Steadevils

Final wish list. Only posting this so that I can look back at how wrong I am. (assumes Byfield/Stutzle go 2/3). 1. Rossi- Lots of talk of having 3 centers and I know he is a natural center, but his 2-way game (have read by prospect writers that he is an elite defensive forward), creative, wall work, and strength (everyone says he's small but stout/tough..some comparisons to marchand) would look great on jack's wing. His strengths seem to compliment some of jack's weaknesses and even though he's small he would bring some toughness to jack's line while still adding creativity/skill to the line too. 2. Perfetti- don't have the same degree of negativity as the board seems too from what I've read. Similar to above he's a player with two way skills with great hockey sense that sees the game well. Rankings seem to differ on his shot from bad to elite, so not really sure on that, but he seems like a guy who would compliment Hughes OR Nico and just up the creativity of the forward group. Being able to run out creative wings who can slow the game down and create space sounds good to me. Think about what bratt/gusev did together with zacha. Having creative wings who can control pace is underrated with how fast the game goes these days. 3. Holtz - desperately needed scorer who also plays with a little weight. 4. Raymond - dazzling playmaker natural RW. 5. Drysdale - Best D-man and the teams biggest need. Definitely wouldn't be sad if he makes it to 7 and this is the pick just wouldn't be my first pick going in. At 18 and 20: Use one pick on a projectable Defenseman (Schneider/Guhle) and then the other on someone who could be a star but has warts that scare people off (thinking Lapiere/Gunler/Poirier or the diminutive Emil Andrea). Think if we use all 3 first rounders 1 needs to be swinging for a HR and not caring if it whiffs. We have so many prospects projected to top out at the depth level that it wouldn't be a terrible loss to have 1 miss at 18 or 20.

Would be an unprotected 2021 1st round pick if they win a round and Hall extends. Full condition from CapFriendly: "The 2021 3rd round pick can upgrade to a 2nd if the Coyotes win a playoff round OR if Taylor Hall re-signs in Arizona. The pick upgrades to a 1st if Hall re-signs AND the Coyotes win a playoff round." My best case scenario, but with some long odds would be Arizona winning this round, then losing and Hall re-signing. Coyotes could easily be bad in 2021 and Hall's draft lottery magic would be back on our side! Surprised the Coyotes have hung around here and I have to think as the series goes on Colorado will shake off some rust and start to dominate.

Really feeling jealous of the teams that turned taking on a contract in to first round picks (Canes specifically at 13 overall for taking on Marleau). They ended up with a better pick for taking on a contract than we did for Hall (likely barring a series win and re-sign)....Now a lot of that is revisionist history, but just wish these deep pocketed owners had used that money to buy some first round picks (Ducks with Backes). I think this opportunity will still be there, especially with the cap not going up for the next few years, but just a shame ownership didn't really pull the trigger on one of those types of deals already.

I am forever scarred by my getting excited for those guys (Larrsson and to a lesser extent Urbom were in that group too). There was a time (a short oh so very short time) there where I thought we'd be set at D for a decade. So I will echo the sentiment that I won't get excited about Walsh until he puts up points in the NHL. Still better to have him on board than lose him for nothing.

I am looking in to this, but I have some reservations. From the blackout Disclaimer: Nationally televised games also are subject to blackouts in NHL.TV™. In the United States, all Stanley Cup® Playoffs and Stanley Cup® Final games will be nationally televised.

I was SHOCKED to see that he was only 60 years old. I figured he was 75 at least. Really don't get all of the hate. It has been a while since he was successful sure, but it's not like the Rangers teams he has been assistant on have been stacked rosters that under-performed. Two longish coaching stints (i consider 4 years to be long at this point in the coach firing world we live in) show he must have been doing something right. Seeing some takes along the lines of "Rangers fans are happy to see him go therefore he is a bad coach!"...Yeah and as we all know Rangers fans are the top hockey minds in the world! Seriously get the hell out of here with that take.

What about the very real possibility there are no playoffs? Then what happens? Just uncertainty all over the place. Punish the playoff teams with no lottery chances even though they didn't get anything out of being good? lol what if they go the other way and reward the playoff teams by flipping the standings for the draft lottery %'s? I would be for that only for the reaction from Senators fans.

My fear is that the league (or Arizona) could argue that the "conditions" were not triggered either way and leave it up to some sort of arbitration to what happens to the traded picks and things could get wacky. If I am Arizona, I am arguing that the fair thing would be to slide the entire condition to 2021/2022 1sts since we didn't have the opportunity to make the playoffs and/or the lottery winning rules we had made the conditions off of are now changed. Just nothing rock solid right now and lots of opportunity for some back office negotiating. Going to need the analytics department to take some training on epidemiology..could have really made some clever moves in January...

Anyone else kind of worried about some NHL f*7ckery taking place with these picks? This is really the time I miss having Loophole Lou in charge. When there is chaos or uncertainty in the rules/policies Lou is always willing to push the boundaries and most of the time pulled off things that benefited the Devils. Feel like he'd end up with all 3 picks not lottery protected or something crazy.

Help us Janne Kuokkanen you're our only hope. Kuokkanen has the best shot with Talvitie and Pakkila the only other Fins in the system.

Amassing a ton of 19-22 year old forwards. Not a lot of high ceiling guys, but continuing a recent trend of acquiring skilled high floor forwards who all project to at least play in the NHL. Wonder if this is an intentional approach to the position. Hopefully Binghamton makes a playoff run and these guys can get some experience winning together.

I wonder what Butcher would get back in this market.

Arizona is now out of the playoffs if they started today and they have more GPs than everyone in the league (They've played 5! more than Nashville who I still think is a better team). Really looking like they might miss the playoffs. The Hall trade will look much better if this ends up being a top 10 pick. Would be pretty funny if Shero gets fired for that trade and 1. the 1st is a top 10, 2. Merkley is a useful NHL forward, 3. Bahl pans out as a shutdown D...Might have to send Shero a fruit basket or something. On the Vancouver pick: I am not sure if I am rooting for them to make the playoffs and lose early so we get the 2020 pick or if I'd rather shoot for the moon and have them miss this year and then be terrible next year for an unprotected 2021 1st..I don't think Vancouver is really all THAT good, so could easily see them not making it this year and then being bad next year. Markstrom having a career year is really what is propping them up a bit this year. And then there is my favorite scenario where both Ari/Van pics end up being 2021 unconditioned 1sts and both teams are terrible and we end up with the 2021 #1 and #2 overall on top of our own 2021 31st overall pick 😎.

I mean Hughes should have had 1G, 1A tonight easily, really starting to feel bad for the guy luck wise at the moment. Miracle stick save on Gusev to rob an assist and then Palmeri shooting that puck in the 3rd when he had a WIDE OPEN Hughes on the back door for a tap in....That play by palms was soooo bad..I get being a shoot first guy, but have even the littlest bit of vision there and it is a tap in.

I just am not sure that is a disqualifying factor due to the playoff success being filled with randomness that can be erased with one/two good runs. Looking back, unless I made a mistake it looks like he lost 7 game 7's in Washington/Anaheim (might be digging myself a further hole here..but I think I still have an angle?). That is obviously stunning/remarkable/brutal and is not a thing you'd tick off on the 'positive' column of a resume, but I still say that luck/randomness goes in to that and who knows what happens if one of those games turns out differently. I always think back to our runs on where a bounce here could have ended the magic (those game 7's vs philly in 2000 and ottawa in 2003 were both battles that could have ended up differently without a bounce here or there. On the other end I think we make a run if game 6 or 7 goes our way in '99). I am of the belief from our own runs of success/failure during our dynasty that it is all about getting in consistently and giving yourself ample opportunities to create some luck and make those runs. In the end we lost more years than not during the dynasty and a lot of them were in the 1st/2nd round. The 2012 run is the perfect example in that we easily could have bowed out to Florida, but took those game 6/7 OT wins and were able to build some magic off of that. Boudreau has lost 10 playoff series (7 in game 7's) maybe it's time some luck goes his way? I would be happy to lose in the first/2nd round in the next 2 years just so I have meaningful hockey to watch for the 82 games at least.

Hahaha..but why such a hard pass on Boudreau? I mean he's been an incredibly successful regular season coach with the only real blemish being his teams getting knocked out early in the playoffs. I would enjoy failing in the playoffs in the next 2-4 years....Also playoffs can be such a crap-shoot where a bounce or 2 and your fate can change; I really don't consider it that much of a knock on the guy (Not comparing their abilities/personalities in any way, but hall-of-famer Burns had some of that playoff failing baggage before breaking through with us in 2003). Boudreau was good with the young Capitals teams too, so unless I missed it in other places I don't think he has a knock of being bad with younger players.

Name Fitz GM after the deadline and then fire Nas and hire Boudreau now. That gives Boudreau a few months to help evaluate players and get to know the locker room. I would think Fitz knows him well since I believe he was almost hired in Minnesota, correct? Boudreau also had Stevens as an assistant for a year in Minnesota, so maybe there would be a natural connection there as well to help bring him in to the org.

Really hoping the Coyotes continues to struggle. Could end up with two top 10 picks this year (as long as they don't win the lottery)...

You guys really not even a little bit worried about Hughes? His box score and advanced numbers have been very bad for a few months now and he is getting PP time, so not like it's only his even strength line mates he's playing with. So easy to blame the line mates, but I thought he'd be someone that could somewhat carry a line from day one. Now I'll admit the Ottawa game was the best game I've seen him play in a while, and if 1 or 2 of those chances go in the net I probably wouldn't be writing this post (probably shouldn't be!). I'm not saying "He's a bust!" by any means, but he certainly hasn't been as good as I thought he'd be. Anyone confident in saying that in 3 years he'll be better than what Nico is this year? If you asked me before the season I would have put money on that Hughes would have a better offensive career than Nico in terms of points/personal accolades, but now with Nico coming on and Hughes not being as good as I expected I wouldn't make that bet...Hope to be wrong.

Didn't see this posted, but Scott Wheeler of the Athletic has our prospect pool ranked at #17, but raves about the depth. If you add in the top level talent of Hughes who for all intensive purposes is a prospect we'd be ranked higher for sure (Even Nico/Bratt are the same age or younger than a lot of other teams top prospects). https://theathletic.com/1560036/2020/01/27/wheelers-2020-nhl-prospect-pool-rankings-no-17-new-jersey-devils/ Here is the intro: "If I’m being honest, the Devils were more than half a dozen spots lower before the Taylor Hall trade. And while they didn’t get an A-level prospect back in the deal, they added three decent young players to a pool that was already filled with them. If this list was about the sheer number of prospects I like and/or considered for the ranking, the Devils might be No. 1, or close to it. As a reminder to the criteria above, I set my minimum number of players per team at 15 in order to ensure that even for teams that are particularly thin at the bottom of this list that our readers felt like they were getting equal value and detail out of their ranking." Positives: I was initially dismayed by the #17 ranking, but am really encouraged by the depth this writer sees. Good Hockey teams aren't all top-level talent and hopefully we can really roll out a balanced lineup in 1-3 years (with Nico/Jack and 2020 draft pick as the top level talent). This is especially true at forward where he has a lot listed with NHL floors even if it is just bottom 6 potential. There are some moonshots too, but listed the lower ceiling guys below with a quote from the article. #3 Anderson: "Do I think Anderson’s going to be an impact guy offensively at the NHL level, the kind of player who can drive a second line or complement a first line? No, I don’t. But does he have the tools needed to project safely as a decent third-line winger? Yes, he does. #5 Tyce Thompson: "At the end of the day, only five under-21 college players have scored at a better rate than his 1.48 clip (at the authoring of this piece) in the last decade: Johnny Gaudreau (2.00), Kyle Connor (1.87), Jack Eichel (1.78), J.T. Compher (1.66) and Jaden Schwartz (1.57). He’s a legitimate prospect. #6 McLeod: " I think he can still become a useful NHL player but he’s not going to be an impact offensive driver." #7 Merkley: "there aren’t that many low-tempo, small, pass-first wingers in the NHL who don’t have major scoring touch but I think he’s strong enough on the puck to make it work." #11 Schnarr: " He’s a very good passer for his size and does a wonderful job creating through small areas to draw attention to his size before hitting the trailer or finding the backdoor guy. I think there’s room for him to become a depth player at the NHL level and a dominant AHL forward." #16 Bastian: "Bastian doesn’t have the skill to play high in an NHL lineup and for a long time I doubted whether he would make himself into an NHL option at all but he’s versatile enough and strong enough to probably play a fourth-line role at this point and his game in tight is really good." Negatives: 1. Really need most of our defensive prospects to pan out which is not an ideal situation to be in....From this list: #1 Smith, #2 Walsh (Scott is higher than most than I've seen on Walsh), #4 Bahl all need to become NHLers or else we'll need to find another way to field a top 6 with what we have in the NHL now.... 2. Lack of top end talent, but as mentioned Hughes/Nico/2020 pick will hopefully make up for the lack of top end talent in the system since they're the same age as a lot of the prospects listed for other teams.

I was SHOCKED to see that Mueller got his FIRST assist in this game.....How is that even possible?

Damn...This seems pretty darn spot on to me. Brutal, but hard to argue with any of his points and is a pretty good summary on the current state and how we got here. I am not positive we have a single defenseman that will be here when/if we are contending again, so I am not sure it is much of a blame on the system as this gentleman seems to mainly put it on. Ty Smith has a shot and Bahl and walsh and prospect XX maybe, but there is no one that I'd make a significant bet on. There isn't a single defenseman up and down the franchise that you can say "He'll be a cornerstone 4-5 years from now". That scares me...

My main worry is how this went down. Shero is relationship builder who is well liked across widely across the league and the way he was dismissed was belittling to Shero and embarrassing for the franchise. Even if you 100% agree with the firing you can't be impressed with how ownership went about it and then fumbled their way through a press conference with no real reasons. Hynes and Shero were both let go right before games with off-days following...seems like an absolute clown show from a PR standpoint and from caring at all about allowing your players to focus on the games in hand. I'd bet the disorganized manner with how this was handled diminishes the Devils in the mind of many across the hockey community. Now to add my no knowledge speculation for Mfitz. The only explanation that makes sense to me that I have seen bandied about is: The owners already know they want Fitzgerald to be the future GM, so they want let him start now with the lead-up to the trade deadline and draft. But again, if that is what ownership wants to do just own that, say that, and don't do it 2 hours before a game....

Paywall Athletic article on Bahl. Seems like his coaches really love this kid and interesting to know that he's been thrown out against the top players in the OHL since he was an OHL rookie. A few quotes for those without The Athletic. "He’s very, very mobile for a big guy. One of the keys to Kevin is moving his feet. If someone was to criticize his skating, it would be about moving his feet rather than speed or mobility. The biggest improvement in his game over the last few years that’s glaring for me is his gap control, or his ability to adjust his speed in the neutral zone. He’s able to match the speed of the opposing forward and then with his stick and his wingspan, he’s able top force attacking forwards into positions where they don’t want to be." from his 67's coach. From Bahl: "My whole career I’ve been playing against top guys, and I love to play against top guys. I want to know that I’ve shut down a guy when my team wins by a goal. I think they really like that and I take that to heart when I have to play against those guys. That’s my thing.”

Yeah that's actually a fair point in terms of quantity drafted, but that is a bit skewed considering 4 of those were 7th round selections. But yeah in terms of process the only thing I can point to is maybe having used more top half of the draft selections on Defense (that did change in the 2019 draft and agreed that those windows are wide open for some NHLers to emerge). Agreed that there is still hope for some of these guys to develop for sure and hopefully my gripe falls away because of that. (Zaitsev and Misyul both playing in the KHL, Walsh looking like he could be an NHL player, 4 taken in 2019). Obviously everyone is looking for these guys, but today I don't see a top pairing guy in the system and we'll need 1 or 2 of those to compete, so even though they are extremely hard to find it is a failure of Shero to have not found one to this point. But point taken that I don't have much of an idea on how I would have preferred he operated, so maybe I'm just complaining to complain here.