2023 Training Camp thread

[MadDog2020]

 

[MadDog2020]

 

[vincois]

On 9/21/2023 at 12:53 PM, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Devils won't have to worry about this for a couple more seasons; the cap is supposed to be going up, FWIW.  And Holtz remains far from a sure thing at the moment...he may not even be a major factor.  

That being said, all Fitz can do is what he's done so far:  sell the kids on the vision, the state of NJ itself, and taking less money for the greater good.  But yeah eventually tough decisions have to be made in time.

I get the feeling that Fitz is more of a "Put the best team on the ice, worry about contract situations later, I'll figure it out" guy...meaning that if Nemec forces himself into the picture this season because he makes the Devils better, he'll be up with the big club.

I suspect Hamilton and Palat won't be here through the end of their contracts.  That's a lot of room that can be freed up down the line.  

Isn't this an "opportunity" to sign Holtz to a decent term at a lower price now? rather than letting him figure this NHL thing out. None of us are suggesting he'll "explode" this year. Hopefully show he can contribute. But if he became a trade candidate,  and signed to a team friendly contract, win-win eh?

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

12 minutes ago, vincois said:

Isn't this an "opportunity" to sign Holtz to a decent term at a lower price now? rather than letting him figure this NHL thing out. None of us are suggesting he'll "explode" this year. Hopefully show he can contribute. But if he became a trade candidate,  and signed to a team friendly contract, win-win eh?

Holtz is only in the second year of his ELC.  He won’t be eligible until sometime this offseason to be extended.

[MadDog2020]

https://newjerseyhockeynow.com/2023/09/23/3-takeaways-from-devils-scrimmage-on-day-3-of-training-camp/?fbclid=IwAR3orgc-wv8gaOz2D4wGUtdjB-0r7u5vQKGb-2ASD5hRTWZDH88WCEcp91M_aem_AU4DRQF68iRYsgFNLYVQbWcAxrF9ftUvOI7jUa_WgRQ8Dsc_lGQMvbo6zynN5qwj2e0

[RizzMB30]

2 hours ago, MadDog2020 said:

 

I think Hughes and Bratt might explode for 100 points this year. 

Apparently Palat has caught some eyes as looking to have regained a step. Thank jeebus back to form since the injury. 

New fourth line combo sounds annoying to play against, Nosek-McLeod-Lazar and it sounds like Lindy really likes Bratt-Hughes-Toffoli. 

That leaves Meier-Hischier-Holtz or Mercer if Holtz doesn't stick. 

[RunninWithTheDevil]

 

 

[RunninWithTheDevil]

 

 

[moustic]

 

[devlman]

Holtz is scoring 20 this year. 25 if he gets top 6 minutes. Bank it!

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

17 minutes ago, devlman said:

Holtz is scoring 20 this year. 25 if he gets top 6 minutes. Bank it!

Even if he doesn't quite hit those numbers, if he plays like a legit NHLer (he hasn't really done that yet, in prior call-ups) and spends most of this season with the big club, shows that he really is quicker, and improves and gets more comfortable as the season goes on, I'll take it.

I had 2024-25 targeted as the "OK kid, you pretty much have a spot locked up, no more stopgaps ahead of you, now show us whatcha got!" season.  If he does enough to stick with the big club for 65+ games where you can see that it's coming together (even if he's still a little raw), given how last year went, I'd consider that a serious win for him and the Devils.

Edited September 25 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[devlman]

46 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Even if he doesn't quite hit those numbers, if he plays like a legit NHLer (he hasn't really done that yet, in prior call-ups) and spends most of this season with the big club, shows that he really is quicker, and improves and gets more comfortable as the season goes on, I'll take it.

I had 2024-25 targeted as the "OK kid, you pretty much have a spot locked up, no more stopgaps ahead of you, now show us whatcha got!" season.  If he does enough to stick with the big club for 65+ games where you can see that it's coming together (even if he's still a little raw), given how last year went, I'd consider that a serious win for him and the Devils.

Won’t disagree with you there. I honestly think if we were not a playoff-bound team last year and that he got actual playing time that he would’ve made a case for 15-20 goals. Now, if he can stick on an elite club stacked with talent then for sure that’s a huge step. 

[RizzMB30]

8 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Even if he doesn't quite hit those numbers, if he plays like a legit NHLer (he hasn't really done that yet, in prior call-ups) and spends most of this season with the big club, shows that he really is quicker, and improves and gets more comfortable as the season goes on, I'll take it.

I had 2024-25 targeted as the "OK kid, you pretty much have a spot locked up, no more stopgaps ahead of you, now show us whatcha got!" season.  If he does enough to stick with the big club for 65+ games where you can see that it's coming together (even if he's still a little raw), given how last year went, I'd consider that a serious win for him and the Devils.

It's a great problem to have, too many good young players that you simply can't pay them all.

I wonder at what point Fitz would start asking for 2030-2032 draft picks. Load up for the possible lean years if some of these 8 year deals don't resign or we need to move on to a different core by that time.

In all seriousness though, I think GMs can move or play with draft picks up to five years into the future, but if we are this good, this young, I think it would be ballsy to start asking for draft picks that far out so you can essentially sell those off for later draft picks if you are still good and don't need to use them.

Like take a Mercer or a Holtz, young player who needs a contract and you may not be able to afford depending on the steps they take in the next year or two. Demand high round draft picks for 5 years from now as we don't need any further depth really or have glaring holes that need filled imo. Even our goaltending that is viewed as the weak link I think has a pretty interesting pool of prospects that may surprise us young. That goalie pipelines takes sooo long to develop that you never know what you have really.

I think Fitzy may have even gone a little overboard with depth this year. Just not enough spots and Fitz may not be afraid to expose a lot to waivers.  

Edited September 26 by RizzMB30

[RizzMB30]

I'm guessing there was no video feed/highlights from the Philly game? We must have played their B squad. 6-0. 

[Lateralous]

2 hours ago, RizzMB30 said:

It's a great problem to have, too many good young players that you simply can't pay them all.

I wonder at what point Fitz would start asking for 2030-2032 draft picks. Load up for the possible lean years if some of these 8 year deals don't resign or we need to move on to a different core by that time.

In all seriousness though, I think GMs can move or play with draft picks up to five years into the future, but if we are this good, this young, I think it would be ballsy to start asking for draft picks that far out so you can essentially sell those off for later draft picks if you are still good and don't need to use them.
 

Ha, you know Fitz has us in a good position if we’re taking about trading off extras for picks 5 years from now to sustain a run we’ve only kinda started.

That being said, I like where your head is at on this.   Without doing any research, I think you can only trade future draft picks out 3 years but this absolutely would be a super interesting  move.  Imagine trading a guy like Seamus Casey, if he gets blocked from having a roster spot available to him, for a 1st three years out to some desperate GM.   GMs always think they’re the smartest people in the room and never think they’re going to suck 3 years from now.   As long as you didn’t let them do anything more than a top 2 or 3 protection, you could end up with a Bowen Byram situation right about when the team starts hemorrhaging  depth due to cap constraints and needs cheap talent the most.

For clarity, the Byram’s #4 overall pick for the Avs is what they got in that Turris/Duchesne deal when the Sens were coming off an ECF appearance and assumed they were giving up a late 1st.  I think it was only 2 years later Ottawa was praying they weren’t giving up Jack Hughes 

Edited September 26 by Lateralous

[Nicomo]

 

[DM23]

8 hours ago, RizzMB30 said:

I'm guessing there was no video feed/highlights from the Philly game? We must have played their B squad. 6-0. 

[NJDevils1214]

16 hours ago, Nicomo said:

 

1 hour and 35 min mark it starts.

Edited September 26 by NJDevils1214

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

1 hour ago, NJDevils1214 said:

1 hour and 35 min mark it starts.

Pretty good stuff…interview isn’t recent. It was done after Bratt had signed, but before Timo signed his deal…so basically mid-late June was when this was taped.

I’ve heard Nico speak through the seasons of course, but never for this long…his English is definitely pretty good, but his accent is on the heavy side.  Always cool to see other sides to these guys.

[NJDevils1214]

20 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Pretty good stuff…interview isn’t recent. It was done after Bratt had signed, but before Timo signed his deal…so basically mid-late June was when this was taped.

I’ve heard Nico speak through the seasons of course, but never for this long…his English is definitely pretty good, but his accent is on the heavy side.  Always cool to see other sides to these guys.

It was taped the weekend of the NHL awards-- weekend of June 24th.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Rangers banged up a bit already…Zibanejad, Panarin and Chytil all dealing with various ailments.

[RizzMB30]

2 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Rangers banged up a bit already…Zibanejad, Panarin and Chytil all dealing with various ailments.

I heard some of the Chiclets guys (Whit and Biz) were predicting that the Rags might miss playoffs this year if they don't get big contributions from the young duo of Kakko and Lafreniere. If they get hit with a bunch of key injuries such as Shesterkin or to any of those key guys such as Panarin, Zib, or Fox, they could get into some trouble. 

Whit predicted that they might struggle and be a wildcard and are not contenders if Kakko and Laf don't take a step in development this year or if the PP gets off to a rocky start. Biz straight up predicted that they could miss playoffs and regress. Can't wait.

Also re: Chiclets, it was great to see Hischier out of his shell a little bit and it was still nice to hear about Switzerland. I think it was nice that it was in-person. 

Agree that it's a little disappointing that it's so old and not from more recent, but still a welcome surprise to be sure. 

Edited September 27 by RizzMB30

[MadDog2020]

 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

11 minutes ago, MadDog2020 said:

 

Utica's training camp opens very soon...expect a lot more players to be sent there.

The split-squad games were probably the only reason some players got a look at all this preseason...guys needed to fill out rosters.

Obviously the "vets" (hard to believe we're already 5 seasons into Jack's career and 7 years into Nico's and Jesper's) won't play in all of these games, but looking forward to seeing what more "complete" Devils teams will do in the preseason...not that the first two preseason games were anything to bitch about lol...  

 

[Henry Killinger]

On 9/24/2023 at 5:07 PM, moustic said:

 

Nemec got quite the job bump...