What to do with #2?

[EdgeControl]

22 hours ago, Chuck the Duck said:

I agree with this 100%.  Take the best player available regardless of position or make a trade down to compile additional assets.  

 That said, if all things are equal, you have to take Slaf.  His projection is exactly what this team needs in its top 6 and he will (hopefully) open up space for Jack by being that net driving presence his line lacks.

i tend to bias towards the better skater and stick handler, is the slav is more of a natural born scorer then no doubt thats what we need at wing.

[xxchaznjxx]

10 hours ago, nessus said:

2 assists for Slafkovsky in the 4-2 Slovakia win over France at the World Championship. He was involved on the third Slovakia goal as well, but didn't record a point on that one. Nemec had an assist on that goal.

This guy better slow down before Montreal considers taking him.

On another note, there's really nothing wrong with being a late riser. For Slafkovsky, it isn't just the Olympics that elevated his draft stock. He started producing more toward the end of the season. And now he continues to look good at the WC. It isn't quite as small of a sample size as many think. Jack Quinn is a recent late riser, and he's looking like an excellent pick so far. 

I read on another board that MTL is desperate for a top line center and with no center prospects in their farm I would hope they still take Wright first.  Slafkovsky would fit in nicely here.

I wonder what the Devils would do if Slafkovsky was picked first?  You can always use talent like Wright and Cooley but the Devils have bigger needs elsewhere.

[Lateralous]

1 hour ago, xxchaznjxx said:

I read on another board that MTL is desperate for a top line center and with no center prospects in their farm I would hope they still take Wright first.  Slafkovsky would fit in nicely here.

I wonder what the Devils would do if Slafkovsky was picked first?  You can always use talent like Wright and Cooley but the Devils have bigger needs elsewhere.

I’m normally not for trading down but Fitz ought to be putting it out there that if Wright falls, we’re taking him.  Then maybe we can pry something good from someone like Arizona to let them grab the big C and we can drop and take one of the RHD 

[Crisis]

Slafkovsky is playing right now in the game against Germany and this kid is a lot of fun to watch.  His ability to protect the puck is just absolutely incredible.  It seems like Germany is matching Seider up against him and Slaf is just pushing Seider away.  His hands and reach are impressive too.  He's able to feather passes around defenders while they are draped over him.

[devlman]

I hope Montreal doesn’t get any ideas about taking Slaf. The way his stock is skyrocketing, he is approaching first overall territory. We definitely cannot trade this pick away.

Edited May 14, 2022 by devlman

[Nicomo]

9 minutes ago, devlman said:

I hope Montreal doesn’t get any ideas about taking Slaf. The way his stock is skyrocketing, he is approaching first overall territory. We definitely cannot trade this pick away.

If they do we take Wright and don’t think twice about it. 

[devlman]

1 minute ago, Nicomo said:

If they do we take Wright and don’t think twice about it. 

Absolutely. He can be a winger of the future. I am just believing more and more that Slaf is the higher ceiling player and hope he is our pick.

[Nicomo]

2 minutes ago, devlman said:

Absolutely. He can be a winger of the future. I am just believing more and more that Slaf is the higher ceiling player and hope he is our pick.

I think he will be. I see some people freaking out about the Habs GM being in attendance for a 2nd straight Slovakia game, but I just can’t see them passing on Wright. 

[jagknife]

5 hours ago, xxchaznjxx said:

I read on another board that MTL is desperate for a top line center and with no center prospects in their farm I would hope they still take Wright first.  Slafkovsky would fit in nicely here.

I wonder what the Devils would do if Slafkovsky was picked first?  You can always use talent like Wright and Cooley but the Devils have bigger needs elsewhere.

I see a lot of posts saying Arizona should be the trade partner, but I think the Devils should leverage the Kraken into the bidding war, if at all possible. I'm not clamouring for any Kraken, don't get me wrong, but they have #4 and a pressing need for a center, and it getting out Fitz is talking to them could make the Yotes get real active real quick

[pumpkin cutter]

34 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

If they do we take Wright and don’t think twice about it. 

exactly. if we get wright then we stole the draft. * i have no clue about any draftees.

[SterioDesign]

How does.... comparing a healthy vezina / conn smyth winner to a 3rd string goalie only in net because 2 other goalies got injured (one of them actually having better stats than Vasilevskiy)... proves that a team should trade their 2nd overall pick for a potential goalie superstar? lol

If anything our "potential superstar" might be one of the injured ones from that specific scenario you used. Now what? haha

[Guadana]

5 hours ago, MB3 said:

If anyone is still debating whether or not it’s worth it trading 2OA for a potential superstar goalie, look at the difference between a stud goalie (Vasi) basically winning the series for his team, and then look at a trash heap goalie (Dominge) quite literally losing the series for his team. 

All of these exciting young players don’t mean a fvcking thing if we continue to trot out AHL goaltending. 

Devils hardly need in real goalie. We just can't trade our 2nd pick for that goalie. 

 

What we should do is drafting goalies from mhl every year. If we will not drafting goalies from mhl, we will never have our own "***vskiy or ***kin". Its a funny situation  where every team in metro have their own regular goalie or prospect or backup from Russia, but Devils don't. And who is a worst goalie team and the last team in metro? 

This is how Devils could have vezina level goalie for free. The only way. But I don't think they will. Because if they did have a goalie scout in MHL, we would already have at least one goalie prospect from there. 

Edited May 15, 2022 by Guadana

[EdgeControl]

On 5/13/2022 at 11:04 PM, nessus said:

2 assists for Slafkovsky in the 4-2 Slovakia win over France at the World Championship. He was involved on the third Slovakia goal as well, but didn't record a point on that one. Nemec had an assist on that goal.

oh 'mon Nessus, ITS FRANCE!!!! ha ha

 

on that same note did anyone else here the NHLN announcers say,

no fans travel better than the Latvian hockey fans.. lmao

Edited May 15, 2022 by EdgeControl

[SterioDesign]

5 hours ago, Guadana said:

Devils hardly need in real goalie. We just can't trade our 2nd pick for that goalie. 

 

What we should do is drafting goalies from mhl every year. If we will not drafting goalies from mhl, we will never have our own "***vskiy or ***kin". Its a funny situation  where every team in metro have their own regular goalie or prospect or backup from Russia, but Devils don't. And who is a worst goalie team and the last team in metro? 

This is how Devils could have vezina level goalie for free. The only way. But I don't think they will. Because if they did have a goalie scout in MHL, we would already have at least one goalie prospect from there. 

Shesterkin wasn't even the first goalie picked in his draft class. I think he was like 4th. Plus he wasn't even the first goalie picked by the Rangers that year lol they picked 2 and he was the 2nd one. And he only made his NHL debut at like 25 years old. 

For all we know Nico Daws could be just as good as he is when he's that age too, who fvcking knows lol

The 3 vezina nominees this year has been picked.... 118th, 31th and 99th in their draft... it's really all over the place

Edited May 15, 2022 by SterioDesign

[Nicomo]

30 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

Shesterkin wasn't even the first goalie picked in his draft class. I think he was like 4th. Plus he wasn't even the first goalie picked by the Rangers that year lol they picked 2 and he was the 2nd one. And he only made his NHL debut at like 25 years old. 

For all we know Nico Daws could be just as good as he is when he's that age too, who fvcking knows lol

The 3 vezina nominees this year has been picked.... 118th, 31th and 99th in their draft... it's really all over the place

Right, but I think Guadana has a point that the 2 best goalies in the world right now are both Russians. It doesn’t sound like he’s suggesting we burn premium picks to do it, but using at least one mid-late rounder every year on a Russian goalie isn’t a bad idea. They do seem to develop a lot of high end prospects at the position. Besides the 2 Vezina finalists this year there’s also Bobrovsky, Samsonov, Sorokin, and Askarov. 

Edited May 15, 2022 by Nicomo

[SterioDesign]

1 hour ago, Nicomo said:

Right, but I think Guadana has a point that the 2 best goalies in the world right now are both Russians. It doesn’t sound like he’s suggesting we burn premium picks to do it, but using at least one mid-late rounder every year on a Russian goalie isn’t a bad idea. They do seem to develop a lot of high end prospects at the position. Besides the 2 Vezina finalists this year there’s also Bobrovsky, Samsonov, Sorokin, and Askarov. 

its weird how that goes. for a bit it was canada... for a bit it was the US... now its russia

Askarov looked like a stud but man, every time i saw him play in the last few years he truly sh!t the bed hard 

Edited May 15, 2022 by SterioDesign

[mfitz804]

I like th concept of just drafting a Russian goalie every year until we hit. 

[EdgeControl]

theres only 1 goalie im giving the 2nd pick for and tampa aint doing that

[mfitz804]

I still have to believe that this didn’t happen by accident. I think a decision was made that we were not going to be competitive and using a bunch of AHL goalies for the bulk of the season was a manifestation of that. 

I can’t honestly believe that anyone expected us to be competitive by doing that. This had to be a plan or simply just giving up. 

One of the main reasons I would like Fitz gone. 

[SterioDesign]

17 minutes ago, MB3 said:

If your plan is “randomly draft a russian dude every season and hope he becomes a vezina finalist lmao” you don’t have a fvcking plan. If your plan is “haha maybe Nico Dawes will be as good as Vasilevski haha” you don’t have a fvcking plan. 

Goaltending is the reason this Devils team was uncompetitive this year. Not defense. Certainly not offense. Not even special teams. 

The Devils were a good goalie away from giving us an entertaining season. Next year, they will be a good goalie away again if it isn’t addressed. Buy one, trade for one, overpay for one, I don’t give a fvck. But please for the love of fvck don’t tell me that the best way to address the goalie situation is “draft a russian and wait until one is good.” The window for this team should be opening *now*, and the goaltending position is what’s stopping them from being competitive.

Dude why is it that it feels like you're completely disregarding that both our goalies missed almost the entire season because of injuries

You're legit talking like we started the season with Gillies and Daws as our starters and that obviously it wasn't enough lol

You used Pittsburgh as an example of what "a poor goalie will do to your success" to justify trading a 2nd overall pick for a potential goalie star and using Vasilevskiy as an example of what good goaltending can do. What do you think would have happened if the Pens goalies would have been healthy and that vasilevkiy and Elliot went down in Tampa? Honestly. You think they'd win the series?

The way Pittsburgh is a good example for us is that both their goalies got injured and they had to rely in their 3rd goalie. 

How many NHL teams do you think would remain competitive if you just take out their top 2 goalies for an entire season?

 

 

Edited May 15, 2022 by SterioDesign

[mfitz804]

22 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

Dude why is it that it feels like you're completely disregarding that both our goalies missed almost the entire season because of injuries

You're legit talking like we started the season with Gillies and Daws as our starters and that obviously it wasn't enough lol

That’s what most people have been doing. We had 3 “legit” NHL goalies; one was Wedgewood and was put on waivers, and the other two were injured from day one and nobody wants to recognize that because it doesn’t fit the narrative. And while they were playing injured, we were getting league-worst defense and league-worst offense. But all anyone wants to say is Blackwood was the problem (mostly because they were pissed about the vax thing), and nobody ever mentions Bernier at all, like he was never here. 

Then we had 2-3 absolute disasters (maybe too harsh to put Schmid in that category, maybe not), and then Daws, who may be good someday but nobody thinks was NHL ready.  
 

Do we still need an NHL goalie? Probably, because I’m not expecting much from Bernier. 

[MadDog2020]

https://thehockeywriters.com/devils-offensive-upgrades-keeping-2022-2nd-overall-pick/?fbclid=IwAR0A2UxHRoqXoShOTljR0A4g6TFIiZBi8GRxaVTwZ6xdTF9fzq2xb0T13bo

4 minutes ago, MB3 said:

If there is a goalie who’s value is commensurate with 2OA

There isn’t. The goalies that anyone would actually trade that pick for won’t be available.

Edited May 15, 2022 by MadDog2020

[mfitz804]

6 minutes ago, MB3 said:

The Devils need a goalie a lot, lot, lot more than they need a winger. If there is a goalie who’s value is commensurate with 2OA it is a disservice to 13, 86 and every single one of us if that avenue isn’t explored to the fullest. 

I don’t disagree that we need a goalie going forward. In addition to everything else, Blackwood was never given any time to develop, he was immediately thrust into a starting goalie role that he wasn’t ready for. On a very bad team. 

The 2OA, I am definitely in favor of not trading it. If the Panthers offered us Knight plus something for 2OA, I might think about it. 

[Devil Dan 56]

41 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

That’s what most people have been doing. We had 3 “legit” NHL goalies; one was Wedgewood and was put on waivers, and the other two were injured from day one and nobody wants to recognize that because it doesn’t fit the narrative. And while they were playing injured, we were getting league-worst defense and league-worst offense. But all anyone wants to say is Blackwood was the problem (mostly because they were pissed about the vax thing), and nobody ever mentions Bernier at all, like he was never here. 

Then we had 2-3 absolute disasters (maybe too harsh to put Schmid in that category, maybe not), and then Daws, who may be good someday but nobody thinks was NHL ready.  
 

Do we still need an NHL goalie? Probably, because I’m not expecting much from Bernier. 

The problem isn’t that we didn’t have 3 legit goalies. It was that we lost one to waivers and 2 to injury and Fitz punted the season. Bernier had the teams best save percentage but he’s very iffy to ever be the same. I agree that we haven’t seen all of Blackwood yet. Fitz needs to go out and get something to help Blackwood and if we end up with Blackwood, a mystery 1B, and Bernier then we can figure out what to do with too many NHL goalies. I’d be fine with that problem as opposed to dealing with which chucklehead will give up 6 goals tonight.

Nas being gone immediately helps the defense in my eyes. There’s a hole at right defense with PK leaving. As hated as he is, he was better than Jaros or Walsh or whatever. Graves and Seigenthaler are serviceable on the left until Luke is ready. I liked Okhotiuk. Smith scares the bejesus outta me.  

Personally I think Fitz should look into Raanta. He has 2 years left and Carolina seems set with Andersen and that Russian kid. Maybe they would take a not too expensive package for the cap relief. 

[mfitz804]

4 minutes ago, Devil Dan 56 said:

The problem isn’t that we didn’t have 3 legit goalies. It was that we lost one to waivers and 2 to injury and Fitz punted the season.

Which was exactly the point of my prior post. 

1 hour ago, mfitz804 said:

I still have to believe that this didn’t happen by accident. I think a decision was made that we were not going to be competitive and using a bunch of AHL goalies for the bulk of the season was a manifestation of that. 

I can’t honestly believe that anyone expected us to be competitive by doing that. This had to be a plan or simply just giving up. 

One of the main reasons I would like Fitz gone.