MB3

yeah he just needs to not fall off a cliff (literally or figuratively) and i’ll be happy with whatever he gets.

bratt probably told them that if they wanted him for 8 years the AAV needed to start with a 9. My guess is the Devils offered an 8 year deal worth 6.5ish.

fair, but wildly different scenarios. Johnny Ohio produced at a near HOF level for several years and hit a wide open market with a bidding war. Bratt is an RFA. His deal will come in at 8.5ish I think.

you absolutely could and it would be hard to argue.

he’s inarguably a top-2 forward on the team. how is that not a big piece of the puzzle!?

the devils should not be in the business of letting their home grown superstars walk as they enter their prime. i was a doubter in the off-season. i am no longer a doubter. pay him

That was the most dominating hockey game I have ever watched. It showed up everywhere; the shots on goal, the advanced stats, the eye test, the physicality, and — most importantly — the score sheet. In a few years the defense will feature Marino, Siegenthaler, Hamilton, Casey, Hughes and Nemec. That will be the most talented defense in the league. Not “one of”, not “close to”. We’re building a dynasty.

Monday: “Devils have announced that F Ondrej Palat died in his home on 10/28 surrounded by friends and family. He will be placed on IR and reevaluated in December.”

If you follow the Avalanche mold; They’ve got $39.8m tied up to their offensive core of 5 second+contract players moving forward. They’ve got $24.5m tied up to their defensive core of 4 players. The Devils currently have: $30m tied up to their offensive core of 4 second+ contract players: Nico, Jack, Bratt, Palat (I gave bratt a raise to $9m) $17m tied up to their defensive core of 3 second+ contract players. The defensive spots will be filled with 2 rookies and 1 more “big” contract. The offense can, and should, easily accommodate one more electric top-6 guy. And if that move is made, maybe the Devils explore a Sharangovich trade.

Bratt already counts for 5.5 against the cap. You can fit his ~$4m raise simply by adding the amount the cap is expected to go up (between 4.5 and 6.5) Severson, Graves, Tatar, and Bernier all come off the books. Likely only Graves, if any of those, will be re-signed. Smaller contracts like Wood, Haula and Johnsson’s deals are gone too. You would then have somewhere in the ballpark of $27.5m with the only key RFAs being Sharangovich, Blackwood and Zetterlund. It is beyond any reasonable doubt the Devils can afford Meier. The core is locked up for the next several years, and the only real “big” internal contracts we’ll need to hand out is Mercer’s in 2 more seasons. If Luke Hughes takes the league by storm, maybe his too. There’s room. The Devils should use it.

If CR means this year, then yes — you’d need to find a taker for Tatar and Severson. Not a huge issue. If CR means we can’t afford him next year (which is what I think he means, since he mentioned a Bratt raise) he is mistaken and we can fit him quite easily.

This is incorrect. The Devils can very easily add Meier and afford Bratt’s raise.

boo johnny ohio score a zillion

was just messing with you. tatar played horrible all game and then took a brain dead cross checking penalty with a minute to go to give the best team in the league a full minute of 6-on-4

Crazy thing with Bratt is that it feels like he’s getting *unlucky*. He’s been robbed so many times and his would-be assists have too. He might just be a superstar.

If you asked me “will the devils win a single 1-0 game this year” I would’ve laughed and said no. Just so many positives here. The negatives are brief so I’ll list them first: Miles Wood is just really not a good hockey player, and he needs to be on the 4th line gooning it up or he’s really useless. Since his injuries he plays a timid game and if that doesn’t change soon, I hope the Devils move on. I’ve beaten the Tatar horse to death enough but he brings nothing to this team. Invisible offensively, noticeably bad defensively, and one of the most brain dead penalties i’ve seen in a long time. Make the bad man go away. Severson is again making it so hard to get behind him. A home grown puck moving RH defenseman who’s made it public numerous times that he wants to stay a Devil, but I really don’t think he’s in their future plans. Shame, because I really do like the player in spite of his mistakes. We are thin as hell at forward, as the Palat injury shows. One injury to one of our big guys and we’re seeing Bastian on the PP, Tatar on the first line and Wood/McLeod seeing more of the ice than they should. Now the positives: Hats off to Fitzgerald for the Marino addition. Are you kidding me with this guy? He is something special to watch. Insanely active stick, smart as hell, fast on his feet. I would love to plant him on Hughes’ line next year, I think he can be the Devon Toews to Luke’s Makar. Siegenthaler is rock fvcking solid. I really love our defense when Luke and Nemec are up. Jack and Jesper are the best players on the ice when they’re out there. Both players can fly, both players are insanely creative. I hope they’re glued together for a while. Nico is developing into the exact type of checking 2nd line center you dream of. we all wish his offense was a little more there, but he made Nate Dog’s life miserable tonight. Credit Zetterlund for not looking out of place. V2 with a stellar, rock solid game. 5-1 after the bad start. Keep it up fellas!

hell yeah V2. what a dub. don’t let tatar out of the penalty box until tomorrow.

@SterioDesignsup

not only did that assfvck tatar take a moronic penalty, he didn’t even GET THE fvckING PUCK

Bratt-Hughes-Mercer Palat-Hischier-Sharangovich who says no

we can’t break up bratt and hughes. they’re legitimately electric together.

Tough penalty to take. He’s swatting at the puck, it’s not his job to make sure someone isn’t playing baseball with it. I’ve always thought that if you try to play the puck with your hand, slashing shouldn’t be called.

Boqvist was in every sense of the word a worse skater than Holtz is now 2 years ago. He put in the work. Holtz is putting in the work in the off-season. It’ll pay off eventually. The guy wants to be great and I think he will.

I challenge anyone to tell me one net-positive thing Tomas Tatar, Brendan Smith or Jesper Boqvist provide to this team.

I’m losing more and more faith in the coaching staff every single day I see Smith in the lineup over Bahl.