GDT - Devils vs Lightning 1/27/22 7pm MSG+

[SterioDesign]

Just now, Jerrydevil said:

A name with three Ks in it, that's pretty unusual.

its also very racist

[Jerrydevil]

18 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

its also very racist

Not three Ks in a row, so he's good. Close, though!

Edited January 28, 2022 by Jerrydevil

[mfitz804]

13 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

that OR i really like Bratt and he's our leading scorer

I mean yeah, it could be that. 

9 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

Them boys can move. Imagine putting a sniper (like Holtz if he works out) with them…

Which is exactly why I think moving Bratt would be counterproductive. You’re 2/3 of the way there…

[mfitz804]

Best part of tonight’s game was me finding a signed Schmid puck on eBay during it. 

[SterioDesign]

7 minutes ago, MB3 said:

Literally nobody was even talking about that though. You and I have already discussed this like six times. We disagreed, we moved on, and then you found a very weird and random way to bring it back up. 

I was replying to someone saying, once again, that we should trade our 21 year old defenseman who is now quite literally 8 months removed from a near-ROY season at his lowest possible value. I think that’s stupid. That has nothing to do with Spencer Knight, regardless of how many times you follow me into a thread and bring it back up.

Someone made a comment to which you replied

Quote

“Let’s trade our young player at his lowest possible value” -this forum, all the fvcking time, for some fvcking idiotic reason."

And i personally thought it was amusing that you'd call out other trade proposal "idiotic" when you made one yourself (in my opinion) a few days before. It was not that weird and random. It was really one of those silver plater thing that didn't require much effort or "following around". 

Also, don't act like you never randomly threw a random jab at me for fun when i wasn't even part of the conversation lol c'mon now. We both know you did. 

You're really a "like to dish it but don't like to take it" kind of guy eh haha

[devlman]

The way Bob has been playing, there are lesser, more expendable pieces to give that would yield Spencer Knight. You don’t start out by offering a franchise cornerstone.

For instance, this year’s 1st + a prospect not named Holtz + Miles Wood, or a Severson would do it. We could even throw in Smith just for fun.

[SterioDesign]

17 minutes ago, MB3 said:

But… it is irrelevant. Jesper Bratt is at his highest possible value and I’m not proposing we trade him for peanuts. What am I missing here? 

I take it plenty. My wife is latin, there’s not much you can say to me that will surprise me. I just think it’s a weird connection to make. 

No you're suggesting that we're trading him for a "gamble", that for all we know... may or may not be peanuts when it's all said and done. Goalies, even established ones are historically inconsistent. A goalie can be on the top of the world one year and hit rock bottom the next, we've seen it countless times.  Or a goalie can suck ass on a team and sign with a new team and become a top goalie in the league, we've seen it all.

Just look at Knight's partner himself. He was on top of the world in Colombus for years. Signed with Florida, sucked hard for 2 years. Now he's back. 

Also, how do we know that this is Bratt at his highest possible value? And i don't think that in the situation that we're in and barely poking our heads out of the water that we should gamble one of our buoy.

40 minutes ago, MB3 said:

For a second let’s pretend you can guarantee Spencer Knight becomes MAF. There are no guarantees but for the sake of argument, let’s pretend. Do you think a PPG winger is worth MAF? 

Because here’s what I see: I see a team that’s bursting with potential. I see a team that this year — even this hideous year! — has been elite 5 on 5. I see a bubble team that is at the bottom of the standings because they’ve gotten atrocious goaltending. Not just bad goaltending, not just iffy goaltending — worst in the national hockey league bad goaltending.

So I now see a team that has some sweet offensive pieces. Nico, Jack, Holtz, and Mercer are all early-20s hockey players and they all (Holtz being the iffiest) look like they’re going to be bonifide studs around for a long time.

I also see a team that’s going to get better defensively. Hamilton will be elite for 5 more years. Graves is a great piece. Ty Smith will bounce back because players don’t have career-years at 19 years old. On the pipeline, everyone can’t stop talking about how good Mukhmadulin looks. Luke Hughes is the organization’s best defensive prospect since Niedermayer. Even Siegenthaler looks like he’ll be a reliable 5th/6th defenseman for a long time! 

What don’t I see, though? I don’t see an answer in net. Blackwood is a mental midget and that much has become obvious. He may be a serviceable 1B type goalie if he ever gets his head out of his a$$hole but I’m not going to hold my breath. Free agency CLEARLY doesn’t work for goalies, but I think 29 other teams would’ve rushed to tell you that while we were enjoying 2 decades of Brodeur. So where is the answer coming from? 

You can find a free agent winger, dime a dozen. You can strike gold on a random 6th rounder and have him play on the top line with Jack.

Goalies are different. You can’t buy them. If you draft them, you’re 4+ years out. You either take a risk and trade for them, or you don’t. And I know it’s a risk, but if it wasn’t a risk the Devils would have no chance at getting a player of that caliber. Teams aren’t just offering up their Vasilevskis for the Jesper Bratts of the world.

So with Bobrovski being 33 years old already. Why would Florida trade their "future MAF" for a "dime a dozen" winger exactly?

[SterioDesign]

4 minutes ago, MB3 said:

My man if you read my whole post and that was your takeaway I’m not sure there’s any point in continuing this discussion, haha. 

No that was just a little extra to my actual response to you with several points made.

But it was also a question. Do you think Florida is making this trade?

[Nicomo]

That’s the thing - Florida isn’t going to trade Knight, so all of this back and forth is completely pointless. He’s the heir apparent, and they’re already a legit contender without needing to add a Jesper Bratt. 

[mfitz804]

2 hours ago, Nicomo said:

That’s the thing - Florida isn’t going to trade Knight, so all of this back and forth is completely pointless. He’s the heir apparent, and they’re already a legit contender without needing to add a Jesper Bratt. 

This. I see no possible way they trade Knight. 

[Chimaira_Devil_#9]

Feels like half the UFA goaltenders for 2022 have at some point played with the Devil's. Which says a lot about our ability to evaluate the position.

[jagknife]

36 minutes ago, Chimaira_Devil_#9 said:

Feels like half the UFA goaltenders for 2022 have at some point played with the Devil's. Which says a lot about our ability to evaluate the position.

Jack Campbell is a UFA this summer. Talk about a slow starter, three teams later and he might have finally really figured it out

[mfitz804]

57 minutes ago, Chimaira_Devil_#9 said:

Feels like half the UFA goaltenders for 2022 have at some point played with the Devil's. Which says a lot about our ability to evaluate the position.

Interesting Devils goalie fact I learned today while playing with my pucks:

As of today, we have had the exact number of guys play goal since Marty left as played goal for the Devils before Marty arrived (14). 

The “before” period was two more years than the “after”. 

[Crisis]

3 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

Interesting Devils goalie fact I learned today while playing with my pucks:

As of today, we have had the exact number of guys play goal since Marty left as played goal for the Devils before Marty arrived (14). 

The “before” period was two more years than the “after”. 

So what you're saying is the next one should be our savior?

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

6 hours ago, MB3 said:

For a second let’s pretend you can guarantee Spencer Knight becomes MAF. There are no guarantees but for the sake of argument, let’s pretend. Do you think a PPG winger is worth MAF? 

Because here’s what I see: I see a team that’s bursting with potential. I see a team that this year — even this hideous year! — has been elite 5 on 5. I see a bubble team that is at the bottom of the standings because they’ve gotten atrocious goaltending. Not just bad goaltending, not just iffy goaltending — worst in the national hockey league bad goaltending.

So I now see a team that has some sweet offensive pieces. Nico, Jack, Holtz, and Mercer are all early-20s hockey players and they all (Holtz being the iffiest) look like they’re going to be bonifide studs around for a long time.

I also see a team that’s going to get better defensively. Hamilton will be elite for 5 more years. Graves is a great piece. Ty Smith will bounce back because players don’t have career-years at 19 years old. On the pipeline, everyone can’t stop talking about how good Mukhmadulin looks. Luke Hughes is the organization’s best defensive prospect since Niedermayer. Even Siegenthaler looks like he’ll be a reliable 5th/6th defenseman for a long time! 

What don’t I see, though? I don’t see an answer in net. Blackwood is a mental midget and that much has become obvious. He may be a serviceable 1B type goalie if he ever gets his head out of his a$$hole but I’m not going to hold my breath. Free agency CLEARLY doesn’t work for goalies, but I think 29 other teams would’ve rushed to tell you that while we were enjoying 2 decades of Brodeur. So where is the answer coming from? 

You can find a free agent winger, dime a dozen. You can strike gold on a random 6th rounder and have him play on the top line with Jack.

Goalies are different. You can’t buy them. If you draft them, you’re 4+ years out. You either take a risk and trade for them, or you don’t. And I know it’s a risk, but if it wasn’t a risk the Devils would have no chance at getting a player of that caliber. Teams aren’t just offering up their Vasilevskis for the Jesper Bratts of the world.

Re:  the bolded...check out the free agent winger situation over the last several years.  Not like that many of them have been terribly cost-effective, really.  And it's not like the Devils are known for striking gold in the draft consistently in ANY round.  Bratt and Hughes seem to have some serious magic...I'd like to see that continue, with Bratt being locked up for a while...guy has really come into his own and has made me eat some serious crow.  At least one of the Devils' centers has someone to work with...these days Nico's been skating with guys like Vesey and Bastian...nothing against either player, but once upon a time Nico was centering Hall and Palms.    

That being said, yeah, the goalie situation is a mess at the moment, largely due both goalies having health issues.  What the Devils need to do is draft a legit top-end goalie prospect (anyone know who's coming out in this year's draft?), and develop him from within, just like they did with Marty...and then hopefully lock him up and have him remain healthy and relatively consistent.  No guarantees there of course, but like we all know, it's not like Knight is even available anyway, so it's pretty pointless to even talk about him specifically at this point (I don't mean you, I mean all of us on here who've discussed as though it could ever happen).

There still is a chance that Blackwood could bounce back from his heel injury and get back to building off the promise he showed in his first two seasons, but I'm not going to pretend that I have much confidence in that happening.  My guess is whoever will become a legit long-term #1 for the Devils currently isn't in the organization.  I know Schmid and Daws have put up fat numbers with Utica this season, but not really expecting either one to come here and stick as anything more than a backup.            

[mfitz804]

45 minutes ago, Crisis said:

So what you're saying is the next one should be our savior?

If you believe in patterns, yeah, the next guy should be the all time winningest goalie and the cornerstone of our franchise for the next 22 years. So that’ll be good. 

[DevsMan84]

13 hours ago, RunninWithTheDevil said:

Here's a stat I guess

 

Is the first PP unit better (the second is still trash) because Bastian is on it or because Zacha (and Sharangovich to an extent) taken off of it?  Franky, I do not know but I am not about to chalk up the success to either or.

In regards to the game, Gillies played alright but not great.  That SHG against was pretty brutal as he had no idea where that puck was even though it was literally right in front of him.

[mfitz804]

30 minutes ago, DevsMan84 said:

In regards to the game, Gillies played alright but not great.  That SHG against was pretty brutal as he had no idea where that puck was even though it was literally right in front of him.

Never seen anything like that in my life. Puck in front of him, guy in front of him taking puck and taking the shot, and he didn’t even move a muscle. 

[NJDevils1214]

1 hour ago, DevsMan84 said:

In regards to the game, Gillies played alright but not great.  That SHG against was pretty brutal as he had no idea where that puck was even though it was literally right in front of him.

I agree that one was bad. Overall, I am impressed considering I thought a 28 year old ECHL goalie with less than 20 games played in the NHL was going to get lit up nightly, and instead he has given the team a chance to win most nights. I am not sure you can ask a lot more of the guy. The defense should tighten up and the coaching staff have to pivot how the defense plays-- you know it isn't Blackwood or Bernier back there right now. Help the guy out a bit...like by not letting the other team camp out 2 ft from him.

[Nicomo]

1 hour ago, mfitz804 said:

Never seen anything like that in my life. Puck in front of him, guy in front of him taking puck and taking the shot, and he didn’t even move a muscle. 

It looked like someone disconnected his controller. 

[Devil Dan 56]

1 hour ago, DevsMan84 said:

Is the first PP unit better (the second is still trash) because Bastian is on it or because Zacha (and Sharangovich to an extent) taken off of it?  Franky, I do not know but I am not about to chalk up the success to either or.

In regards to the game, Gillies played alright but not great.  That SHG against was pretty brutal as he had no idea where that puck was even though it was literally right in front of him.

I think having Bastian in front of the net does help to an extent but I think the improvement is more because the team has begun moving the puck better and not being as stagnant on the power play.

Bratt and Hughes are really developing a chemistry of knowing where each other is, reminiscent of my Elias and Sykora on the A-Line. It’d be great if Holtz or someone else could fit in with them. 

[DevsMan84]

43 minutes ago, NJDevils1214 said:

I agree that one was bad. Overall, I am impressed considering I thought a 28 year old ECHL goalie with less than 20 games played in the NHL was going to get lit up nightly, and instead he has given the team a chance to win most nights. I am not sure you can ask a lot more of the guy. The defense should tighten up and the coaching staff have to pivot how the defense plays-- you know it isn't Blackwood or Bernier back there right now. Help the guy out a bit...like by not letting the other team camp out 2 ft from him.

Yeah I agree that overall he is not bad given the circumstances.

[DevsMan84]

9 minutes ago, Devil Dan 56 said:

I think having Bastian in front of the net does help to an extent but I think the improvement is more because the team has begun moving the puck better and not being as stagnant on the power play.

Bratt and Hughes are really developing a chemistry of knowing where each other is, reminiscent of my Elias and Sykora on the A-Line. It’d be great if Holtz or someone else could fit in with them. 

That has helped the PP1 unit tremendously.  However, is that due to Sharangovich and especially Zacha being left off of that unit?  Both players, especially Zacha, have been black holes on offense for much of this season and a lot of times they slow down whatever line they are on in 5v5 situations.

Bratt especially drives whatever line he is on.  Not saying that Hughes is a slouch, but he has gotten better with Bratt being on this wing this season.  Now the issue is 1) finding a winger for them to play with (I like Johnsson here as he seems to do the best with those two) and 2) Our offense is concentrated on one line.

[mfitz804]

36 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

It looked like someone disconnected his controller. 

100,000% accurate. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

8 minutes ago, MB3 said:

Doesn’t the existence of several people saying “trading Bratt is too much” and several people saying “trading Bratt is not enough” seem to point to a relatively reasonably even trade? 

I don’t know if florida would do it, but them “already having a great team” certainly wouldn’t be the reason not to. The teams that get somewhere in the playoffs almost always add a piece or two at the deadline, and Florida has had way too many one-and-dones lately. Bob is signed there with an unmovable contract for another 6 years, and Spencer Knight will be due a bridge deal soon — one that I’m not so sure Florida will be able to afford and stay under the cap.

You can’t be out here paying 13.5-14m for two goalies and have a reasonably competitive ice hockey team. With Huberdeau a year and a half from unrestricted free agency, and huge money guaranteed to Barkov, Reinhardt, Ekblad, and Bobrovski, I think a young elite forward with RFA rights makes a whole lot of sense for florida.

And I’m going to keep talking about it, @CR1976, whether or not you think it’s pointless. It’s a devils discussion forum and the team stinks. 

I didn't say "Don't you or anyone else dare talk about it!"  I was part of that conversation too for a while.  Just don't think that this has any chance of happening, for reasons stated previously stated.