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2023-2024 Around The League thread


MadDog2020

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1 hour ago, jagknife said:

He got Ruff'ed, badly. Calgary they gave him top line minutes. Ruff said "wow, this kid sucks, he cannot produce with the 4th line." There absolutely is some development that happened, but Ruff never gives rough talent time to mature nor took the time to foster that talent. Get that raw product away from an antiquated coaching staff and look what happens.

I'm obviously as anti-Ruff as it gets, but Sharangovich basically had the same kind of season two years ago that he's having now (his average SOG per game are almost identical).  The main difference is that he's enjoying some nice puck luck this year...he's shooting 17.9, as opposed to the 14.3 rate of 2021-22 (which also happens to be his career rate so far).  I'm not a huge metrics guy, but his xGF and xGA this year are not impressive, considering his goal total.  He also misses the net a LOT; less than half of his shot attempts have turned into SOG.  

Sharangovich can score some, especially on bad teams that have nothing to lose by giving him more minutes (we saw this in 2021-22), but compared to many of his teammates, he sees a LOT of goals go in against his team when he's on the ice.  He's a classic bad-team Top 6er who gives that team's fans someone worth watching, from the standpoint of "Hey, in a good year, this guy might score 30 for us", but like I've pointed out in previous posts, right now as is, he's too flawed to stick on a contender.  If he ever wants to be more than a guy who piles up some goals for also-rans, his needs to improve his overall game considerably.  We'll see if he's able to do that in upcoming seasons...if not, I can see him being a guy who bounces around a lot, scoring 20+ here and there, but a guy who becomes expendable once his team is looking to become more relevant.  He's kind of a like a home run hitter who strikes out a lot and doesn't get on base that much...he can bring a couple of things to the table, but not enough beyond that.  

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Oh and Markstrom is really finishing this season on a whimper...he's put up an .869 save% over his last 9 starts, and his season save% is down to .906.  Over his last four seasons he's put up a .907 save%, 7.8 GSAA, and .536 QS%.  Basically this grades out to about average.  

So sorry Fitz, Markstrom can't be the guy who's tasked with solidifying the Devils' goaltending.  He's been way too all over the place the past four years, and he ain't getting any younger...he's not an acceptable Plan B, and hopefully Fitz won't see him as such. 

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They replaced Sharongovich, Wood, Tatar with guys like Toffoli, Nosek and Tierney. And it showed. The 2023 team was built on speed and transition, and the players Fitz brought in didn’t fit that at all. 

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9 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Oh and Markstrom is really finishing this season on a whimper...he's put up an .869 save% over his last 9 starts, and his season save% is down to .906.  Over his last four seasons he's put up a .907 save%, 7.8 GSAA, and .536 QS%.  Basically this grades out to about average.  

So sorry Fitz, Markstrom can't be the guy who's tasked with solidifying the Devils' goaltending.  He's been way too all over the place the past four years, and he ain't getting any younger...he's not an acceptable Plan B, and hopefully Fitz won't see him as such. 

So essentially it's Soros or bust?

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30 minutes ago, RunninWithTheDevil said:

So essentially it's Soros or bust?

Soros or Ullmark.  Also interested in Askarov.

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2 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

I'm obviously as anti-Ruff as it gets, but Sharangovich basically had the same kind of season two years ago that he's having now (his average SOG per game are almost identical).  The main difference is that he's enjoying some nice puck luck this year...he's shooting 17.9, as opposed to the 14.3 rate of 2021-22 (which also happens to be his career rate so far).  I'm not a huge metrics guy, but his xGF and xGA this year are not impressive, considering his goal total.  He also misses the net a LOT; less than half of his shot attempts have turned into SOG.  

Sharangovich can score some, especially on bad teams that have nothing to lose by giving him more minutes (we saw this in 2021-22), but compared to many of his teammates, he sees a LOT of goals go in against his team when he's on the ice.  He's a classic bad-team Top 6er who gives that team's fans someone worth watching, from the standpoint of "Hey, in a good year, this guy might score 30 for us", but like I've pointed out in previous posts, right now as is, he's too flawed to stick on a contender.  If he ever wants to be more than a guy who piles up some goals for also-rans, his needs to improve his overall game considerably.  We'll see if he's able to do that in upcoming seasons...if not, I can see him being a guy who bounces around a lot, scoring 20+ here and there, but a guy who becomes expendable once his team is looking to become more relevant.  He's kind of a like a home run hitter who strikes out a lot and doesn't get on base that much...he can bring a couple of things to the table, but not enough beyond that.  

Fair points but he's still better than anyone on NJD bottom 6.  W/C capable of playing (when needed) anywhere in the lineup- PP/PK (3shg), versatile, good shot & skater-does need to be better defensively but who on NJD doesn't?  Water under the bridge now but we could use a guy like him on 3rd/4th line.  Struggling defensively because Calgary has him as #1 center which is above where he should be. 

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45 minutes ago, MadDog2020 said:

Saros is the guy. Ullmark is not really a guy I’m interested in.

Saros is definitely my first choice.

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15 minutes ago, ButlerBulldog said:

Especially since it’s likely that Jack and Luke will almost certainly appear or be referenced.

Sounds like it just started so probably no Jack or Luke. Too bad they weren’t filming back in Dec and Jan when the Canucks played the Devils. 

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Posted (edited)
7 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

Sounds like it just started so probably no Jack or Luke. Too bad they weren’t filming back in Dec and Jan when the Canucks played the Devils. 

Jack and Luke will probably be there in Vancouver supporting their brother during the playoffs. Since they aren’t busy this spring themselves 😡

Edited by MadDog2020
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14 hours ago, Nicomo said:

They replaced Sharongovich, Wood, Tatar with guys like Toffoli, Nosek and Tierney. And it showed. The 2023 team was built on speed and transition, and the players Fitz brought in didn’t fit that at all. 

I cannot agree with this any more. Fitz was so good at creating a team identity, but these replacement players were not sufficient to maintain what Fitz had built. It was absolutely one of the many reasons for the regression this season.

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7 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

 

Hope we see a tweet like this about Groan sooner than later.

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