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Ray finally speaks


Chimaira_Devil_#9

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https://www.nhl.com/news/five-questions-with-new-jersey-devils-gm-ray-shero/c-302796080

Main points:

He obviously wants to keep Hall. 

Hall likes Hynes alot, so does Ray. Can't see him getting canned any time soon. 

He recognises that this isn't what the fans were expecting , but he isn't going to change his course. 

The rebuild is still in its early stages despite last year's success.

Cory needs to do more in training to win his job back. 

 

That last statement is quite telling I think. From that I feel that if any move is going to be made it's going to be Cory first not Hynes. He seems happy with how KK has developed. I think the writing is on the wall for Cory. 

 

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I think this is a fantastic piece, and it's what I've been wanting for the past.. month and a half.

This is, more or less, acknowledging that we're going to let what happens happen.  Or in other words, I think this is about as pro-tank as you're ever going to hear from Shero.  Which is fine in my mind - it makes these awful, embarrassing losses at least tolerable.  Knowing there's a vision here makes it easier to stomach.

Also, yeah, pretty blunt about Cory.  Essentially "we've done all we can do, time to put up or shut up".

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1 minute ago, Nicomo said:

If not firing Hynes helps keep Hall by all means hold onto him. 

My thoughts exactly. Although I think at the same time Ray will expect to see other young guys coming along. 

Hynes needs to be getting the best out of the likes of  Nico and Bratt as well. No point in having Hall if we haven't got the rest of the squad to compete. 

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Sounds like he's kinda-sorta punting 2018-19...and that it's going to be up to the current roster to turn things around, that he's probably not going to make any medium-to-big moves to try to right things.

Not exactly what one wants to hear, but at the same time, what move is out there that would really make a huge difference?  I'm guessing that the Devils will be sellers at the deadline (UFA-to-be MoJo will definitely be a goner), and some guys will be gone. 

As much as it sucks for the present (especially coming off last year), I'd guess I'd rather this, than some panic moves.  I guess in ways it was telling that Shero kind of admitted that he wasn't necessarily looking to add guys like Maroon and Grabner last season, but that the team played well enough to force his hand...they probably played better than he expected for a good chunk of the season.  Though I'm sure he's not thrilled with how the Devils are playing lately, he seems to be taking what's been happening as almost part of the plan, that the team still isn't close to being a finished product. 

The guys I feel for most are Hall and Palms.  Palms now has 32 G and 23 A in his last 62 regular season games.  Hall hasn't gotten red hot yet and has had some iffy moments, but he's still averaging over a point per game.  And now they've basically been told that a year of their primes are probably going to be wasted playing on a team that's not that concerned with winning in 2018-19 and might not be next season either.  This isn't to say that Shero's approach is wrong...he could've pissed away cap space overpaying pretty good UFAs and that probably wouldn't have paid off either...and I think he definitely would've gone for Tavares and/or Carlson if they had any interest in NJ...so it's not like he absolutely positively won't spend big if he believes it's for the right guy(s).  But it does suck for some of the "young vet" types that aren't really a part of the problem, but will have to endure some suckage regardless. 

And on this note, hopefully Schneider starts doing enough to start getting more games.  It will likely be ugly for a while, but KK is not the future here...not as a full-time #1, anyway.  Might as well find out sometime this season is Schneider can be salvaged.  As 2018-19 no longer seems to be a priority, might as well forget the idea of Blackwood getting any games (until the end of the season, if ever), and just let him continue to develop at Bingo (getting #1 minutes).

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Look, I get what Shero is saying.  It makes sense.  You just can't hire and fire people because of a stretch of 20 games.  I see why he hasn't fired Hynes.  He likes him, Hall likes him, and in essence, he is a fundamentally sound head coach.

He takes the "silver linings" in both the business and hockey side when he mentions the "Behind the Glass" piece and the whole "Global Series."  I guess that's a victory for Harris and Blitzer.  Happy owners, that satisfy the bottom line, are ones that keep GMs in business.

But, I challenge Shero to get the best lemonade out of these lemons as he could.  If the team competed night-in, night-out last season to make the playoffs, why is this year's team such a dumpster fire in comparison to last season.  What gives?   This is what should concern Shero.  If you did it last year, why can't you this year, or, at the very least, be competitive enough to come close?  At this point you are losing by a 4 goal margin on a regular basis.  Doesn't make sense.

 

 

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Quote

[Hall] appreciated the way we treated him and how we held him accountable and knows he has to be better and wants to be better. [Hynes and Hall] have a healthy respect for each other and Hynes was confident Hall would be OK. Hynes told me it was really a reset for him and Taylor's response was great.

If only Hynes was this fair to EVERY player on the freaking roster....

 

As for the rest of the article: knee jerk reaction is to lose my sh!t that he’s okay with the way things are going and how he acknowledges the fans loyalty and energy yet is complacent with what is on the ice.

level headed me is glad he’s not going the Lou route of having an ever changing 5 year plan (he even said as much in the article) and putting bandaids over bullet holes and broken bones. I hate that the rebuild for us is going to take a while, absolutely freaking hate it, but if it gets us back to the days of being contenders for a while AND we keep Hall next summer, so be it. I have beer to counter the misery.

I personally am still not a fan of Hynes anymore but Ray is confident and so is Hall, so guess we have to endure it... but i won’t be quiet about it here 😝

Edited by jagknife
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17 minutes ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

I'm guessing we'll see Johansson moved at the deadline. Wonder if he can fetch a 2nd round pick? 

This is fine, I guess. I get it that it's a process and not something that'll happen overnight. Disappointing to see he had a team that could compete last year and flat out couldn't this year. 

The only priority is making sure Taylor Hall re-signs. If he makes it clear he's only playing for a winner when Ray approaches him this upcoming July 1st, you have to -- HAVE TO trade him. You can not under any circumstances let a Hart trophy winner walk away in his prime and get nothing in return for him. That sets a franchise back half a decade. 

The bolded:  it is, but I guess considering how the middle part of the season went, we probably should've been better prepared for a possible downturn season than we were (I'll readily admit it, I didn't think this season would turn out this way at all). 

Agree, if Hall isn't sold on the future here (and I can understand it if he isn't...rebuilds are never guarantees for future success), then deal him.  It will suck, but it will suck losing him for nothing a lot more.  I have a funny feeling that Shero's going to sell him on staying though. 

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2 hours ago, Devilsfan118 said:

I think this is a fantastic piece, and it's what I've been wanting for the past.. month and a half.

This is, more or less, acknowledging that we're going to let what happens happen.  Or in other words, I think this is about as pro-tank as you're ever going to hear from Shero.  Which is fine in my mind - it makes these awful, embarrassing losses at least tolerable.  Knowing there's a vision here makes it easier to stomach.

Also, yeah, pretty blunt about Cory.  Essentially "we've done all we can do, time to put up or shut up".

EXACTLY how I felt reading the piece. I just wanted to hear from Ray one way or the other to see what he was thinking. It makes me feel better that he is totally committed to his vision, and that ownership is letting him do what he needs to do. 

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55 minutes ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

I'm guessing we'll see Johansson moved at the deadline. Wonder if he can fetch a 2nd round pick? 

Not with his current body of work as a Devil...the numbers are pretty underwhelming.  Would be nice if he picked it up at some point, but it just doesn't seem like it's ever going to happen for him here.  I'd love a second, but it will probably a 3rd + a 6th or something like that.

Lovejoy will likely get moved too.  Gotta think Boyle's a candidate to be dealt as well.

I'm hoping that someone takes Greene off the Devils' hands...if the Devils get a 5th rounder or so back and have to pick up a chunk of his money, so be it.  I just hate the fact that he seems to be immune to any accountability at all. 

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8 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Not with his current body of work as a Devil...the numbers are pretty underwhelming.  Would be nice if he picked it up at some point, but it just doesn't seem like it's ever going to happen for him here.  I'd love a second, but it will probably a 3rd + a 6th or something like that.

Lovejoy will likely get moved too.  Gotta think Boyle's a candidate to be dealt as well.

I'm hoping that someone takes Greene off the Devils' hands...if the Devils get a 5th rounder or so back and have to pick up a chunk of his money, so be it.  I just hate the fact that he seems to be immune to any accountability at all. 

7 points in his last 9 GP. Definitely his best stretch as a Devil so far. 

Edited by Nicomo
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Just now, Nicomo said:

7 points in his last 10GP. Definitely his best stretch as a Devil so far. 

Actually 7 in his last 9 GP, but probably not enough to convince anyone of anything just yet.  He went pointless in the prior seven games. 

I'm all for him sustaining some production...would be nice to get a team to cough up more than a 3rd for him. 

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18 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

I'm hoping that someone takes Greene off the Devils' hands...if the Devils get a 5th rounder or so back and have to pick up a chunk of his money, so be it.  I just hate the fact that he seems to be immune to any accountability at all. 

I honestly think he'd be a perfect acquisition for a playoff team looking to add depth for a long playoff run.  Andy Greene is a more than capable 5-6 defender at this point imo.

It's honestly the best option we have with him - we can spin the whole "giving a veteran guy one last chance to win".  Assuming we retain at least 1/4 of his cap hit I think he's easily movable.

This is Shero's only move that doesn't result in awkwardness/hurt feelings, assuming Greene stays healthy.  He cannot be on the team next year and I trust Shero understands that.  I doubt he wants to have to strip the C and buy him out.

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25 minutes ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

We were close last year. I think it's insane that people are blindly giving Ray a pass on this. There were extremely talented players available and we didn't get a single one of them. 

We've been over this. Again, aside from Stastny (who i wouldnt call extremely talented), who are the players Ray should have acquired? Tavares? Not invited. Karlsson? NTC and Ottawa wasnt going to deal him east. Carlson? Wanted to stay in Wash. JVR? Wanted Philly. Trade for Pacioretty? We didnt, and still dont, have many bargaining chips to afford to expend. You cant just make a blanket assumption that not acquiring players was somehow Ray's fault.

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7 minutes ago, devlman said:

We've been over this. Again, aside from Stastny (who i wouldnt call extremely talented), who are the players Ray should have acquired? Tavares? Not invited. Karlsson? NTC and Ottawa wasnt going to deal him east. Carlson? Wanted to stay in Wash. JVR? Wanted Philly. Trade for Pacioretty? We didnt, and still dont, have many bargaining chips to afford to expend. You cant just make a blanket assumption that not acquiring players was somehow Ray's fault.

The one guy I could say in retrospect I wish Ray got in on was Hoffman- but at the time, there was the whole thing with the crazy girlfriend and what not, so no one really wanted him (including me), given his baggage.

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I'm fine with Hynes this season still the way I was fine with Pete DeBoer in his 2nd season. The roster is what it is, Shero did not do him any favors this offseason, similar to the way Lou did not do DeBoer any favors his 2nd season (although that was way worse; Parise left, then Kovalchuk, etc.). 

Wood, Noesen, and Kinkaid last season had career years beyond their wildest dreams. Brian Gibbons put up 26 points, we got Maroon who put up 13 points in 17 games, we had Henrique for the pivotal first few months of the season that launched us into a good position that we held onto for most of the rest of the season.

We should have known Wood, Noesen, and Kinkaid would regress. Gibbons, Maroon, and Henrique are gone (although I'm a big Vatanen fan, so I still support that trade). Let's face it, Hynes has less to work with this season than he did exactly a year ago, that's just facts.

That being said, something does need to change. I don't think it's Hynes, I think he's an effective overall coach and leader of the guys, but I do think it's time for Alain Nasreddine to go. There are fundamental defensive and positioning errors we're seeing this season and they're only getting more glaring week by week. I don't think "the buck stops here" applies in this case, I think it's been well documented by now that Hynes is the offensive brains of the operation, that's what he brought to the table. We need a specialist under him that can really turn our defense around.

Edited by DJ Eco
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Thank you Ray for the update time will tell how it all works out. There's gotta be some serious movement in the off season to make this team better imo. He gets a pass for now hopefully he doesn't come out of this season content with rolling the dice again next season. 

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If the Devils fired Hynes I wouldn't care. I don't see him ever taking a team to a Cup. That's mainly why. But I also don't really see a point in canning him either so I'm not actively rooting for it. No coach is going to come in and win now with this team. There's no point in bringing in another coach just to flounder for a few years.

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21 hours ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

Signing Statsny/JVR/Neal/deHaan or trading for ROR/Karlsson/Hoffman would have made a fringe playoff team into a likely playoff team. 

He did none of those.

i disagree with that. 

Statsny has played in three games this season.

JVR missed some games early on and has been held pointless in 8 out of his last 10 games.

By Neal, do you mean the Neal who's being paid $5,750,000 per season and has managed six points in 31 games so far?  That Neal?

deHaan played in just 33 games last season and has been kinda injury prone (though he did manage 82 GP in 2016-17). 

Also fair to note that Shero has been consistent...he's clearly not going the overpay-a-UFA route to try to build his team at this stage (though if the team is close and he sees that guy who can put the Devils over the top, I can see him amending that approach then).

ROR has come back to Earth after that big streak...8 points in his last 13 games.  Buffalo thought that he was so awesome that they moved his contract just two years into a seven-year deal, despite being cost-controlled for another five years.  Sure doesn't seem like they're missing him much.  BTW the Blues are 10-14-4 with him this year...they went 44-32-6 last season without him. 

Severson has 4 goals and 14 assists in 29 GP.   Karlsson has 2 goals and 18 assists in 32 GP.  The Devils also already had Butcher and Vatanen to provide some blueline offense as well.  I was definitely intrigued by Karlsson for a while for sure, but he looks like a guy who's not only already had his best seasons, but is looking like a UFA overpayment waiting to happen...the kind of deal that becomes an albatross within three years...the exact kind of deal that Shero clearly wants to avoid.

Hoffman had baggage...can't blame Shero for not taking a chance on him.

Can't just do the grass-is-greener name-pick and make it sound like bringing one or two of them in would've automatically been an immediate help. 

 

Edited by Colorado Rockies 1976
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4 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Statsny has played in three games this season.

JVR missed some games early on and has been held pointless in 8 out of his last 10 games.

By Neal, do you mean the Neal who's being paid $5,750,000 per season and has managed six points in 31 games so far?  That Neal?

deHaan played in just 33 games last season and has been kinda injury prone (though he did manage 82 GP in 2016-17). 

Also fair to note that Shero has been consistent...he's clearly not going the overpay-a-UFA route to try to build his team at this stage.

ROR has come back to Earth after that big streak...8 points in his last 13 games.  Buffalo thought that he was so awesome that they moved his contract just two years into a seven-year deal, despite being cost-controlled for another five years.  Sure doesn't seem like they're missing him much.  BTW the Blues are 10-14-4 with him this year...they went 44-32-6 last season without him. 

Severson has 4 goals and 14 assists in 29 GP.   Karlsson has 2 goals and 18 assists in 32 GP.  The Devils also already had Butcher and Vatanen to provide some blueline offense as well.  I was definitely intrigued by Karlsson for a while for sure, but he looks like a guy who's not only already had his best seasons, but is looking like a UFA overpayment waiting to happen...the kind of deal that becomes an albatross within three years...the exact kind of deal that Shero clearly wants to avoid.

Hoffman had baggage...can't blame Shero for not taking a chance on him.

Can't just do the grass-is-greener name-pick and make it sound like bringing one or two of them in would've automatically been an immediate help. 

 

I think with the bolded, but I wonder if what's going on with EK is that they already have a couple of top-notch D-men and adding another one in there just threw everything off.  There is only so much puck to go around in any given game.

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