Fitz is going to have to start making decisions on if he wants to keep Blackwood and Severson on for the playoffs or if he wants to free up space for a Meier or someone else. It’s gonna be an interesting deadline for us.
edit: unloading Tatar is also an option but I don’t see him getting much interest
Vanecek is lining himself up for a raise around that time as well. Luckily the cap should be rising but it’s sure nice to have too much talent to pay for once
That was the draw to me. The all star games in the 80s and 90s felt like such a big deal, like who will Gretzky play with, can Hasek stop this guy, etc. It also didn’t hurt that we had 2-3 players as locks every year for a while between Marty, Stevens, Neids, Elias, Rafalski etc
It’s a slightly better move if Lou can sign him long term but I think he’s gonna want to hit the market and cash in. Just seems like a bad move to trade a 1st and a prospect to get a rental when you aren’t even in a playoff spot.
Jack also moves into 45th on the Devils all time list with 172. Next up is Peter Stastny at 173. Nico and Bratt are 25th and 26th. We are seeing 3 Devils legends in the making and 2 are already signed long term. This is awesome stuff
Yeah it looks like Lou is done. He (well, Trotz) got them to the conference finals a couple of times but Lou was never able to build on that. You have to think they could have got something better than Palmieri and Zajac for that 1st they gave us for example (not complaining though) or better than Romanov at the draft for the 13th (?) overall, 12th? Whatever it was. I know he’s big on team chemistry and ”everyone has a role” but just like it was time for him to move on from here, it’s probably time for him to move on from hockey. Enjoy retirement, let the Devils honor you, live the rest of your life as a legend.
While we are tracking Jack, I figured I’d add that Jack is already 45th on the Devils all time list with 168 points in 213 games. Next up is Clarkson with 170 points.
I think people were more willing to ignore Seversons mistakes last year when he was producing but if you aren’t bringing the offense, people are going to scrutinize your defense. Dougie more than makes up for his defensive issues on the other end.