2017 UFA Thread

[mfitz804]

3 minutes ago, Sharifijanov2099 said:

I think the thing everyone is forgetting is that Jyrki Jokipakka is still out there!

And we have room for a new JJ. 

[Daniel]

I think Shero ducked the media because he knows he royally fvcked up this offseason.  

[Triumph]

1 minute ago, Daniel said:

I think Shero ducked the media because he knows he royally fvcked up this offseason.  

Gross said he was working on something and then nothing happened for pretty much anyone after that.  The day ended around 7 pm.

He did less last offseason and still talked to the media.

[Daniel]

1 minute ago, Triumph said:

Gross said he was working on something and then nothing happened for pretty much anyone after that.  The day ended around 7 pm.

He did less last offseason and still talked to the media.

Gross said he was working on something that turned into signing some ex-Penguin AHLers.  

Last offseason he traded for Hall.  Good move at the time.  Sadly he won't be around for much longer. 

[Triumph]

Just now, Daniel said:

Gross said he was working on something that turned into signing some ex-Penguin AHLers.  

Last offseason he traded for Hall.  Good move at the time.  Sadly he won't be around for much longer. 

I don't think that's what he was working on, but okay.  His AGM can handle those signings (and probably did).

Of course Hall will be gone.  The Devils won't sniff the playoffs ever again.  July 1 is when everything happens.  Ah, never change.

[Jersey Sure]

One whole NHL player added.  Count'em...one.  Mind boggling.

[jagknife]

the amount of people nose diving off of bridges is really going to make it difficult for the rest of us to do it, since all the bodies will be piled up so high by then

[mackchi]

1 hour ago, devils744 said:

as a season ticket holder i think i'm at the end of my tenure after this season. i don't think i can justify continually paying to watch an unwatchable product anymore. yes, this off season has a long way to go but lets be realistic there only trade chip is henrique and do we think he's bringing back a top 4 d-man? also, when hall gets traded because he rightfully won't sign an extension in a couple years the hall/larsson deal will look really bad. the playoffs are right now what feels like years away and with ticket prices and food rising and what feels like no hope in sight this might be it for me. maybe i'll be completely wrong come march but as of now it sure doesn't seem like i will be.

I agree with you. I have not renewed after last ten years as a STH. I have been a fan since 83 and will continue to be a fan ... just not a STH. it's a big sacrifice for me financially and logistically to be a STH but it was worth it. Now and for the foreseeable future this product is TV worthy only. 

[Chuck the Duck]

Interesting to me that there are reports out there that Shero refused to go beyond 4 or 5 years to sign Shattenkirk.  The only chance the Devils had to sign him was to give him the highest AAV and longest term and blow the Rags deal out of the water.   In the end, the decision was made easier for him by term we offered.  I like that Sheri is taking the long term view on this.  Hopefully we can work out something with a Kovy trade to bolster the D.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

1 hour ago, Daniel said:

I think Shero ducked the media because he knows he royally fvcked up this offseason.  

How did he do that exactly?  But not getting a player who was never coming here in the first place?  If Shero lands Shattenkirk are you going on and on like this?  Is 7/1 the only day where anything gets done now?  

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

8 minutes ago, Chuck the Duck said:

Interesting to me that there are reports out there that Shero refused to go beyond 4 or 5 years to sign Shattenkirk.  The only chance the Devils had to sign him was to give him the highest AAV and longest term and blow the Rags deal out of the water.   In the end, the decision was made easier for him by term we offered.  I like that Sheri is taking the long term view on this.  Hopefully we can work out something with a Kovy trade to bolster the D.

Shero could've also realized that the guy's agent was likely using the Devils to pump up the Rangers' offer, and just decided not to waste any more of his time trying to bring in a player who had already made up his mind to sign with the Rangers and only the Rangers.  This is just one of those instances where blaming Shero for this is flat-out unfair.  

Edited July 2, 2017 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[CarpathianForest]

2 hours ago, Sharifijanov2099 said:

PS - maybe NJ goes after Markov, another elder statesman, ala shades of Phil Housley.  Who knows.  Or maybe just bring Mark Fayne out of mothballs.  Guy is only 30 I think and doesn't have any major plans.

Yeah and while we're doing that we might as well bring Mark Fraser and Eric Gelinas back

[NJDevs4978]

2 hours ago, Daniel said:

I think Shero ducked the media because he knows he royally fvcked up this offseason.  

I wouldn't go that far since I don't know how much he really could have done on the whole due to a variety of factors, but he certainly did a sell job on being in great shape to make moves this offseason with the cap space and double-digit draft picks that wound up (respectively) gathering dust and being used on prospects only and now that's blown up in his face.  For whatever reason they haven't been able to make moves so far and wound up overpromising and underdelivering.

I doubt he's ducking the media though, this isn't exactly Toronto.  The so-called media is Gross, the lacrosse writer from NJ.com, angry Larry at the Post and goofball Stan Fischler.

Edited July 2, 2017 by NJDevs4978

[Satans Hockey]

I stand so differently as a long term season ticket holder than the others. It's one thing if you can't actually afford season tickets but if people are bailing simply cause we may lose another season idk, it just comes across as entitled and weak to me. Lou left this franchise in absolute shambles and I will gladly give Ray more than 2 seasons before I call for his head. 

I know it's not a proper comparison but I can't imagine what some of you would do if you were Florida Panthers or Arizona Coyotes fans, suicide watch would be at an all time high lol

As long as I can afford it I will always be a season ticket holder. Call me a sucker, call me whatever you want but win or lose fans are suppose to stick by their team and that's what I plan on continuing to do. 

Edited July 2, 2017 by Satans Hockey

[Marshall]

It was a bleak UFA class for the Devils' specific needs. To me there are/were basically two players you wanted on D: Shattenkirk and Franson. You can still sign the latter. To a lesser extent maybe Clendening, Corrado, MDZ. Not exactly gamechangers, those. Not signing Beau Bennett for a penny. But that's about it for forwards. I like Brian Boyle and the money is inconsequential at this point. He'll be fine. 

It was/is a tough spot to try to do something about the position ~27 teams are trying to improve. 

[Steven M.]

Two days ago, this was a pathetic draft class that we wanted no part of other than Shattenkirk. Now, the sky is falling because we lost out on him since he's going to realize his 15 year old wet dream of being just like Marek Malik and all the other all-time great rangers he grew up idolizing while some of the best defensemen of all time were manning the blue line 20 minutes away. Who else is there to sign? No one.

Pretty idiotic to sh!t on our general manager for doing "nothing" when he's been very straight forward in that we are primarily building this team through the draft. We're not even close to even fully seeing what we've got from his first draft class, let alone the next one and then this years.

The fact that Shero doesn't do any of the stupid things we used to do / people are clamoring for on social media is exactly why he has my full confidence that we are going in the right direction.

[Aitchmack]

Just seen that Josefson has signed a one year with Buffalo. Will be interesting to see how he does there.

[mackchi]

Ok there really wasn't much in this years UFA class. I'll give Shero a pass on that. I am also very glad to see a lot of the dead wood clearing out ( e.g. DSP, Camals, josephson, Bennett ...). 

Its good that more younger guys will have roster spots BUT we will still be mired in hockey hell for a Long time. I just hope the franchise can hang on long enough... Shero is really starting from scratch..

its like the very early days back in the 80's

lets Go Devils. 

[Chuck the Duck]

7 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Shero could've also realized that the guy's agent was likely using the Devils to pump up the Rangers' offer, and just decided not to waste any more of his time trying to bring in a player who had already made up his mind to sign with the Rangers and only the Rangers.  This is just one of those instances where blaming Shero for this is flat-out unfair.  

Don't get me wrong.  I agree that Shero should not be blamed as I'm glad he didn't overreact when we lost out on Shattenkirk by signing someone just for the sake of it.  Other than Shatty, there is basically nobody on the market worth the money.  The thing I found interesting was that the Devils valued him much less then everyone expected.  They clearly didn't see him as a long term #1 or 2, otherwise they would have made the 7 year offer and basically forced his hand into leaving $20 million on the table to play with the Rags.  In the end, Shero refused to make the mistake that could have come back to haunt us 4 or 5 years from now.  

However, he made numerous statements since the season ended about upgrading the D and, specifically, discussed using his draft picks to upgrade the position.  By him failing to do that in any meaningful way, when combined with what happened yesterday, I see where some of the frustration comes from.  That said, I like the fact he is looking at this with a long term perspective.  He's not forcing things the way Lou did towards the end of his tenure here.  we all knew this was going to be a lengthy rebuild in order to have it done right.  Getting the #1 pick helps it along, but it doesn't alter the timeframe that significantly.  Hopefully Shero can figure out a way to get Kovy to CBJ in exchange for Murray.  

[Jerzey]

I'm still down with the slow rebuild. 

[Lateralous]

Based on how everyone in hockey told us the lead up to the expansion draft was going to be one of the craziest offseason events we've ever witnessed, sure it's disappointing that we're not at least sitting here with a guy like Vatenen right now.  That being said, I think people are being way too pessimistic about Shero and this team going forward.  When he took over a little more than 2 years ago, he was left with pretty much nothing other than that some cap flexibility and a star goalie.  Because of 10 years of losing/trading top picks and then using the ones we did keep for 3rd line grinder types, it was always going to take a few drafts to restock the system.  The team clearly needed to embrace that fact that we needed a rebuild, we just didn't nuke the thing and go full tank like he Buffalo's and Toronto's of the world.   

Here we are 27ish months later having added 5 forwards that everyone here should be really excited about in Hall, Palmeiri, Hischier, Zacha and McLeod and Shero managed to pull two of them out of his first draft when he still had that dinosaur Conte leading things.  He's also clearly changed the teams drafting style where we are at least drafting guys with later picks who have top end up side.  The majority of them won't hit, but at least when they do, they'll be more than Jay Pandolfo clones.   I'm very happy with the direction Shero and Castron have this part of the operation going

So that leads us to this offseason where we clearly need to upgrade the D.  The expansion draft kind of fizzled because McPhee and "the pledge" were successful in shutting down most of the pre-draft movement only to turn around and let most of the teams he had put in a bind, off the hook.  That left us basically hoping we could steal a guy in Shattenkirk who has been linked to the Rangers for 18 months and already spiked a trade to a Tampa team that's much closer to winning and had a 7 year/42 million offer on the table at the trade deadline.   Other than him, I haven't really seen anyone moved that I wished could have been added as a long term solution.  

There are still a lot of names out there that are rumored to be moved and plenty of teams that have holes to fill on their rosters, so I do anticipate that there's still some significant movement yet this offseason.   The truth is that this was always going to take at least another draft until we had the type of assets built up that allowed us to make moves as they presented themselves but if Shero can turn the gift he was handed in Kovy into a young defensemen like Ryan Murray/Vatenen or at least a top defensive prospect like Fabbro that would be a good start.   

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to point out that I think this rebuild is going quite well.  I'm a little baffled by some of the comments about this now being the tipping point because I think with all of the young forward talent we've been adding, this will be the most entertaining product we've had in years.  It sucks that we couldn't land a guy in Shattenkirk that's skill set is exactly what we're missing, but he's also a 2nd pairing defender on a contender, so it's not like Scott Niedermayer walking out the door.  In general, I feel like we've already gone through the ugliest part of the rebuild, why jump now?

 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Yeah, in the end, this is still a rebuild, and not terribly far into it, as Lou was Band-Aiding.  I love that Shero dumped Cam and DSP.  I can take a bad team that has a collection of young developing players with upside a lot more than I can one full of overpaid declining deadwood...obviously, it's not like all of the young players the Devils have are guarantees, but better some of them get a chance, than pumping dry wells, or signing seen-better-days vets.

Unfortunately, the only really worthwhile big-time juicy UFA move would've been signing Shattenkirk (I would've sucked up the final two seasons of a seven-year deal as the painful cost of doing biz in UFA, but that didn't matter; Shattenkirk wanted the Rangers and vice-versa...just nothing that could be done about it).  No one else worth overpaying for in a sh!tty UFA market, for the sake of making a move.  Just to throw a name out there, I want no part of Radulov at the money and term he's supposedly asking for...he's never been anywhere near as good in the NHL as he's been in the KHL.  I can't get on Shero for not making something big happen if it's just not there right this second.  At the very least, Shero has a possible chip in Kovy...let me see what he does with it.

[Steven M.]

57 minutes ago, Chuck the Duck said:

Don't get me wrong.  I agree that Shero should not be blamed as I'm glad he didn't overreact when we lost out on Shattenkirk by signing someone just for the sake of it.  Other than Shatty, there is basically nobody on the market worth the money.  The thing I found interesting was that the Devils valued him much less then everyone expected.  They clearly didn't see him as a long term #1 or 2, otherwise they would have made the 7 year offer and basically forced his hand into leaving $20 million on the table to play with the Rags.  In the end, Shero refused to make the mistake that could have come back to haunt us 4 or 5 years from now.  

However, he made numerous statements since the season ended about upgrading the D and, specifically, discussed using his draft picks to upgrade the position.  By him failing to do that in any meaningful way, when combined with what happened yesterday, I see where some of the frustration comes from.  That said, I like the fact he is looking at this with a long term perspective.  He's not forcing things the way Lou did towards the end of his tenure here.  we all knew this was going to be a lengthy rebuild in order to have it done right.  Getting the #1 pick helps it along, but it doesn't alter the timeframe that significantly.  Hopefully Shero can figure out a way to get Kovy to CBJ in exchange for Murray.  

I think what it boils down to is that Shero (and the rest of the league) anticipated there to by far much more movement prior to and following the expansion draft. The reality is that there really wasn't much movement at all. Most of the teams we thought would have to move a defenseman or two stayed pat. There's been a couple deals where I've been like dang, wish we were in on that, but nothing too crazy.

As far as free agency goes... there was a VERY telling quote from Ray on breakup day. I actually listened to his exit interview with media as I drove in to work today because I wanted to find it.

https://www.nhl.com/devils/video/njd-breakup-day-2017-shero/t-277437418/c-51407003 go to the 10:30, 11ish minute mark if interested.

Paraphrasing here, but essentially he is talking about with regards to free agency, how he wants to do it right and how there are no shortcuts. He specifically mentions last year's top FA's were Yandle and Goligoski, yet Florida and Arizona are "having the same meetings today as I am."  Essentially, back in April we could have predicted that Shero didn't exactly view Shattenkirk as being worthy of dumping all of the cash onto. Certainly there was interest, but not enough interest to make a ludicrous deal that we'd all hate halfway through it.

[MadDog2020]

I wouldn't go that far since I don't know how much he really could have done on the whole due to a variety of factors, but he certainly did a sell job on being in great shape to make moves this offseason with the cap space and double-digit draft picks that wound up (respectively) gathering dust and being used on prospects only and now that's blown up in his face.  For whatever reason they haven't been able to make moves so far and wound up overpromising and underdelivering. I doubt he's ducking the media though, this isn't exactly Toronto.  The so-called media is Gross, the lacrosse writer from NJ.com, angry Larry at the Post and goofball Stan Fischler.   

 

As a fan, if I had a chance to ask Shero a question, I wouldn't mince words: 'You talked a big game about moves in the offseason and have done nothing. Why?' Too bad no one will actually ask that question like they would in a place like Toronto.   

 

 

 

 

[MadDog2020]

Another question I'd ask: 'Are you planning on just wasting Taylor Hall's prime years here before you either have to flip him for pennies on the dollar, or he leaves to go somewhere where he may actually sniff the playoffs?' Because if the plan is to suck for two more years and accumulate a couple of more high picks, I would've just kept Adam Larsson.

 

 

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