2019 Offseason Thread

[Daniel]

The literal theme song of Ray's tenure here: "All I Do Is Lose"

[SterioDesign]

ok you're straight up just trolling here. I kind of knew but figured maybe you were still serious maybe. Now i know

[Devil Dan 56]

4 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

Lou drove the team to the ground leaving it barebone. 

 

To be fair, and I know you won't be, but this team might've been in Nashville in the mid 90's if it wasn't for Lou. 

I like Shero and I still trust his plan, but people do have a right to be a little uneasy as we hit season 5 under him with just 1 playoff win to show for it. Like I said before, I'll wait till October to really judge this off season. Ray has put himself in a great position right now. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

1 minute ago, Daniel said:

The literal theme song of Ray's tenure here: "All I Do Is Lose"

[NJDevils1214]

14 minutes ago, Devilsfan118 said:

To be fair, if you a draft a center 1st overall and he doesn't turn into a true #1 center.. he's going to end up being considered a disappointment.

Don't get me wrong, love Nico and what he brings.  But.. if he peaks as a 2C.. yikes.

But that wasn't the claim I was making in any of my post he quoted. If that's your criteria, more power to you. It isn't for a lot of other people, myself included.

The projections never had Nico or Nolan as a 100% chance to be elite and definitely not "generational". It takes a lot more to be a disappointment than not scoring ass loads of goals. I'm still happy with the Nico pick and still think he was the best choice at the draft. If you get the best player you think you can get, how is that disappointing? Because he isn't Crosby? Crosby wasn't on the board to be picked... At least keep things relative to the draft class. Nico is only going to keep getting better. 

[Lateralous]

3 minutes ago, Daniel said:

The literal theme song of Ray's tenure here: "All I Do Is Lose"

Someone needs to repost the roster Lou left Ray with.  It was always going to take a few years to build up the assets to even be able to make some shrewd deals after what Lou left him.     

Last off-season was admittedly disappointing not to add a significant piece to the D but I can't really think of someone who was readily available.  As for this year, it's way too early to be predicting disappointment.  There will be plenty more deals at the draft and before free agency .     

[SterioDesign]

Just now, Devil Dan 56 said:

To be fair, and I know you won't be, but this team might've been in Nashville in the mid 90's if it wasn't for Lou. 

I like Shero and I still trust his ptlan, but people do have a right to be a little uneasy as we hit season 5 under him with just 1 playoff win to show for it. Like I said before, I'll wait till October to really judge this off season. Ray has put himself in a great position right now. 

What's the point of the Nashville thing? i know Lou was a damn good GM for well over half of his career and did great things. But the league changed and he was never willing to adjust and his ego / stubbornness really fvcked us over good. 

It's exactly like Marty. Marty was amazing, we all know. But just imagine IF Brodeur was the one calling the shot on who's in net every night. You know damn well it would have been him and not Cory 99.99% of the time no matter what. And you know damn well it was a decision driven by ego and selfishness. So that it got to that point doesnt change the fact that Marty was amazing through almost his whole career but his attitude was a big problem at the end. 

[Lateralous]

4 minutes ago, Devil Dan 56 said:

To be fair, and I know you won't be, but this team might've been in Nashville in the mid 90's if it wasn't for Lou. 

I like Shero and I still trust his plan, but people do have a right to be a little uneasy as we hit season 5 under him with just 1 playoff win to show for it. Like I said before, I'll wait till October to really judge this off season. Ray has put himself in a great position right now. 

I don't think anyone disputes what Lou (and Conte) accomplished in the 90's and early 2000's.   They were also both subpar at their jobs for the last decade of their employment in NJ.   Ray was left with absolutely nothing to work with when he got here other than Larsson and Severson, one of which he managed to flip for the league MVP in 17-18.   

[NJDevs4978]

35 minutes ago, Daniel said:

It's bad for us since it makes life easier for the Sharks and hence they have less of a need to lose someone really good like Meier as part of a cap dump to a Metro Division team.  Fletcher is pretty smart, so it wouldn't shock me if he had something like that in mind. 

While I don't entirely disagree with most of what you're saying I do think you're jumping the gun a bit in general...but this right here is borderline crazy.  He's not dealing two valuable picks for a rental based on the 2% chance Meier MIGHT get traded to NJ otherwise.  Fletcher made that deal for the same reason he hired AV, traded for Hayes and is looking to deal Patrick - because the Flyers have a stupid win-now mandate (just ask Hextall).

Edited June 18, 2019 by NJDevs4978

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

7 minutes ago, Devil Dan 56 said:

To be fair, and I know you won't be, but this team might've been in Nashville in the mid 90's if it wasn't for Lou. 

I like Shero and I still trust his plan, but people do have a right to be a little uneasy as we hit season 5 under him with just 1 playoff win to show for it. Like I said before, I'll wait till October to really judge this off season. Ray has put himself in a great position right now. 

If you think about it, things were going fairly well through Season 3, considering what he inherited. 

Season 4 was rough for a number of reasons, and we've been over what many of them were...but that year was also going to be a "let me see what I've got to work with, and soon I'll have even more kids (Smith, Boqvist, etc) coming into the system" kind of season...to see if some of the kids could build off 2017-18.  On the surface it was a bad year for sure, but some positives did come out of it...Blackwood came up and played well and dispelled KK, Cory showed signs of no longer being a disaster...even if Shero had signed someone like JVR, what team was overcoming the goaltending the Devils got from Cory and KK for a large chunk of the season?

It's easy to forget that the double whammy we all feared heading into 2017-18 (Cory either being hurt or ineffective, and Hall missing significant time) actually happened.  If we had been told ahead of time how their seasons were going to go...what could any GM really have done about it, to salvage last year?  Sadly the results were probably about what we could've expected, especially considering how many other players missed time.  At the very least, looks like the Devils are going to wind with a legit future-elite player...and better kids in the system.  Hopefully that means no more Q, Lappin, and other such AHL chum to choose from if there's injuries again this year.  If Season 3 was a year where a lot of broke right, Season 4 was very much the other way.  Hopefully in 2019-20, it will be much more towards the middle or better. 

Edited June 18, 2019 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[SterioDesign]

This was our team in 2015 before Shero comes in. Our top scorer was Henrique with 43 fvcking points. Our top prospect was Reid Boucher, who 4 years later is still not a regular in the NHL. The fact that some fans doesn't understand that it takes a ridiculous amount of work to rebuild a team from that.

Like i mentioned few posts ago, that's only 4 free agency... and obviously you're the least appealing thing on earth for top UFAs with that roster like that. Then you have no assets to swing things around... the stuff you can trade... will still make you take a step back cause you needed that assets. It's not like teams with a strong roster able to trade prospects or they may have too many centers or wtv position and only need to solidify one position so they trade for that. Plus we had a bunch of bad contracts to get out of. It's just ridiculous.

Then it's only 4 drafts... if you don't pick a top5 player... usually its going to take a year or 2 before they make the team... and a few more before they can make an impact. its only been 4 years! Again, what the hell do you expect? We starting from absolutely NOTHING basically while other teams had a huge headstart on us at least having assets or wtv.

Cammalleri - Henrique - Jagr

Elias - Zajac - Ryder

Brunner - Gomez - Havlat

Bernier - Josefson - Gionta

Zubrus - Ruutu - Tootoo

 

Greene - Larsson

Salvador - Zidlicky

Gelinas - Merrill

Harrold - Fraser

 

Schneider

Kinkaid

[CommonDreads]

Just now, SterioDesign said:

This was our team in 2015 before Shero comes in. Our top scorer was Henrique with 43 fvcking points. Our top prospect was Reid Boucher, who 4 years later is still not a regular in the NHL. The fact that some fans doesn't understand that it takes a ridiculous amount of work to rebuild a team from that.

Like i mentioned few posts ago, that's only 4 free agency... and obviously you're the least appealing thing on earth for top UFAs with that roster like that. Then you have no assets to swing things around... the stuff you can trade... will still make you take a step back cause you needed that assets. It's not like teams with a strong roster able to trade prospects or they may have too many centers or wtv position and only need to solidify one position so they trade for that. Plus we had a bunch of bad contracts to get out of. It's just ridiculous.

Then it's only 4 drafts... if you don't pick a top5 player... usually its going to take a year or 2 before they make the team... and a few more before they can make an impact. its only been 4 years! Again, what the hell do you expect? We starting from absolutely NOTHING basically while other teams had a huge headstart on us at least having assets or wtv.

Cammalleri - Henrique - Jagr

Elias - Zajac - Ryder

Brunner - Gomez - Havlat

Bernier - Josefson - Gionta

Zubrus - Ruutu - Tootoo

 

Greene - Larsson

Salvador - Zidlicky

Gelinas - Merrill

Harrold - Fraser

 

Schneider

Kinkaid

You can pluck Jagr and Zidlicky off that list too, they were moved at the 2015 deadline so Ray didn't even have those assets to work with. To be fair, I think Lou did pretty well in that Jagr deal to Florida, and Ray later used those picks to acquire Palmieri.

[SterioDesign]

Just now, CommonDreads said:

You can pluck Jagr and Zidlicky off that list too, they were moved at the 2015 deadline so Ray didn't even have those assets to work with. To be fair, I think Lou did pretty well in that Jagr deal to Florida, and Ray later used those picks to acquire Palmieri.

well i said that was our team in 2015 before Ray comes in, they both played like 60 games. 

It's only to show how bad our roster was... and actually those 2 guys were stil producing more than most guys... so without them... it's even worst

[Daniel]

3 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

This was our team in 2015 before Shero comes in. Our top scorer was Henrique with 43 fvcking points. Our top prospect was Reid Boucher, who 4 years later is still not a regular in the NHL. The fact that some fans doesn't understand that it takes a ridiculous amount of work to rebuild a team from that.

Like i mentioned few posts ago, that's only 4 free agency... and obviously you're the least appealing thing on earth for top UFAs with that roster like that. Then you have no assets to swing things around... the stuff you can trade... will still make you take a step back cause you needed that assets. It's not like teams with a strong roster able to trade prospects or they may have too many centers or wtv position and only need to solidify one position so they trade for that. Plus we had a bunch of bad contracts to get out of. It's just ridiculous.

Then it's only 4 drafts... if you don't pick a top5 player... usually its going to take a year or 2 before they make the team... and a few more before they can make an impact. its only been 4 years! Again, what the hell do you expect? We starting from absolutely NOTHING basically while other teams had a huge headstart on us at least having assets or wtv.

Cammalleri - Henrique - Jagr

Elias - Zajac - Ryder

Brunner - Gomez - Havlat

Bernier - Josefson - Gionta

Zubrus - Ruutu - Tootoo

 

Greene - Larsson

Salvador - Zidlicky

Gelinas - Merrill

Harrold - Fraser

 

Schneider

Kinkaid

When Hall is traded at a discount or just bolts altogether, the resulting lineup will only be better by virtue of having Nico and Hughes whom Ray used all of his ingenuity to get here. 

[Lateralous]

2 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

This was our team in 2015 before Shero comes in. Our top scorer was Henrique with 43 fvcking points. Our top prospect was Reid Boucher, who 4 years later is still not a regular in the NHL. The fact that some fans doesn't understand that it takes a ridiculous amount of work to rebuild a team from that.

Like i mentioned few posts ago, that's only 4 free agency... and obviously you're the least appealing thing on earth for top UFAs with that roster like that. Then you have no assets to swing things around... the stuff you can trade... will still make you take a step back cause you needed that assets. It's not like teams with a strong roster able to trade prospects or they may have too many centers or wtv position and only need to solidify one position so they trade for that. Plus we had a bunch of bad contracts to get out of. It's just ridiculous.

Then it's only 4 drafts... if you don't pick a top5 player... usually its going to take a year or 2 before they make the team... and a few more before they can make an impact. its only been 4 years! Again, what the hell do you expect? We starting from absolutely NOTHING basically while other teams had a huge headstart on us at least having assets or wtv.

Cammalleri - Henrique - Jagr

Elias - Zajac - Ryder

Brunner - Gomez - Havlat

Bernier - Josefson - Gionta

Zubrus - Ruutu - Tootoo

 

Greene - Larsson

Salvador - Zidlicky

Gelinas - Merrill

Harrold - Fraser

 

Schneider

Kinkaid

That was a pretty great offensive line-up....if it were 2006

 

[mfitz804]

2 hours ago, DevsMan84 said:

"Trouba revealed that his fiancee's aspirations to become a doctor played a role in his desire to play in the United States. On Monday, he was traded to the New York Rangers ."

 

IIRC, NJ is in the United States.

Not South Jersey, that’s on another planet. Otherwise yes. 

[devlman]

23 minutes ago, Daniel said:

When Hall is traded at a discount or just bolts altogether, the resulting lineup will only be better by virtue of having Nico and Hughes whom Ray used all of his ingenuity to get here. 

Not even close to being true. The talented prospects coming thru the system, which easily look better than that 2015 team, are thanks to Shero’s drafting.

[mfitz804]

1 hour ago, Devilsfan118 said:

To be fair, if you a draft a center 1st overall and he doesn't turn into a true #1 center.. he's going to end up being considered a disappointment.

Don't get me wrong, love Nico and what he brings.  But.. if he peaks as a 2C.. yikes.

Nope, not buying into that. He was the best player available at the time. Getting picked first doesn’t guarantee you are the best player from your draft,  but if we passed on Nico and Patrick and took any of those guys with the hard to spell names that have been better so far, people would’ve been calling for Ray’s head. 

Besides, the 2017 draft was considered very weak, was anyone expecting a franchise 1C out of that group?

27 minutes ago, Lateralous said:

That was a pretty great offensive line-up....if it were 2006

 

I find it extremely offensive, yes. 

[Daniel]

4 minutes ago, devlman said:

Not even close to being true. The talented prospects coming thru the system, which easily look better than that 2015 team, are thanks to Shero’s drafting.

Zero of the other players coming through the system will be easily better with the exception of Smith.  Remember how stacked we thought our blue line of Merrill, Gelinas, Severson and Larsson was going to be?

[SterioDesign]

in 2015 Henrique, Zajac, Elias, Josefson, Larsson, Gelinas, Merril were the only players on that roster that we drafted (left Gomez out cause he left and came back) 3 of them sucked and we had to trade 2 of them to get something. One retired. One is still here and was one of the very very few good first round pick we got with Conte.

Other than that it was all players we signed... who were over the hill already mostly

Our roster right now is almost all home grown minus a few guys

[Chuck the Duck]

41 minutes ago, Daniel said:

When Hall is traded at a discount or just bolts altogether, the resulting lineup will only be better by virtue of having Nico and Hughes whom Ray used all of his ingenuity to get here. 

Ray did use his ingenuity there because, if it wasn't for Hall, Nico and Hughes wouldn't be here.  Mr. Lottery Ball is worth keeping around for another year solely for the guarantee of getting next year's #1 pick (Alexis Lafreniere?).

[Daniel]

7 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

in 2015 Henrique, Zajac, Elias, Josefson, Larsson, Gelinas, Merril were the only players on that roster that we drafted (left Gomez out cause he left and came back) 3 of them sucked and we had to trade 2 of them to get something. One retired. One is still here and was one of the very very few good first round pick we got with Conte.

Other than that it was all players we signed... who were over the hill already mostly

Our roster right now is almost all home grown minus a few guys

I care about a roster that wins, not one that is home grown.  Ray has not put together a roster that can sustainably win and there is every reason to believe this offseason won't change that.  And he actually never really did that in Pittsburgh either having inherited two of the best players of their generation. 

He seems to be exactly what our private equity owners want.  A guy who can build the best team a spreadsheet can rationalize. 

Edited June 18, 2019 by Daniel

[SterioDesign]

1 minute ago, Daniel said:

I care about a roster that wins, not one that is home grown.  Ray has not put together a roster that can sustainably win and there is every reason to believe this offseason won't change that.  And he actually never really did that in Pittsburgh either having inherited two of the best players of their generation. 

He seems to be exactly what our private equity owners want.  I guy who can build the best team a spreadsheet can rationalize. 

The problem is not Ray at all. The problem is your ridiculous expectations / lack of understanding how things work. Like... honestly. You're straight up delusional

[titans04]

8 hours ago, mfitz804 said:

Or he may not extend at all. 

Sadly I'll bet the house on the over here.  Certainly sounds like he and his wife wanted to land there.  Why WIN accommodated him for what seems like the sh!t end of the stick is the part that stings. So again making fun of the bright lights is rather ironic when all signs pointing to it was once again a factor. #sh!t

[Daniel]

1 minute ago, SterioDesign said:

The problem is not Ray at all. The problem is your ridiculous expectations / lack of understanding how things work. Like... honestly. You're straight up delusional

I understand perfectly.  Ray has turned timid to the point of passivity.  He pulled the heist on Chiarelli and figured he could live with the good will that came with it forever.  It worked for a while.  We gave him a pass on Mueller and pretend that Johansson actually did something useful while he was here. 

But now it's time to put or shut up, and you don't hear him say or do much now do you?  He could have beat what the Rangers gave up for Trouba easily, but he cowered in fear that everyone automatically wants to leave for the bright lights brah, so why bother.

You tell me though since you know how things work.  Who is the "talent" that Ray is going to bring in that will make this team significantly better?  It'll be the same B and C listers that he's brought in since he's got here but some analytics yes man will be there to tell him how savvy he is.