Derlique

12.5x7

Losing Niedermayer and Stevens in one offseason would be a pretty damn tough pill to swallow. It happened, yet, somehow, the team made the playoffs the next 6 years. Pretty crazy.

Not the worst gig in the world: 1) Can live in his NJ house and work with his son. One of the best travel schedules in the league. 2) Barzal is one of the best young players in the game. Not to mention Bailey and Eberle are good fwds. Beauvillier and Ho-Sang have talent, too. 3) Have the 11/12 OA picks. Lou will not shy away from a big trade on draft day, so he has plenty of ammo to make a splash for a D or Grubauer if he wants. Now, obviously there is a ton of work to do like: re-signing Tavares, fixing the G and D and rebuilding the prospect pool.

As long as we don't take Serron Noel or some low-upside D, I'm cool. I hope one of Smith, Kupari, Bokk, Denisenko, Merkley, Kravstov or Farabee are ours. I'd be ok with Miller or Thomas, too, but prefer a trade down in those cases.

Why? You think a third rounder is too early to take a goalie? Or you didn't like that his stats were bad in his draft year?

I don't agree with your point at all. Teams like the Rangers, Leafs, Habs and Flyers will always spend near the cap, while the Coyotes, Panthers and Hurricanes will always be near the floor. It's not like all things are equal because of revenue sharing.

The Devils can afford two 12 million dollar contracts to Hall and Tavares. Also, I'm not sure you have to offer them the same money. Hall will get the extra year and will be a year older when he hits UFA. Assume Nico gets 6 million per, Bratt 3, Zacha 3, etc. I don't think NJ will be in any medium-long term trouble. Especially if they get a compliance buyout.

Hockey is pretty terrible at valuing stars. You could argue they're underpaid when you consider what the NBA and MLB gives their stars. I'm not talking raw dollars. For example, McDavid should be making 15+, Crosby is worth at least 13, Doughty and Karlsson are probably worth 13/14 on the open market. My point? I give JT 12 million without thinking twice.

Agreed. His job is revamping a team that has talent but lacks "culture". Let him trade away Ho-Sang and pursue low-skill, high-character players in the draft.

Peep the Devils RW depth without Palmieri. It's ugly with him and abhorrent without .

I don't think AG was anything special either.

If it takes the Sharks out of the Tavares sweepstakes, fine by me.

Where else do other teams tend to stay?

Was the hip what Cory injured in January?

You're buying all of Wood's prime years. Even if he doesn't improve, and I'd be careful to write him off since he improved this year, he's still a 20 goal guy. The cap hit is only 4% of the total cap. I'd also be careful in writing off Severson.

Dude, he is going to get his 19-21 minutes because he will play on the PP/PK. You're getting too into titles. Do you think Backstrom and Malkin are upset with their roles because they aren't the "1C"?

He isn't going to be better at center than Tavares, Hischier or Zajac. I honestly wouldn't mind a trade for a similar project at D. I like Zacha but he's expendable in this scenario.

I don't know if Nico could've driven a line this year and I don't know whether not he'll be able to next year either. There is no harm in letting him marinate with an elite winger for another year

I don't think it'd be wise to play JT and Hall together. A team like Boston or Philly can shut down a one line team. We know Hall can go off with Nico and we know Tavares can drive an elite line on his own. It doesn't make sense to play them together

My offseason plan: 1) Sign Tavares 11.5x7. Sign de Haan 5 years at 4 million. 2) Re-sign Wood at 5 years at 3 million. Hall-Hischier-Bratt Johansson-Tavares-Palmieri Zacha-Zajac-Noesen Coleman-Boyle-Wood de Haan-Vatanen Butcher-Severson Greene-Mueller

Yeah, I know the production was there but I didn't love his play without the puck or neutral zone play. B- is probably a little harsh, but I dont think he was never really "on". Seemed to lack the extra gear he usually has

Hall- A+. Arguably the best season a Devil has ever had. Nico- A. Everything you could ask for and more. Especially considering he had a bum wrist all year. Butcher- A. "" "" Bratt- B+. Only thing holding him back from an A was the last month or two of the season. Coleman- B+. Consistently awesome in bottom 6 role all year long Maroon- B+. Brought a dimension to the team that it lacked Noesen- B+. Love the way he played all year long in the middle six. Vatanen- B. Legitimatized the defense, though it still needs work. A little inconsistent. Kinkaid- B. Played out of his mind the last two months of the season. He was also ass for the other part of it. Palmieri- B-. Never looked quite right all year. He was fighting injury after injury. However, he scored some big goals. Gibbons- B-. Tale of two seasons before and after injury. Wood- B-. Reverted back to last year's Wood down the stretch but made some serious improvements early on. Zajac- B-. Not gonna lie. I thought he was "done" but found a spark with Noesen and Coleman. Severson- C+. A little disappointed with his season, but I have higher expectations for him than most. I think he'll be ok w/o Moore. Zacha- C+. He definitely made improvements, but he still has a ways to go. I think his season was a step in the right direction. Johansson- C+. You could see glimpses of what he can do when healthy. Hope for a full season next year. Mueller- C+. Don't love his game but he does some nice things. Lovejoy- C+. I thought he had a decent season. He played too much down the stretch but it's not his fault. He is what he is- A 6 or 7 dman. Boyle-C. Incredible story and has some soft hands. I still feel he's a miscast on this team. Schneider- C. People will forget his first half where he carried, but he needs to put together a healthy season. Stafford- C. We don't make the 'yoffs without his shootout prowess but he doesnt really do anything else well. He just existed. Moore- C-. Same old story. Scores some big goals, does nothing else well. Greene- D+. Please find a suitable guy who can play top pair mins and send this guy to the bottom pair. Santini- D. Looked totally overmatched. Coaching didn't help. Hayes- D. Ugh Grabner- F. What a flop..even though I supported the move and still do. Didn;t create anything the last 15 games and earned his healthy scratches in the playoffs. --- Hynes- B+. Pushed a lot of the right buttons, but still makes bad personnel decisions. Feels like he got almost everything out of this team. Shero- B+. Not a fan of the extend he "went for it" this year, but they got in and we sorely needed it as fans. Full faith in him going forward.

Check out Sam Carchidi's twitter regarding voting. Carchidi is a Flyers beat writer and his account looks as if it's run by a 13 year old fan.

So, what's the scoop on these guys? From what I understand , the tiers are as followed: 1)Mayfield/Darnold Rosen 2)Allen/Jackson

They could honestly stand to upgrade in two or three spots depending on how you view Severson. x-Vatanen Butcher-Severson Greene-x Now aside from Davies and maybe Walsh, there isn't much there in the system that could conceivably make an impact at this level.