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Devils 2019-20 Lineup/Notes Thread


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I'm not going to do a deep dive here (and I'm not asking anyone else to) but it just blows my mind that we're still this bad after so many years of being absolute trash. Coaching is the primary problem, probably, but looking at this roster..

Outside of the two 1OA's there really isn't a ton of talent throughout this roster. Not having a blue chip prospect on D is more or less inexcusable in my opinion after tanking for the better part of a decade. Maybe Smith finally sticks next year, but I'm not going to count him as a blue-chip just yet.

It's been said a thousand times on this forum that nothing is guaranteed with tanking, but you look at a team like Colorado right now.. that's an exciting team with a ton of talent on the roster that still has a ton of growing to do. 

My faith in Shero is... Let's say, I'm starting to develop some doubts.

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10 minutes ago, Devilsfan118 said:

I'm not going to do a deep dive here (and I'm not asking anyone else to) but it just blows my mind that we're still this bad after so many years of being absolute trash. Coaching is the primary problem, probably, but looking at this roster..

Outside of the two 1OA's there really isn't a ton of talent throughout this roster. Not having a blue chip prospect on D is more or less inexcusable in my opinion after tanking for the better part of a decade. Maybe Smith finally sticks next year, but I'm not going to count him as a blue-chip just yet.

It's been said a thousand times on this forum that nothing is guaranteed with tanking, but you look at a team like Colorado right now.. that's an exciting team with a ton of talent on the roster that still has a ton of growing to do. 

My faith in Shero is... Let's say, I'm starting to develop some doubts.

I don't disagree and my faith is starting to waiver as well, but I don't think it's fair to evaluate this team unless and until a new coach is brought in to manage them.  It's like when you go to the doctor and you're given some news (good or bad), if it's important, which I think we can all agree this team is, you usually go and get a second opinion just to confirm the results.  

Or, and I've used this sort of analogy before, but it's also like if you had a super fast car and were competing in a race - if you constantly are in the back of the pack but the car seems like it should be capable of coming in 1st, or at least in the top 10, then maybe you go out and get another person to drive the car and see if it was just the driver who didn't know what he was doing. You don't strip the car right away and send it to the junk yard before at least trying that.  It's a bit of a childish example, but that's literally how simple it is at the moment.  A child could make this decision right now.  Why can't Shero?  I'm really close to wanting him fired too.  He's looking more and more inept by the day.

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31 minutes ago, Devilsfan118 said:

I'm not going to do a deep dive here (and I'm not asking anyone else to) but it just blows my mind that we're still this bad after so many years of being absolute trash. Coaching is the primary problem, probably, but looking at this roster..

Outside of the two 1OA's there really isn't a ton of talent throughout this roster. Not having a blue chip prospect on D is more or less inexcusable in my opinion after tanking for the better part of a decade. Maybe Smith finally sticks next year, but I'm not going to count him as a blue-chip just yet.

It's been said a thousand times on this forum that nothing is guaranteed with tanking, but you look at a team like Colorado right now.. that's an exciting team with a ton of talent on the roster that still has a ton of growing to do. 

My faith in Shero is... Let's say, I'm starting to develop some doubts.

This roster is a hell of a lot more talented than the one that had Gomez 2.0 on the top line, or rolled Jagr all over the place, or Ryder

This is a massive attitude and coaching problem. Ax the bald headed idiot behind the bench and his band of AHL-at-best morons and then assess the roster. Hynes is not the coach to lead this team out of the abyss, he doesn’t know how to use actual talent. Hell he can’t even get young guys to take A step let alone the next step.

Once we get a new coach, if we ever do, I’ll panic over the roster. But that is the first change that needed to happen weeks ago.

My faith in Shero lies solely on Hynes being fired, as he has the pieces to have a winner and a playoff team now, but the fact he is accepting these results probably with that smug smile on his face to boot, is inexcusable 

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On 12/3/2019 at 7:42 AM, Devilsfan118 said:

I'm not going to do a deep dive here (and I'm not asking anyone else to) but it just blows my mind that we're still this bad after so many years of being absolute trash. Coaching is the primary problem, probably, but looking at this roster..

Outside of the two 1OA's there really isn't a ton of talent throughout this roster. Not having a blue chip prospect on D is more or less inexcusable in my opinion after tanking for the better part of a decade. Maybe Smith finally sticks next year, but I'm not going to count him as a blue-chip just yet.

It's been said a thousand times on this forum that nothing is guaranteed with tanking, but you look at a team like Colorado right now.. that's an exciting team with a ton of talent on the roster that still has a ton of growing to do. 

My faith in Shero is... Let's say, I'm starting to develop some doubts.

I know this was asked before Hynes was fired, but you have to go through the league and see where players come from to realize just how little the Devils are going to end up having from the final 4 drafts that Conte was presiding over, and these are drafts where I mostly think he did okay - part of it was that he was working without picks almost every year.  I did this breakdown on HF a month ago so I still have everything handy, here's the list of players/assets the Devils have as a result of drafting and trades from the various draft years:

2002:  Greene*

2004:  Zajac

2008:  Vatanen (via Henrique+3rd+UFA)

2009:  Zetterlund (via Eric Gelinas)

2010:  Schmid (via Scott Wedgewood)

2011:  Hall (via Larsson), Coleman

2012:  Severson

2013:  Wood, Schneider

2014:  Hayden

2015:  Zacha, Blackwood, Palmieri (via 2nd+3rd round pick), Seney

2016: [Beau Bennett]

* - would've been draft-eligible that year

[] - player was acquired with draft pick acquired by previous regime, is no longer with organization

In a year the Devils missed the playoffs (2013), they have a 3rd/4th line forward and awful goalie to show for it now.  What do you think good teams now have from the 2013 draft - a draft, which by the way, was not all that special - but has still produced several solid NHLers?  2014 was also not special, but it was also a year the Devils missed the playoffs - they've got John Hayden to show for it 5 years later.  Knowing what we know now, a GM would have to have stolen a good goalie or signed one UFA to make this into a good team, and that's with the excellent trades for Hall and Palmieri.

Not counting Ty Smith as a blue-chip prospect is just changing the definitions of words.  Name 5 D currently playing outside the NHL who are property of an NHL team who you'd rather have.  You might be able to do this - naming 10 is likely not possible.  He is a blue-chip prospect.  He would be the best D prospect in the system of more than half the teams around the league.  That doesn't mean he's going to be an NHL star or NHL regular - plenty of blue-chip prospects have failed to become NHLers.  'Waiting to see more' just means waiting until he isn't a prospect anymore.

This team should be better than it is.  The coaching staff has failed to get the best out of anyone in the early stages of this season.  There's been some trades that haven't worked out - Bennett, Mueller, probably Gusev, possibly Subban, and Johansson was largely a wash.  McLeod probably won't play in the NHL much or well.  Still, there is a lot of hope for the future, and while the NHL standings don't reflect it enough, there's been some massive upgrades.

Edited by Triumph
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6 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

while the season sucks right now... at least now we somewhat have assets that are expandable to some extent... it was not that long ago that we had to sacrifice roster players like Henrique to make a lateral moves cause that's all we had literally

What non-roster players do we have that are worth anything? Other than Ty Smith...

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9 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

What non-roster players do we have that are worth anything? Other than Ty Smith...

I think Bastian and Joey Anderson should be decent NHLers.  McLeod could be a really good fourth line center, which I guess isn’t nothing.  And it’s hard to ignore what Tyce Thompson is doing this year.  

Then we’ll see what we get for Hall.  If it’s actually Byram, and we end up with a top three pick a real coach could turn things around.

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1 hour ago, NewarkDevil5 said:

I'm liking the long-term potential of a Bratt-Zacha-Boqvist line.

Feels like the only time Zacha is noticeable lately is when he makes a bad pass or turns the puck over. He hasn’t scored a goal in 18 games...

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Just now, Nicomo said:

Let’s be honest it’s not just this year with him. 

Your comment made it sound like it was this year.

If you want to talk last year, he was one of the few guys, on a team with AHL call-ups, that actually took a step forward.

He had a strong game on the PK last night and Hall's PPG prob doesn't happen the other night without his work in front of the net. I get it though, some people are going to just hate on him to hate because he'll never live up to the expectations put on him because of the place he was drafted. 

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2 minutes ago, NJDevils1214 said:

Your comment made it sound like it was this year.

If you want to talk last year, he was one of the few guys, on a team with AHL call-ups, that actually took a step forward.

He had a strong game on the PK last night and Hall's PPG prob doesn't happen the other night without his work in front of the net. I get it though, some people are going to just hate on him to hate because he'll never live up to the expectations put on him because of the place he was drafted. 

I’m annoyed with him right now (hate is a bit strong) because he has 2 goals in 26 GP. I don’t even care where we drafted him anymore. That’s just beating a dead horse. 

At least he’s getting more assists this year though. I guess that’s something...

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