to help those still battling their own way. Each year, I advocate those around me to reach out if they need anything, literally any time, but a few weeks ago, I realized I was doing so without providing much credibility of myself. So here;'s a bit of my backstory WARNING: Emotional post ahead. In 2016, about two months before I had made the original post, I was diagnosed with the early stages of PTSD. It was a freaking nightmare to be in the middle of a store and have to stop walking because I felt overwhelmed. My wife and I were walking down an aisle, looking at cereal, and I froze dead in my tracks, gripped the cart white knuckle tight and struggled to breathe. After what felt like an eternity, I was able to tell her I need to leave and we eventually left the store. A few days or weeks went by and we were watching Stranger Things and during the scene where they pull fake Will from the quarry, it played the same song from the end of 'Lone Survivor' (blacked out for any possible spoilers, three full years later, lol) and again I lost my mind, uncontrollably sobbing. I couldn't even get the words out to my wife, other than saying "I need help." The next day, I went right in to mental health on base, terrified anyone would find out or I'd see someone I'd recognize, but I knew I had to go, I couldn't live like that anymore. Add to it multiple suicides of close friends after I had started treatment, and let me tell you that I was beyond thrilled I had someone to confide in and be able to, for lack of a better term, dump my problems on. Now, the point of that anecdote isn't to garner sympathy, its to show how it is possible for anyone to recover. I went from being a person who lived in a world of fear that the slightest thing would trigger an attack to, in just a few months, I was able to at least control when those things happen. I WANT TO HELP. Literally anyone, if you need someone to blow off steam to, for fvck's sake message me on here and I'll give you my number and we can chat or even talk on the phone. I've been shot at on the ground, shot at in the sky and held my friends so damn tight when they've landed cause it was an absolute miracle they survived getting shot at. I've held one of my friends who's been overseas with me each time I've gone when he was drunkenly broke down over everything he's been through and me just telling him "i get it" was enough to look at me with that confused look as if to say "really?" and I just nodded back then we shared stories sitting in the parking lot of a hotel. We all have our baggage (from military, first responders, to every day people, we're all the same), hell this team can drive us to the emotional point of exhaustion from stress, it is absolutely not a sign of weakness to reach out to people to talk about it, or even just to ask for help. Lastly, as I wrap this marathon post up and sip a beer following another tough loss, a group I've reached out to work with is the Mental Health League (https://mentalhealthleague.com/). Its just starting up, and a few of their "teams" are just starting up, but the idea is to win more days than you lose, treating recovery like a fantasy sports league. I've volunteered to be the Point of Contact for their PTSD team once enough people to sign up for it, but told them I'm absolutely willing and able to help anyone that needs an ear. In closing, you can see the previous posts and know how much mental health means to me. I wish all of you nothing but the best this holiday season. Hope you and your families have a happy and safe (insert your specific celebratory holiday here), and maybe we all can share a beer sometime together. Merry Christmas & let's go Devils. -Jag

With our travel day tomorrow, and the season now on pause, figured what better time than to do my annual post bump. Over the past few weeks, I became a certified Standards of Conduct, Sexual Assault Prevention, and Suicide Prevention instructor. It’s been about three years coming but finally the timing worked where I was able to make it happen. On Monday, in an effort to think outside the box for the instruction, I relieved the events of 5 years ago in narrative form and emphasized to the attendees the importance of how the warning signs, even looking back now, weren’t there at all. We talked about how a simple text literally can change someone’s path and that no one should be afraid to ask for help nor reach out to help. There’s plenty of protections for individuals who get help that they can still continue their careers, and absolutely be successful in doing so without blowback from saying “hey, I need a wingman…” It felt great to hear the feedback of, “wow, finally an instructor who shares their experiences instead of just reciting the slides” pretty frequently from the 4 courses I taught that day alone. With COVID deciding to be a Dick again and possibly screwing up a lot of people’s plans, be that helping voice folks. See if your buddy’s from years ago are still doing well, or that friend you just saw yesterday and pounded a beer with us actually good when they got home. Lord knows us Devils’ fans need it (see, deep posts can still have some humor.) I appreciate all of you guys, wishing the best as always. - Jag

I'm going to end this season with a haiku, if you guy's don't mind. It started off great, Coronavirus said wait, Lotto here we come.

This will be my first game in person this year. Taking my Dad for his 70th. LGD!

Remember that week long rant by Daniel? Oh man that aged like a fine 2% milk.

Off topic but hell a lot asked for it: Future first round draft picks have arrived!!! Won’t let me upload the photo but they’re doing well and mom’s finally getting some sleep!

Obvious but still feels good.

RECAP This is a perfect example why you shouldn't own furniture. The less times you stub your toe, the better. In order to not stub your toe, you need to pay attention to where you're walking Devils are 5-12-1 since the toe-stub TOE RECAP Toe 1: Acceptable, no real damage Toe 2: Acceptable, maybe could have gotten a little less bent. Toe 3: Acceptable, close to danger zone but stayed intact (Greene was still bad) Toe 4: Acceptable, absolutely nothing MB could have done to hurt it Toe 5: Culprit #1. Direct contact right into a table leg is not how you win games POSSESSION 4 unhurt toes

I have a 2.5 week old, that helped keep me up for the entire game. Usually I just DVR these late games.

Patrik Elias retiring was going to have me come out of retirement. The last link we all have to those great teams that now seem so far away. I am sure we can debate HHOF or not for a long time and what could have been. And I bet in a different circumstance, on a different team, with a different style, with different teammates, the decision would be easy. But that's what Elias sacrificed, and he doesn't seem to have any issues with that. Patrik Elias did what every die-hard fan of a team wants their star player to do. He put winning before anything else. He took less money, less freedom, less fame for the good of the Devils. He accepted his role for the betterment of the team every time. He switched positions, switched lines and played with much less heralded players. And did so without any confrontation. He was all class. He treated the Devils with more respect than they probably showed him. It’s extremely rare for an athlete to stick for one team their entire career. Elias did this, but it was never a coach and player tied to the hip like say Tom Brady and Bill Belichik or Tim Duncan and Greg Popovich. It was anything but that obviously. After the A-line disbanded, it felt like he constantly took a backseat to other players for whatever reason. Pat Burns, Claude Julien, Brent Sutter, and Jacques Lemaire all seemed to fall in love with other forwards, their style of play and line matching at Elias’ expense. When Brent Sutter came along, he shamefully stripped Elias of the captaincy and gave it to a player that missed training camp and pre-season. In 2009, after one of the best seasons of his career, he saw a 40-year-old mid-season acquisition heavily cut into his minutes. I’ll always remember game 7 -- the saddest game in Devils history for me anyway - where 7 forwards saw more ice-time than Elias. An NHL coach thought it be best to give Jay Pandolfo and Brendan Shanahan 3 more minutes each than Patrik. Shanahan never played another second of NHL hockey. Pandolfo would be scratched the entire 2010 playoffs. But Elias kept quiet only to see three more coaching changes in 2 years. Sure it must have been fun to play second fiddle to Parise seeing ice-time with Brian Rolston and Dean McAmmond, or the lowest of lows – 35-year-old Rob Niedermayer. Remember that in 2010 Elias saw around the same ice-time per game as Brian Rolston and Rob fvcking Niedermayer. He still had 36 even-strength points in 58 games. Yup, he was still around, and 11 years after his career season, Patrik was once again finished in the top 10 of NHL scoring. Not playing with Parise or Kovalchuk. But by making David Clarkson relevant and a washed-up Petr Sykora relevant again (later scratched in the playoffs). That season was the first year in maybe his entire time that a coach used Elias like a horse he could be. At 35 He was a true all situational player playing just under 20-minutes per game (the most he ever played in his career). The Devils kind of needed Elias to be that in 2012. For as much talk about how Elias was that all-situational player, he never was used as one like many star players around the league. He wasn’t going toe-to-toe against other team’s top players. He wasn’t always defending the lead in the final seconds. He could have done that, but the Devils found themselves defending leads more than not and were happy to roll through lines and use a checking line against the other team’s best. In 2007, the Devils had one of the most dynamic lines in the league in Elias, Gomez and Gionta going, but Claude Julien was happy to give Jay Pandolfo as much ice-time as Patrik Elias. Different team, different coach, that line is giving Elias a 90-95 point season. That same season Marty St Louis had 102 points playing 24-minutes a game – almost 5 and a half minutes more than Elias. The Lighting needed St Louis to play that amount. The Devils just didn’t. Elias played more than 19 minutes once in his career. St Louis played 20+ minutes for 11 straight years. Elias was fine with that. He did what was asked for him. He took on any role and style and succeeded at it. Top line, secondary scorer, checking line. The Devils were really really good for 15 years when Patrik Elias was on the ice. With Elias, it seemed we always wanted more from him. But when it’s all said and done, he finished with over 1000 points playing most of his career in the dead-puck era on the most offensively prohibiting teams in the league, while never playing 1st line minutes or power play minutes that any 1000 point player in the history of the league was provided. The last time the Devils made the playoffs, who was the team’s best player that year? It wasn’t the 27-year-old great captain that would leave at seasons end. It wasn’t the 28-year-old 100-million dollar man who scored 83 points playing 5 minutes of PP time and 25 minutes of total time a game. No, it was 35-year-old Patrik Elias. The Devils own team overlooked him and gave the MVP to Zach Parise. The NHL overlooked him giving 1st team all NHL to Ilya Kovalchuk. Par for the course for Patrik Elias. Greatness was always there, but you always had to look a bit harder. Sometime it was missed by his own coaches, sadly his teammates, by fans of the Devils and the NHL. However, it’s not a coincidence the Devils were an elite team when Elias was an elite player. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Devils faltered when Elias stopped being one.

Luke was so good, he is going to be a superstar like his brother. And shout out to mcleod, he really stepped up this post season. He was downright an anchor for the team to stabilize from at points.

Aaaaaaaaaand Jack pulls it off! Jack: 43 G, 56 A, 99 Pts PWM: 44 G, 54 A, 98 Pts Aaaaaaaaaaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Pretty sure it's literally just because I changed my twitter display name to "Blake Coleman Fan Club" like 3-4 weeks ago. I have always interacted with the NJDevils account on there here and there. So on St. Patrick's Day we were in Hoboken and I posted some picture of the group of us watching the Kings-Devils game in Hoboken with some caption about the Devils. The NJDevils account responded "Blake Coleman Fan Club never sleeps!" Anyway, so I guess 20 people got a golden wristband. I wasn't one. However, I saw that they put up on their twitter that they'd be selecting one fan to go out there from twitter, too. So I posted this picture of my buddy and I when we met Coleman at the "young stars" STH event with my seat and location. During the first period they DM'ed me that I had won. Obviously I was super excited. So we get down to the zamboni area and they're assigning players. Initially they ask who I am and they just give me a random card and it's 23, Noesen. I'm like okay, awesome! I don't care who the hell I get. I'm just grateful they even chose me. Then they're like wait you're from the social media winner right? and they switch me out for Coleman. So that's why I'm pretty sure that stupid little name change got me the in to this crazy ass moment lmao Never did I think it would end up like that though - figured they'd hit the locker room and come back out once all the other fans had hit the road. So the only agonizing thing was we're standing there in the hallway to the old locker room behind the bench while the game is ending. That sh!t was nerve wracking, all I could see was the back of Cory's head and players whizzing back and forth. Once I heard the last minute of play call by Kevin Clark and the power play call like 30 seconds later I figured we'd be good. When they won, it was super cool because Salvador and the coaches came through. Salvador actually ran past all of us high-fiving us. Then the coaches came through and Alain Nasreddine was going nuts. Then all of the scratches showed up and they're standing they're by the tunnel as we walk onto the ice with the team still going nuts. Mojo, Bratt, etc. Next thing you know I'm standing at center ice with the whole building going ape sh!t. Absolutely fvcking surreal. I still can't believe it. Got to chat with Blake and obviously take the selfie, get his jersey, and he autographed it... but I'm just standing there in awe of the crowd and the guys going nuts... as we're walking off Lovejoy skates by to fist bump every one of us... not promoting, don't give a sh!t if you guys don't have insta or follow me (in fact don't I post a lot of stupid sh!t) but I posted a few videos here: https://www.instagram.com/swaggadactyll/, this one specifically is Nasreddine going nuts coming off the bench which I found awesome: Anyway, just figured I'd share, I'm still amped the fvck up... not sure how I am going to go to work tomorrow. I don't know where this is all headed but this has been a fvcking magical season and I'll never forget it.

McLeod has been absolutely outstanding all playoffs

1% Battery on my phone came to post this

PATTY 🤣🤣

It’s beyond nice to not deal with this sh!t anymore.

Decided to have a little fun with the Flyers' Wikipedia page (I had Elias as the owner earlier, but it got changed back. So I changed it again [emoji1]):

Rangers suck.

Jack with 2 G and 1 A tonight, PWM with an assist. Jack: 35 G, 32 A, 67 Points PWM: 35 G, 47 A, 82 Points Yep…Jack now has as many goals in 50 games this season as Kakko does for his entire career…heh heh

if the devils have 27 wins in their first 41 games played this year, I will donate $5 to this website for every like this comment gets.

Fitz to Jesper

i may be wrong but this is how i interpreted it personally... gotta be honest. it sounds crazy but it might work

And you thought you couldn’t possibly love Ty Smith anymore than you already do...

I haven't posted here in a long time but something about tonight makes me want to. Maybe it's the return of Devils hockey. Brutal first period but they got it together in period 2 - they're going to give some teams trouble with all that speed. Sharangovich drawing 3 penalties, pretty great, him being drilled into the boards, not so great. Thought there were some nice moments for Kuokkanen and Boqvist. And obviously if Blackwood isn't as incredible as he was, we're talking about a lot of different stuff.

Bahl is obviously the most intriguing of the three prospects coming back. 6'6", 230 lb left shot defenseman that's going to be playing with Ty Smith on Team Canada at the World Juniors in a couple weeks, and this year I think he's taken a significant step in his two-way game. Primarily, he's still a physical shutdown defenseman and I think he likely projects as a #4 defenseman who can play on our top PK unit at his ceiling, but he also has some decent mobility and hands for a player his size. Tonight, I was already planning on watching a 67's game in preparation for an article on Marco Rossi I'm working on, and Bahl made this excellent play for a goal in the game I was watching. It's a good illustration of some of the upside he can have beyond just being your prototypical hulking defenseman, which is encouraging. Not a high-end guy, but enough there to feel good about. Nate Schnarr is an interesting pick up. 6'3" center who was a top player for the Storm last year (34G, 102PTS in 65GP) but has taken some time to adjust in the AHL, which should be expected for a 20 year old coming out of junior. I'm not sure he's more than a 3rd line center at his ceiling, but there's enough there to think he could maybe have a place on a PP2 in the future if he pans out right. Merkley is someone I liked quite a bit in 2015 (was actually who I wanted the Devils to grab in 2015 in the 2nd round before the Yotes grabbed him at the end of Round 1), but he's taken some time now to find his footing at the AHL and has regressed a little since his rookie AHL season. I think there's still something there to the point where we should give him a chance to stick in our middle six for the rest of the season. Once upon a time, he projected nicely as a potential top six forward, so hopefully a change of scenery and a bigger opportunity with the Devils helps him realize some of that upside. EDIT: More than anything, we shouldn't be looking at Kevin Bahl as the centerpiece of this trade - he's not. The centerpiece was getting that 2020 1st Round pick; I've been beating the drum that this is the best draft since either 2015 or 2003, and if this pick ends up in the middle of the 1st round or earlier, we're going to walk away with two foundational pieces to build around. A lot of people were clamoring for Soderstrom from the Coyotes, but I feel fairly confident in saying that whoever we get with this 1st Round pick is going to be better than Soderstrom. If for arguments sake we end up with Lucas Raymond and Jeremie Poirier with our two 1st Rounders this year, I think people are going to look at our long term outlook with much, much more optimism than what is being thrown around right now, those would be two massive additions for our club.

Why are you like this?

I will not be physically able to stay awake long enough to watch this game. So I am making all of these comments in advance and hoping they will apply somewhere in this thread. Cory Schneider looks like the old Cory Schneider. Hall!! Glad to see him back to scoring goals. That's what she said.

Nico when he was a kid- it was fate lol:

Ray has an incredible opportunity this offseason to make a quantum leap forward. He's got more assets than he'll ever have. He has an expansion draft where teams are absolutely going to be squeezed. He's got more cap room than anyone and an offseason that's going to see the cap stay relatively flat. There's the fear that you go "Buffalo shortcuts." That didn't work out for them this year but you can "shortcut" the right way and dramatically improve. I don't believe in the need to be a "cup contender." If you get into the playoffs, you have a chance. And if the Devils get into the playoffs, a big part of it will by Cory. And a great Cory is the great equalizer. The Devils attendance has dropped every year for the last 4 or 5 years and it's going to drop again next year. They are down on season ticket renewals. They cannot afford a consistent down turn. They've missed the playoffs in the past. They were never laughingstock bad. They were this year. So what can Ray do this offseason? Ray should make it clear that his offseason mission is to make this team a playoff team next year. Whether he truly believes it or not isn't important - he needs to say it and he needs to make moves like it. I think Hynes stays but his staff does not. The Devils were bottom 3rd in the league in PP and PK. Their defense was consistently out of position and set offenses never really materialized. This shows there's accountability for the outcome of this season. I also think one of the guys that has to come in has to be more of a veteran presence. Hynes and his crew were all AHL guys. There's gotta be some experience back there with him - hopefully with some pedigree that puts confidence into the boys. We'll see where we end up in the draft, but Ray needs to make hay with this first pick. As for the expansion draft, Ray needs to have one of Cammy or Lovejoy (somehow both would be the best) head to Vegas. And he needs to come out of the expansion draft with a defenseman (Anaheim, Nashville, Minnesota). He has too many assets, cap room, expansion eligible players, etc to not be successful here. He needs another forward in trade. Think Tiffoli, Huala, Palat or the like. Someone that a cap strap team is going to have to get rid of. He needs to outbid the market for Shattenkirk. Is this gonna look ugly at the end? Yup. Is this going to look like an overpay when he signs it? Yup. But it still has to happen. If it means you trade a 4th to Washington to get his rights because he wants the 8th year so it's 8/64 - then that's what you do. The only reason that Kevin Shattenkirk isn't a NJ Devil next year is because he didn't want to be - not because they didn't make every attempt to land him. Shattenkirk is a no doubt about it 1st pair D, PP D and offense creator. This is not asking the Devils to go out and make this year's Kyle Okposo UFA signing (hello TJ Oshie). Shattenkirk can be a D foundation guy for 4 years. Everyone else on this team wants to think that the future isn't so far off in the distance. Are they pros? Of course. But come on. Hall has known nothing but losing. And his teams haven't really tried all that hard to win. He needs to be in a winning environment soon. He was so beaten mentally this year. And so was Cory. Now from Cory's perspective, he had the worst year of his career and he was most certainly to blame for a lot of it. Missing the playoffs a lot of years is one thing. Being hopeless is quite another. That's Buffalo and Carolina purgatory. You can't have that. So you have to make moves to get better sooner rather than later. So to recap - what do the Devils need right now to be a playoff team next year? They need two top 6 forwards. Trade for one and hope that one of Zacha, McLeod, Speers, Wood becomes the other. Or if you get lucky and get one of the top 2 picks, perhaps one of those guys is a top 6 next year. You can put them with Hall, Palmieri, Zajac, and Henrique. They need a complete top pair of defensemen. Shattenkirk is one. The D you acquire around the expansion draft is the other. And of course, you'll need some addition by subtraction - namely Ben Lovejoy. There have been articles written and plenty of keyboard ink spilled on message boards but LJ was essentially giving the other team an extra player just about every time he was on the ice. I understood the idea of the signing - but it has been disastrous. The flotsam and jetsam from this year can mix with perhaps a Fiddler type UFA signing for the bottom 6 forwards and the Devils could get by. Then of course, you'll need Cory to be last year's Cory. But having better players and a better coaching staff should help that department. In closing - this year was awful to go through. I am a STH and I went to about 30 of the games this year so I saw it first hand a lot. But I'm willing to do it to get back to where I want the team to be. And we don't have to go through a Sixers level process to get there. Ray has already taken the first two steps. Palmieri was step 1. Hall was step 2. We need steps 3-8 to happen this offseason.

This is mine…I’ve put these up before. If I’m not at the game, this is where me and my daughter are watching.

How badly did we crush the 2018 draft coming out with Ty Smith and Sharangovich considering we went into it with the 17th overall and then nothing until the 4th round? It kind of makes up for pissing away our 2nd on Grabner (which made sense at the time)

Based on how everyone in hockey told us the lead up to the expansion draft was going to be one of the craziest offseason events we've ever witnessed, sure it's disappointing that we're not at least sitting here with a guy like Vatenen right now. That being said, I think people are being way too pessimistic about Shero and this team going forward. When he took over a little more than 2 years ago, he was left with pretty much nothing other than that some cap flexibility and a star goalie. Because of 10 years of losing/trading top picks and then using the ones we did keep for 3rd line grinder types, it was always going to take a few drafts to restock the system. The team clearly needed to embrace that fact that we needed a rebuild, we just didn't nuke the thing and go full tank like he Buffalo's and Toronto's of the world. Here we are 27ish months later having added 5 forwards that everyone here should be really excited about in Hall, Palmeiri, Hischier, Zacha and McLeod and Shero managed to pull two of them out of his first draft when he still had that dinosaur Conte leading things. He's also clearly changed the teams drafting style where we are at least drafting guys with later picks who have top end up side. The majority of them won't hit, but at least when they do, they'll be more than Jay Pandolfo clones. I'm very happy with the direction Shero and Castron have this part of the operation going So that leads us to this offseason where we clearly need to upgrade the D. The expansion draft kind of fizzled because McPhee and "the pledge" were successful in shutting down most of the pre-draft movement only to turn around and let most of the teams he had put in a bind, off the hook. That left us basically hoping we could steal a guy in Shattenkirk who has been linked to the Rangers for 18 months and already spiked a trade to a Tampa team that's much closer to winning and had a 7 year/42 million offer on the table at the trade deadline. Other than him, I haven't really seen anyone moved that I wished could have been added as a long term solution. There are still a lot of names out there that are rumored to be moved and plenty of teams that have holes to fill on their rosters, so I do anticipate that there's still some significant movement yet this offseason. The truth is that this was always going to take at least another draft until we had the type of assets built up that allowed us to make moves as they presented themselves but if Shero can turn the gift he was handed in Kovy into a young defensemen like Ryan Murray/Vatenen or at least a top defensive prospect like Fabbro that would be a good start. Sorry for the long post, just wanted to point out that I think this rebuild is going quite well. I'm a little baffled by some of the comments about this now being the tipping point because I think with all of the young forward talent we've been adding, this will be the most entertaining product we've had in years. It sucks that we couldn't land a guy in Shattenkirk that's skill set is exactly what we're missing, but he's also a 2nd pairing defender on a contender, so it's not like Scott Niedermayer walking out the door. In general, I feel like we've already gone through the ugliest part of the rebuild, why jump now?

I don't normally post here, and this is why. Disclaimer: You may fall asleep half way through this. Benjamin Franklin referred to New Jersey as a barrel tapped at both ends. Sandwiched between the South River and the North River—today’s Delaware and Hudson—New Jersey’s colonial identity was synonymous with that of its closest city, either New York or Philadelphia. This split identity resulted in a political divide during the colonial era, creating Berkley’s West New Jersey and Carteret’s East New Jersey. Even though official unification came in 1702, we still live in a divided state that exists to satisfy the big cities across the rivers. Fast forward a few centuries. The early 1980s saw the arrival of two things New Jerseyans could finally call their own: the Nets and the Devils. Both teams made the Swamp their home and out-of-towners delighted in us having our hometown sports team based in such a dismal location. The two team’s position in the north further alienated south Jersey, deepening that supposedly-abolished division created during the colonial era. When New Jersey attempted to establish itself by stepping out of the shadows of its neighbors, those same neighbors found a way to discredit what is ours. Need proof? The playoff re-runs from 18 years ago have already received more play time on TV than 1995, 2000 and 2003 combined. New Jerseyans have even been denied Liberty. Lady Liberty, that is. In 1668, Captain Christopher Billopp was given 24 hours to sail around—and claim for the New York colony—as many islands in the New York Harbor as possible. Upheld by Congress in 1834, Liberty Island, Ellis Island and Staten Island were all supposedly circled during Billopp’s journey and have since been considered New York State, despite geographic proximity to New Jersey. No credit where credit is due. The Brooklyn New Jersey Nets picked up and left for New York City this year and now the Devils are left to fend on this New Jersey peninsula alone, like a battered group of 300 outnumbered by a sea of invaders. But this year can be different. In the South, or the hole at the bottom of Franklin’s barrel, a plug was formed and wedged into the opening. The Flyers were defeated in five games and—for the first time in the history of the world—the mouths in Philadelphia are speechless. In the North, the hole at the top of the barrel has yet to be decided. It can continue to widen. It can continue with the trend set in motion during those extra innings in 1994 or during the Congressional ruling in 1834. Or even that ridiculous sailing excursion in 1668. Or … the tap can be removed and the hole can be plugged. For the first time in New Jersey history, the State may finally stand on its own as a unified and independent entity instead of a spit of land devoted to serve outsiders. Unification and independence will only be accepted if it includes the defeat of both cities that have controlled New Jersey for centuries. Two dozen guys with sticks and skates can do what 400 years of history has failed to do. Plugging both ends of the barrel and creating a self-sustaining state—even if it’s only in the sports world—is a step in the right direction for New Jersey. If it happens, it will be wonderful. If it happens, it will be long overdue.