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Your New Jersey Devils Regular Season Thread: 2022-2023 Edition


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On 11/14/2022 at 2:12 PM, mfitz804 said:

That is a better question, and somewhat more ponderous. Granted, I don't pay a lot of attention to other teams and had no idea who John Marino was when we traded for him, but if he played like this for them, one has to wonder why they would prefer a much older and more expensive Petry. 

Petry currently has two more goals and two fewer assists than Marino, with both sitting at 7 points. 

They may have the same points, but Marino has been great on D.  I’m not sure how Petry is on D.

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Devils snag their 14th win last night, on 11/17.

Last year’s 14th win came on 1/6.

Well done boys…well done indeed!

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4 minutes ago, Nicomo said:
I mean, it kind of seems like it’s the Devils, Bruins, Golden Knights, and then everyone else right now. What a time. 

I guess if there's any questions to be asked (other than "can they stay healthy enough?")...it's

Can VV keep this up, especially if the backup situation winds up being muddled?  He's never had to make 50+ starts in any given season.  Doesn't mean that he CAN'T, we just don't know yet.

Is Marino really THIS good?  If so, why in hell did Pittsburgh effectively swap him out for Petry?!

Can Tatar and Zetterlund continue to make Palat and Holtz largely irrelevant?

 

I'm not doubting this team at all...I love what I'm seeing and I think they're legit and even when this streak ends, I don't see some major slump ever coming...I absolutely believe that this team can win as many games in the first half as they did all of last season.  They are fun to watch and it's just as fun watching teams having to fight for everything that they get against them.  Can't feel any better about them than I already do.

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Won't ever complain about reading articles like this:

Why the New Jersey Devils are dominating the NHL (espn.com)

 

Also looking forward to when Ranger fans start chirping:

"Duuuuuh, yeah, it's real easy when ya got high drafts picks to work wit!"

Us:  "Right...speaking of which, don't you have a 1OA and 2OA pick in your lineup?  How are they working out for ya?"

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

Is Marino really THIS good?  If so, why in hell did Pittsburgh effectively swap him out for Petry?!

The Caps traded away one of the best defensive defensemen in the league in Siegenthaler for a 3rd round pick. Sometimes teams just do really dumb things. 

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25 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

The Caps traded away one of the best defensive defensemen in the league in Siegenthaler for a 3rd round pick. Sometimes teams just do really dumb things. 

Oh for sure.  Or on the flip side, looking at it from Fitz's angle, you can say he made two really brilliant, "Did my homework" deals. 

Obviously it's been brought up a ton, but Fitz basically swapped (2) third-rounders and Ty Smith for Siegs AND Marino.  And combined the two of them COMBINED are making $1.2 million less than Hamilton.    

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58 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Can VV keep this up, especially if the backup situation winds up being muddled?  He's never had to make 50+ starts in any given season.  Doesn't mean that he CAN'T, we just don't know yet.

VV has never even started 40 games. I assume he will have to give up some games to someone at some point. 

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1 hour ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Oh for sure.  Or on the flip side, looking at it from Fitz's angle, you can say he made two really brilliant, "Did my homework" deals. 

Obviously it's been brought up a ton, but Fitz basically swapped (2) third-rounders and Ty Smith for Siegs AND Marino.  And combined the two of them COMBINED are making $1.2 million less than Hamilton.    

It can't be stated enough how good of a job Fitz has done building this team.    Two more 2nds, a third and maltsev for Ryan Graves and VV doesn't look too bad either, especially when you consider the one 2nd rounder in the Graves trade was pick 61.   

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19 minutes ago, Lateralous said:

It can't be stated enough how good of a job Fitz has done building this team.    Two more 2nds, a third and maltsev for Ryan Graves and VV doesn't look too bad either, especially when you consider the one 2nd rounder in the Graves trade was pick 61.   

Speaking of Graves, I'd be on board with him coming back on a three or four year deal at reasonable AAV and term...but if he's looking for a big UFA payday, I can't accommodate him.

2 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

Fitz actually fixed the defense. Something Shero neglected to do for years. 

In fairness, the Devils weren't ready to make a big splash just yet (like they did for Hamilton).  But you can definitely say that Shero failed to land anyone who really moved the train forward; Fitz gets Marino and Siegs for not much and they turn out to be key players, Shero lands Mueller and PK and drafts Ty and...well, like so many of Shero's other acquisitons here, they simply don't work out.  

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Just now, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Speaking of Graves, I'd be on board with him coming back on a three or four year deal at reasonable AAV and term...but if he's looking for a big UFA payday, I can't accommodate him.

I am assuming we have two open spots next year (Severson and Smith), and those will be filled by Hughes and Nemec with any luck. We could actually give Graves a decent raise to retain him, but I don't think he gets a huge payday. Currently at $3.1m a season, I could see him getting high $4m's or $5m. He is good, but I wouldn't say he's elite and he should be paid accordingly. 

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2 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

I am assuming we have two open spots next year (Severson and Smith), and those will be filled by Hughes and Nemec with any luck. We could actually give Graves a decent raise to retain him, but I don't think he gets a huge payday. Currently at $3.1m a season, I could see him getting high $4m's or $5m. He is good, but I wouldn't say he's elite and he should be paid accordingly. 

Same, I have Severson as an absolute "will not be here" next season...there's just no sense in keeping him, given who's currently in the organization (and who soon will be).  Smith is signed through next season, but can easily be bought out or mothballed to Utica if need be.    

Re: Graves, I consider a big pay day for him to be 5+ years at $5.5+ million.  I'd love him back at $4-4.5 million AVV over four years...as long as he continues to be solid, he's a guy who can be moved with a year or two left on his deal.  What's great is that outside of Hamilton's high cost, the Devils don't figure to have to pay any additional big-time money for a defenseman until the 2026-27 season, crazy at that sounds...that's when L Hughes and Nemec's ELCs figure to be done.  Somewhere around $21 million or so total for four reliable and experience defensemen for the next few years...I can sure as hell live with that!

What Graves does is give you tremendous flexibility...you can consider moving a guy like Muk or Bahl to help fill a need elsewhere, should one arise.  You also pretty much know what you're getting with your locked-up defensemen (assuming Graves is re-signed)...nice position to be in, as L Hughes and Nemec (for all their upside) figure to have some growing pains initially.  Now neither one will have to be asked to do too much.  

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12 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

I am assuming we have two open spots next year (Severson and Smith), and those will be filled by Hughes and Nemec with any luck. We could actually give Graves a decent raise to retain him, but I don't think he gets a huge payday. Currently at $3.1m a season, I could see him getting high $4m's or $5m. He is good, but I wouldn't say he's elite and he should be paid accordingly. 

As long as we don't give him a NTC, I can see Graves as a guy we could easily move out in the future if he starts to get squeezed out by younger cheaper guys.  He doesn't seem like that risky of a signing to me.     

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19 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Speaking of Graves, I'd be on board with him coming back on a three or four year deal at reasonable AAV and term...but if he's looking for a big UFA payday, I can't accommodate him.

In fairness, the Devils weren't ready to make a big splash just yet (like they did for Hamilton).  But you can definitely say that Shero failed to land anyone who really moved the train forward; Fitz gets Marino and Siegs for not much and they turn out to be key players, Shero lands Mueller and PK and drafts Ty and...well, like so many of Shero's other acquisitons here, they simply don't work out.  

Shero took Nico over Nolan and didn't lock us into a long term deal with Hall which are really the only things that matter to me from his tenure at this point.   

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1 minute ago, Lateralous said:

As long as we don't give him a NTC, I can see Graves as a guy we could easily move out in the future if he starts to get squeezed out by younger cheaper guys.  He doesn't seem like that risky of a signing to me.     

Yeah that's the thing, really...if some team offers him, say, 5 years at around $6 million AAV with a NTC, then yeah, sorry Ryan, best of luck to you.  

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1 minute ago, Lateralous said:

Shero took Nico over Nolan and didn't lock us into a long term deal with Hall which are really the only things that matter to me from his tenure at this point.   

Yeah I definitely wasn't implying Shero didn't make any good moves, and I've always said that given very limited assets to deal from, he did try to get things done to try to jump-start the rebuild...too many of his moves simply didn't pay off.  But yeah, he obviously picked right in 2017, and we've been over it a bunch, about Hall's current level of production on a long-term deal at what was looking like $10 million AAV would have been an absolute disaster.  He'd be getting destroyed here...everyone would've demanded close to 2017-18 performance, and as we've seen, that was simply a career-year.

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3 minutes ago, mfitz804 said:

Imagine a guy WANTING a NTC to STAY in New Jersey???

Curious to see if Bratt asks for one.  I'm just glad he's not a full-on UFA.  But I've always felt like he was staying...especially when he actually said that he wanted to.  I get that players sometimes say that, but like I've said elsewhere, there's plenty of ways to be a lot more vague ("We'll see what happens after the season, I'm only worried about this year, right now I'm still a Devil and as long as I'm here I'm going to play as hard as I can, etc...").  He actually said his goal is to stay, and that the one-year deal buys everyone more time to work out something term.

Nico and Jack were also re-signed to long-term deals with absolutely NO drama...one day we just heard it was close, and then viola, all done!  I get the feeling it will be the same with Bratt this time around.  Sure hope so.

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1 minute ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

He actually said his goal is to stay, and that the one-year deal buys everyone more time to work out something term.

I will believe it if he signs a long term deal this year. If he winds up on another one year deal, I will assume its part of his exit strategy. 

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15 minutes ago, Lateralous said:

Shero took Nico over Nolan and didn't lock us into a long term deal with Hall which are really the only things that matter to me from his tenure at this point.   

It makes me laugh to think how many people were mad that he "never made Hall an offer". 

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