Derlique

Hughes will be the toolsiest forward the Devils have ever had. His skillset is off the charts

I mean, seriously the Devils can really ease Hughes in. Give Zajac and Nico the toughs, and let Hughes run rampant on weaker competition. 17 min a night with pp2 time is what I would do

Build down the middle. Gimme Hughes

Anyway, I am firmly team Jack Hughes at the moment. Good teams come at you with waves, and having a 1-2 center punch of Hughes/Hischier does that. Kakko will probably be able run his own line in the near future, but if you look at Stanley Cup winners, they are strong down the middle. Backstrom/Kuznetsov; Crosby/Malkin; Kopitar/Carter; Bergeron/Krejci

There were a bunch of us in chat, and @jasonmacissac (where is his account!?) posted a link on twitter to the leaked teams moving up. When Chicago moved up, we knew NJ was going up as well. Still fully expected us to be third, but for a good 15 minutes, we were debating the legitimacy of the leak!

April 9th; 8pm on NBCSN. Let's hope Hall can pull one more trick out of his sleeve.

Hall will be eligible to sign an extension on July 1st. Rumblings will certainly be coming out in the coming weeks about his injury and whether he is amiable to the idea of spending the rest of his career in New Jersey. All Hall talk/rumors should go here.

I should have said "probably did not do enough". He's in his late 20s, does he really want to take another year near league minimum when he could be making millions back home? Not like he has a set role here

Positives: Nico and Bratt taking pretty big steps forward. Bratt had two unlucky injuries (puck deflecting off the crossbar breaking his jaw and breaking a bone blocking a shot). Severson took a step offensively and I thought he was more reliable defensively Uh, Mackenzie Blackwood???? Zajac doing his thing at 33 years old. 46 points is nothing to sneeze at. Will Butcher proving he could handle tougher minutes Coleman proving he isn't a fluke. I know he was pretty bad down the stretch but 22 goals at less than two million is amazing ROI. Bastian looking like he can be a good bottom 6 player and pp2 player while throwing the body around Shero getting good value for pending UFAs Meh/We'll See: Will the real Cory Schneider please stand up? Will the real Pavel Zacha please stand up? 20 points in his last 30 games is 2C production, but a lot of it looks to be smoke and mirrors. Not really shooting more or getting more chances. Has the talent though. Maybe ending the year so strongly will give him some confidence going into the summer Miles Wood played pretty similarly to last year. Didn't take a step back, but didn't take a step forward Injuries- Need to see more games from Hall, Nico, Vatanen, Wood, Bratt, etc. Kevin Rooney looks like a good 13th forward I like Yakovlev's game but he did not do enough to warrant another contract here Joey Anderson will play in the NHL for a long time; not sure what his offensive upside is. Negatives: Some of the Binghamton callups: Quenneville, McLeod come to mind the most. Both are first rounders who did not move the needle in their opportunities. I can't get upset at scrubs like Gabriel, Pietila, Colton White, etc. not playing well. Not really his fault, but Andy Greene is almost done as an NHLer. He's still great on the PK but 5v5 is rough. Mueller and Santini cannot play in your top 6. This pertains more to Santini; he's ass. Keith Kinkaid

Anyway, yes, it is annoying we don't have the second best odds. But ask yourselves seriously, with Hall only missing his usual 8-12 games, Bratt playing 70 games, Nico playing 70 games, Vatanen playing 70 games, and the goaltending being league average (it was well above league average the last 2 months), this team doesn't get a guaranteed top 6 pick with a decent shot at Hughes/Kakko. You look around, and this team is way better than Ottawa, LA, Detroit, NYR, Edmonton, Vancouver, Buffalo, and Chicago. So we're looking at estimates of: 1st round: 1-6OA 2nd round: 34th overall, 55th overall (Nashville), 60th overall (Boston) 3rd round: 70th overall (Anaheim), 78th overall (Dallas) 4th round: 96th overall 5th round: 127th overall 6th round: 158th overall 7th round: 189th overall

@Triumph also speculated that maybe the league stepped in a few weeks ago and started "asking questions" about some of the injuries. There was a game where Palmieri, Nico, Mueller, Wood, and Vatanen all came back from injuries at the same time. Seems pretty fishy, no?

All we need is a loss on Saturday and for the Kings to pick up 2 points in their two remaining games. One win or 2 otls does it. Two winnable games, too. Considering Anaheim is bad and Vegas will likely be resting players

There's a difference between being a cog and putting together a staff. A lot of people in the analytics community are rolling their eyes at this. Though, I'm sure some of it is because Dellow was pretty combative on twitter

A Rangers win in regulation tonight would lock us into 3rd worst record (at worst). Not to mention it would hurt NYR's draft odds Edit: never mind. Buffalo really sucks

What a game last night!! Let's keep this thing going Schneids! Let's get those #2 odds