halfsharkalligatorhalfman

Aves play with fire and get burnt. I hope this happens more often. I bet P.K. Subban is kicking himself right now.

O'Reilly's qualifying offer in two years is going to be $6.5 million and if there's enough bad blood given the negotiation I wouldn't be surprised if they let him go.

Tough call for Colorado. Keep a young center for his peak years but at market price or go for the draft picks? They probably will match which makes the prolonged stalemate with O'Reilly a huge blunder in retrospect for them. They could have had O'Reilly at 4 years 16 million presumably if they didn't try and low ball him.

I don't understand why both western conference divisions have 7 teams if supposedly one of the purposes of the realignment is to plan for expansion. The two most likely places for expansion are Quebec City and the Greater Toronto Area. If they go this route the only possible way to expand looks like Seattle in the Pacific and GTA in the Mid-West (creating the same old travel/time zone issues). If I were in Quebec I'd be trying to fight this realignment plan by whatever means necessary.

Harrold's a great depth player signed at a cheap price. That he's not playing is not a problem. He possibly belongs in the NHL somewhere but he chose re-upping with the Devils and their roster logjam over risking no contract trying to get playing time somewhere else. I sympathize but alas, it's a tough gig on the fringes of the NHL.

I hate it but that ship has sailed long ago...it's not going anywhere. Now we just need to make sure they never introduce it into the playoffs.

What a shock, Deadspin eviscerating a mainstream media outlet with petty complaints. I tip my hat to them for some things like the Te'o work, but it's odd that one of the most popular online sports sites seems to have no purpose other than to make fun of and embarass other news outlets.

I liked Tallinder a lot the last two years before he got hurt. I thought he was the best Devils Dman. The Devils have this logjam at D it appears that seems to be caused by two things 1. Their Dmen do not have trade value 2. Re-signing Salvador and naming him Captain I understand 1. and it's both a gift and curse since the Devils have signed a very good D for not a ton of money. Tallinder would have so much more value if he got PP points or highlight reel hits it seems. But because of 2 they have to dance around this wholly unnecessary logjam instead of purging Salvador (at least that's what it sounds like).

http://www.nj.com/devils/index.ssf/2013/02/is_devils_patrik_elias_a_futur.html I'm ok with him getting in. EDIT: Title got cut off...mods help me....

Wow, kudos to Marshall

Stephen Gionta may be "killing" the team, but I think making JJ a 4th line player isn't in the team's long term interests yet. They want to see if JJ can be more than just a defensive specialist, which is why they sent him down to Albany instead of moving him to the 4th when getting Loktionov in there. Winning as many regular season games as possible isn't really that important for a team like the Devils, they are a playoff team baring a goaltending collapse. They should be spending the regular season figuring out who their best players are and trying to develop their young talent. Once the playoffs start put the best lineup out there (If Loktionov proves he's better than Gionta, then he's probably going in). I think DeBoer feels that way. This guy put Gionta and Harrold into his lineup last postseason without any real experience because they were simply the best players available to him. I think the best thing for "THE DEVILS" is to have JJ in albany getting offensive minutes but the best thing for winning games is to have him on the 4th. I say this having watched 5 minutes of Devils hockey this season but that's what it sounds like to me.

I'd like to see Gionta benched just cause I'm curious what Loktionov brings to the NHL. EDIT: Oh wow I just saw that he was called up and JJ was sent down http://njdevs.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=130532 From a win now perspective it makes more sense to bench Gionta and have JJ serve as a PK specialist it sounds like, but I guess they want JJ to become more than that. Oh well....

He was given every chance to succeed though? Sounds like bad luck, but glad to hear from his agent he'll be ok.

That sucks for Darche. I hope Lou didn't string him along.

That would mean Lou didn't do his research since those comments were made beforehand and he acquired Loktionov to play wing. It's possible, Lou's made mistakes before.

Sounds like B.S. to get page hits from French Canadian readers enamored with Broduer and Bernier. "Imagine them on the same team!"

Probably Adam Burish

They don't have the 1st either due to Kovalgate

I never understood why he signed so quickly in Winnipeg for so little anyway.

5 million dollars a year? I don't buy that. Maybe he wants 5 million in the final year of a contract taking him to/past UFA status but I don't think he's getting 5 million AVG anywhere.

Does Yayo = Josefson?

Young centers like O'Reilly never become available. It will be interesting to see what he returns.

5 on 5 http://www.behindthenet.ca/nhl_statistics.php?ds=25&s=22&f1=2012_s&f2=5v5&f4=D&f5=N.J&c=0+1+3+5+21+22+23+24+25+26+27+28# 6 goals 4 on 5 http://www.behindthenet.ca/nhl_statistics.php?ds=25&s=22&f1=2012_s&f2=4v5&f4=D&f5=N.J&c=0+1+3+5+21+22+23+24+25+26+27+28 3 goals 5 on 4 http://www.behindthenet.ca/nhl_statistics.php?ds=25&s=22&f1=2012_s&f2=5v4&f4=D&f5=N.J&c=0+1+3+5+21+22+23+24+25+26+27+28 0 goals Not sure about 2 man advantage situations.

Ryan Malone got 4.5 for 7 years and that was 5 years ago. Clarkson's next contract will probably be something like that. Not sure how the market will look with the cap shrinking though, a lot of teams simply won't be able to bid.

I hated watching Clarkson play 2-3 years ago. I hated his contract. I've not seen many Devils games this year but those stats are unreal given what I thought I knew about him. I guess I was just totally wrong or a skating fetishist. There's more than one way to be productive in the NHL and Clarkson is clearly that. Alright I don't sound stupid!