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What Devils player(s) have impressed you?


grcenter47

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After watching this great playoff run so far, I was just wondering what player or players have really impressed you this season on the Devils?

Also which of these newly added players to the roster do you hope stay next year?

- Ryan Carter

- Steve Bernier

- Alexei Ponikarovsky

- Petr Sykora

- Stephen Gionta

- Peter Harrold

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After watching this great playoff run so far, I was just wondering what player or players have really impressed you this season on the Devils?

Also which of these newly added players to the roster do you hope stay next year?

- Ryan Carter

- Steve Bernier

- Alexei Ponikarovsky

- Petr Sykora

- Stephen Gionta

- Peter Harrold

I want carter, bernier,and poni for sure but I would take them all

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I think the D as a whole has done a great job. Greene is playing BIG minutes and he flies under the radar. I can hardly remember him being out there, which in the playoffs isn't necessarily a bad thing....

Zid has been a great addition and contributes alot offensively, but sometimes he scares the sh!t outta me!!

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All of the above, though I would have no problem with Sykkie retiring on top, or close to it if the Kings win. I'd like to see Larsson grow up a little and really take control next year, and relegate Harrold to 7th d as well.

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Also which of these newly added players to the roster do you hope stay next year?

- Ryan Carter

- Steve Bernier

- Alexei Ponikarovsky

- Petr Sykora

- Stephen Gionta

- Peter Harrold

i absolutely want ponikarovsky back. the khl is going to be calling for him and if they win the cup, that will get him multiple 2 year deals from NHL teams (not at particularly big dollars but it's still a 2 year deal). I'd offer him 2/3.75 which is a slight raise and a reward (he's taken one year deals the last two years).

i would offer 1 ways to all of carter, bernier and gionta - all somewhere between $750k - $900k. i think bernier will draw interest from 6 other teams or so. he could get 2 year offers. he's proven he can be a solid role player and still has the pedigree of a 1st round pick.

gionta and carter will most likely accept 1 year one ways from the devils.

sykora can get a 2 way or another try out. i think he's looking at the shannahan treatment next year.

i like harrold but i think he loses out in the numbers game with the quantity of NHL ready defensemen the devils have. as is, they will likely say goodbye to harrold and salvador.

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i like harrold but i think he loses out in the numbers game with the quantity of NHL ready defensemen the devils have. as is, they will likely say goodbye to harrold and salvador.

I think Harrold is gone. But my guess is the Devils will trade one of Volchenkov, Tallinder, Greene or Zidlicky in the coming year. I can't see it being Greene, still the lowest paid of those guys.

Fayne has to stay at his price as a RFA. Larsson has to play. Urbom has to play.

Edited by ben00rs
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love how greene and fayne are playing. greene has been solid against the speed players and aside from a healthy zid, he's the D-man I want with the puck in our deep end.

harrolds been doing a fine 2-way job, aside from being knocked off the puck a bit lately

A-train is an amazing plus 7!!!! how??? lol

excluding the obvious (bernier, carter, gio) and henrique, I think Zubie has been the most impressive. and arguably our best player on the ice. his stickhandling skating and passing are better than I expected and not far off his board work. were finally getting our moneys worth here :koolaid:

cant wait to see more of JJ too! LGDs

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excluding the obvious (bernier, carter, gio) and henrique, I think Zubie has been the most impressive. and arguably our best player on the ice. his stickhandling skating and passing are better than I expected and not far off his board work. were finally getting our moneys worth here :koolaid:

Zubrus has been great for a long time now...this whole season at least. And as far as getting our "money's worth"...he's a bargain.

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I think Harrold is gone. But my guess is the Devils will trade one of Volchenkov, Tallinder, Greene or Zidlicky in the coming year. I can't see it being Greene, still the lowest paid of those guys.

Fayne has to stay at his price as a RFA. Larsson has to play. Urbom has to play.

I think only one of those 4 have a chance to be traded. Andy Greene is one of the best "bang for the buck" guys in the league right now and hes still relatively young, I think he's virtually untouchable. Zidlicky has a year left and a NTC, Anton also has an NTC. Tallinder is coming off a big injury and I could see him wanting out if he feels left out and because he has nothing stopping us from trading him, so hes the most likely IMO. So if those 4 are back, Larsson has to play and that leaves two more guys. Urbom or Gelinas for the 7th. Fayne for the 6th. Gelinas was very good for us in Albany this year and IMO the best defenseman in our system not named Merrill or not on the big team yet. Taormina coming back is not out of the question either, but Im not betting on that. I really want to see Larsson and Merrill together, but I think thats 2013-2014 at the earliest even if Merrill goes pro this year.

As for our UFAs and what I think:

Zach - Someone will blow him out of the water with an offer (Minnesota) and I think this run puts us right in the conversation with "contenders" that will make offers like Detroit and the Rags. Im less worried about teams like Detroit now. I've been preparing all year for his possible departure and I don't think we should offer a contract larger than Kovy's. I think they should give him 1 more dollar than Kovy got, but a similar contract. Don't want to see them go over 7.

Poni - I can see some team offering him 2-3 and multiple years. I think he will leave. If Brodeur retires and/or Zach leaves, I think we will have a better chance at keeping him.

Carter - Give him a raise up to a million and 2 years. I'd really like to keep him. Stays. Probably my favorite player on the team right now.

Sykora - Gone.

Cam - Gone.

Bernier - I think a team will offer him a larger role than we will and a bit more money. I'm going to say gone.

Gionta - Give him a small raise and a 2 year deal. Stays.

Salvador - I think Sal may be the odd man out here, but I can see him taking a pay cut and a short contract to stay. He's been great for us in the playoffs, but with not much room, I bet gone.

Fayne - Stays obviously since hes an RFA.

Harrold - I'm cool with him staying, but with the amount of guys we have on D already, Harrold seems another odd man out. Gone.

Brodeur - Marty is really interesting to me right now in this perspective. I can absolutely see him hanging it up if we win, whereas if we lost Id bet he'd return. I think its a coinflip as no one really knows what Marty is thinking right now.

Hedberg - Dependent on Brodeur. I think he only stays if Marty retires as we'll make Moose the #1 for a year and bring one of the guys from the farm up and a cheap NHL experienced backup to scratch occasionally for the rookie i.e. Kinkaid in hopes of that guy taking over in 13-14. If Marty is back, I don't think we bring Moose back.

Next offseason is going to be just as annoying. Zajac, Elias, Zubie, Clarky all UFA.

Edited by ghdi
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I think only one of those 4 have a chance to be traded. Andy Greene is one of the best "bang for the buck" guys in the league right now and hes still relatively young, I think he's virtually untouchable. Zidlicky has a year left and a NTC, Anton also has an NTC. Tallinder is coming off a big injury and I could see him wanting out if he feels left out and because he has nothing stopping us from trading him, so hes the most likely IMO. So if those 4 are back, Larsson has to play and that leaves two more guys. Urbom or Gelinas for the 7th. Fayne for the 6th. Gelinas was very good for us in Albany this year and IMO the best defenseman in our system not named Merrill or not on the big team yet. Taormina coming back is not out of the question either, but Im not betting on that. I really want to see Larsson and Merrill together, but I think thats 2013-2014 at the earliest even if Merrill goes pro this year.

As for our UFAs and what I think:

Zach - Someone will blow him out of the water with an offer (Minnesota) and I think this run puts us right in the conversation with "contenders" that will make offers like Detroit and the Rags. Im less worried about teams like Detroit now. I've been preparing all year for his possible departure and I don't think we should offer a contract larger than Kovy's. I think they should give him 1 more dollar than Kovy got, but a similar contract. Don't want to see them go over 7.

Poni - I can see some team offering him 2-3 and multiple years. I think he will leave. If Brodeur retires and/or Zach leaves, I think we will have a better chance at keeping him.

Carter - Give him a raise up to a million and 2 years. I'd really like to keep him. Stays. Probably my favorite player on the team right now.

Sykora - Gone.

Cam - Gone.

Bernier - I think a team will offer him a larger role than we will and a bit more money. I'm going to say gone.

Gionta - Give him a small raise and a 2 year deal. Stays.

Salvador - I think Sal may be the odd man out here, but I can see him taking a pay cut and a short contract to stay. He's been great for us in the playoffs, but with not much room, I bet gone.

Fayne - Stays obviously since hes an RFA.

Harrold - I'm cool with him staying, but with the amount of guys we have on D already, Harrold seems another odd man out. Gone.

Brodeur - Marty is really interesting to me right now in this perspective. I can absolutely see him hanging it up if we win, whereas if we lost Id bet he'd return. I think its a coinflip as no one really knows what Marty is thinking right now.

Hedberg - Dependent on Brodeur. I think he only stays if Marty retires as we'll make Moose the #1 for a year and bring one of the guys from the farm up and a cheap NHL experienced backup to scratch occasionally for the rookie i.e. Kinkaid in hopes of that guy taking over in 13-14. If Marty is back, I don't think we bring Moose back.

Next offseason is going to be just as annoying. Zajac, Elias, Zubie, Clarky all UFA.

Interesting assessments. I'd like to think that some of the depth guys like Poni and Bernier would be willing to take a little less to stay with a team that has proven they are capable of making a deep run, but you never know who values winning more than a little more $$$$.

As far as Zach goes...I think the Devils offer him something comparable to the other offers he will receive, and he will stay. He looked like a little kid in a candy store Friday night waving the team over to take a picture with the Prince of Wales trophy. He is familiar with the organization, he is our captain, and we have proven to be a contender.

I also think Marty will look for a 1 or 2 year deal, even if we win the Cup. He enjoys playing too much still, and with this team nucleus we have...we could very well make another run next year. Not to mention he would like to keep pushing his wins record higher and higher.

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I agree with you on Zach. The only team Im even worried about at this point is Minnesota. The allure of coming back home can be strong. I'd probably be a lot more worried about him if we got knocked out in the 1st round.

Marty I also agree with you on, Id not be surprised at all if hes back for 1 or 2 more. Id just not be surprised to see him retire if we win to go out on top. He's barely mentioned his future this season and I think he's impossible to gauge.

I'd really like to keep both Poni (1st choice) and Bernier, but I think they will get competitive offers. If we're keeping Marty and Zach, it will be tougher to hold onto them just because of financial reasons, unless they stay status-quo in terms of salary.

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Brodeur - Marty is really interesting to me right now in this perspective. I can absolutely see him hanging it up if we win, whereas if we lost Id bet he'd return. I think its a coinflip as no one really knows what Marty is thinking right now. .

Marty is coming back. I said it before it was news too. He is not staying to win, he's staying to play because he still is having fun.

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As far as Zach goes, its up in the air. I think he will test free agency and that can go either way. However, being optimistic, I think he stays for a 6.5-7 mill cap hit over 10 or 8 years.

Poni - 2/3 years, 3/4.25 million

Carter - 2 years/1.75 million

Sykora - no room, he will most likely sign somewhere

Janssen - no room

Bernier - 2/3 years, 1.5/2.5 million

Lil Gio - 2/3 years, 1.5/2.5 million

We could also see Tedenby coming up, so that is a dark horse.

As an FYI ... 2/3 years, 3/4.25 mill = 2 years/3million (1.5 million cap hit) or 3years/4.25 million (1.42 million cap hit)

I think we will see some major changes on Defense though. We are currently paying Volchenkov 4.25 million to play 14-15 mins a night. Now, please, I don't know if it is because he is injured and not playing up to his standard or what, but 14-15 mins a night for 4.25 million is not a good return, he should be a top pairing on this team being the highest paid. Salvador, its tough to say with him, someone is sure to overpay him because of his playoff performance and teams want guys who make it SCF and if we win, it will be even higher. Tallinder, again tough to say but I can see him being moved as well. That being said, Lou does have a soft spot for veterans. Amongst our D core, I can see 2-3 changes in the D-corp via trades/free agent signings. What I anticipate in the offseason is the Devils going after the two top D-men: Ryan Suter and (?) Schultz (a very high prospect due to be a free agent).

If suter or schultz or both sign, then we can see salvador/harrold gone and one/two roster Dmen, could be anyone from the current roster except Larsson. Our D stats in playoffs 18 games, Sal 11pts +10, Zids 8pts +1, Fayne 3pts +5, Greene 1pt +1, Volchenkov 1pt +7. Not bringing Harrold in as I don't think he is part of the core. Now Greene has the second highest TOI (along with Salvador) and was projected to be an offensive dman and chewing up 22+ mins per night. Volchenkov is averaging 15 mins a night and is highest paid.

My take: Salvador/Harrold are both gone.

One or two of Volchenkov/Greene/Tallinder will get traded if we sign Suter/Schultz or both. Of course, this is all hypothetical, but makes for a good discussion.

Whats exciting: Suter, Schultz, Larsson, Merrill, Urbom, Fayne, Gelinas (maybe) in 2/3 yrs.

Edited by Anhkheg
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As far as Zach goes, its up in the air. I think he will test free agency and that can go either way. However, being optimistic, I think he stays for a 6.5-7 mill cap hit over 10 or 8 years.

Poni - 2/3 years, 3/4.25 million

Carter - 2 years/1.75 million

Sykora - no room, he will most likely sign somewhere

Janssen - no room

Bernier - 2/3 years, 1.5/2.5 million

Lil Gio - 2/3 years, 1.5/2.5 million

We could also see Tedenby coming up, so that is a dark horse.

Woahhh :blink:

I would say Carter and Bernier gets 1.25 million at most.

Gionta will be under 1 million.

Poni at most 2.25 million.

Edited by Zubie#8
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Woahhh :blink:

I would say Carter and Bernier gets 1.25 million at most.

Gionta will be under 1 million.

Poni at most 2 million.

Put up a clarification ... i meant 2yr/3mill or 3/4.25 mill which is 1.5 mill or 1.4 mill cap hit respectively.

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