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2023-2024 Around The League thread


MadDog2020

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1 hour ago, Devil Dan 56 said:

Fitz learned everything from Shero and it shows. Both suffer from a paralyzing fear of making a decision. Just the handling of the goaltending alone is insane going back to losing Wedgewood on waivers. Then coming into this year with Vanecek and Schmid, the only reinforcements he signed were Kinkaid and Kallgren?? 

Now he’s had 8 million in free cap space that he’s sitting on while the team spiraled. It’s too late now. Meanwhile as shady as the whole Vegas and Mark Stone thing is, look how they use that extra space. 

At least Fitz got that cool Nashville jersey out of this season 

One key difference is that Shero never really got a second chance to fix things; Fitz is clearly going to.

This season has been so bizarre that I think it's one of those seasons that will be brought up from time to time, in the years to come here...because we'll be forever trying to make SOME sense out of what we've seen.  It's now been discussed to death, and since it's all we got until we see what Fitz's actual recovery plan is, he'll continue to be ripped in most circles, but I don't think we'll ever get a grasp on how he just let the 2023-24 season slip away through his silent fingers, while appearing to show so little fight in trying to save it.  Especially since being bold and aggressive had been so much of a part of his MO prior to this year.

Anyway, the question that can't fully be answered until next season:  did Fitz learn anything from all of this?  Is he willing to make adjustments to his ways of thinking and doing things?  I'd like to believe that he will, and I know that many don't, but we won't really begin to know until offseason is in full swing...and until the next time a season is in peril, but still salvageable.  

Edited by Colorado Rockies 1976
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1 hour ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

This season has been so bizarre that I think it's one of those seasons that will be brought up from time to time, in the years to come here...because we'll be forever trying to make SOME sense out of what we've seen.  It's now been discussed to death, and since it's all we got until we see what Fitz's actual recovery plan is, he'll continue to be ripped in most circles, but I don't think we'll ever get a grasp on how he just let the 2023-24 season slip away through his silent fingers, while appearing to show so little fight in trying to save it.  Especially since being bold and aggressive had been so much of a part of his MO prior to this year.

When you add in the Canadian Junior scandal and having TWO players be charged, this season really has been probably one of the oddest things I've witnessed as a sports fan.  I mean, I follow U of Miami football, so I'm used to seeing teams underperform expectations by a mile and I'm kind of numb to it at this point but the entire '23-'24 New Jersey Devils season just has the most surreal "WTF just happened?" feel to it.     

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12 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

Please get a good return for Toffoli to make this worth it. 

If we can get a 1st for Toffoli, this actually will have worked out for us.  When we thought we were stacked for this season, Sharangovich basically got squeezed out of the lineup.  Hell, he was rightfully a healthy scratch for much of the Rangers series.  Punting a 24 year old that was pushed out of the lineup for a future 1st is good asset management, even if we took the scenic route,   

Edited by Lateralous
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The Guentzel return is very underwhelming (basically a second round pick, a fifth round pick, a cap dump (albeit one that Dubas probably values more than most given their prior relationship in TOR), and a couple of middling prospects) and suggests that TT return will be also. It’d be a shocker if Fitz got what was reported earlier. 
 

And a Ty Smith sighting lol. 

Edited by smelly
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1 hour ago, smelly said:

The Guentzel return is very underwhelming (basically a second round pick, a fifth round pick, a cap dump (albeit one that Dubas probably values more than most given their prior relationship in TOR), and a couple of middling prospects) and suggests that TT return will be also. It’d be a shocker if Fitz got what was reported earlier. 
 

And a Ty Smith sighting lol. 

Cruz and Koi just became the best 2 prospects the pens have. Bunting isn't necessarily a cap dump for them, yes there's a relationship, his cap hit and his "projected" point total are pretty in line. Also he fills a dire need for them. Ultimately Guentzel isn't resigning so it's better to get something for nothing. 

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2 hours ago, Nicomo said:

Apparently our old buddy Ty Smith was part of the Guentzel trade. 


Honestly, I can't believe Dubas moved this player. He's such a key part of that team and you got Michael Bunting. Dubas is worse than Lou with familiar faces. 

Bunting is good and he can play with Crosby sure, but I think Carolina wins this trade. They already had a scary lineup, but this makes their top 9 Dallas good. 

Guentzel is just the kind of player that you lock up and this is why. The return is a rebuild return so unless Dubas is flipping that 1st for help elsewhere it doesn't look good to me personally. 

Edited by RizzMB30
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10 hours ago, Lateralous said:

If we can get a 1st for Toffoli, this actually will have worked out for us.  When we thought we were stacked for this season, Sharangovich basically got squeezed out of the lineup.  Hell, he was rightfully a healthy scratch for much of the Rangers series.  Punting a 24 year old that was pushed out of the lineup for a future 1st is good asset management, even if we took the scenic route,   

Also he’s now shooting 18.8% this season.  This might wind up being a career year for him.

At the time the deal was made, the Devils traded a guy who had scored 3 goals over his final 41 games (and simply seemed to be finished here) for a solid vet who was coming off a 34-goal season and came here and scored as well.  The trade made plenty of sense at the time and if not for a lot of things going wrong, Toffoli would’ve been sure to remain here for a playoff run.

Edited by Colorado Rockies 1976
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Sorry if this has already been posted,  but this really cracked me up. If he can't get a coaching job he probably has a role as a comedy side kick in a sitcom as a fallback option.

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