Fitz?

[2ELIAS6]

4 hours ago, woody footbreaker said:

After it was clear Graves, Tatar and Wood wouldnt be back, i waited for appropriate replacements. But none, just depthsignings. Watching the end of last regular season and the playoffs, it sure looked like they run out of gas. Just like this season. Boys really try, but there is just not enough left ... The injuries didnt help and are a fact, not an excuse.

So, very disappointed and a little worried going into te season. After the first games and when injuries started to hit the team, it became clear this team would need help. But no qualityplayers were brought in all season to fix certain holes in the lineup. I think they knew about a potential case coming up for McLeod, another player in this mold: big body, fast ... Anyway they had him on the 4th line to start the season. A guy that had all the tools and qualities you search in a player to play alongside Jack. This was the biggest blow to the devils season imo aside from douggie out and Jack not being at 100%  almost all season. So thats 3 guys missing upfront whit no replacement which led to changes in the system when they finally realized they couldnt play last years system because all of a sudden we simply dont have the personal to do it. This team needs a big body center to play on jacks line, someone that can win puckbattles and play solid defensively, so this line doesnt become a liability, a warrior that can take draws and shield him kinda. We need more warriors on this team and preferably another guy for our bottom 6. Jenner, Bennett, Pinto, Stephenson ... Just throwing names out there that either become UFA or might be available. Look at the Sabres, Yotes, Sens, Philly ... Someone would like to play on a line with Jack and Bratt/Meier i would think. You have to maximize the lines of your two Nr. 1 drafts and provide them with the right players. I dont think Toffoli or Palat should be in the Top 6 of a true contender.

Second priority would be a big physical defenseman that could play top pair minutes. You might have to ship someone like Siegenthaler out. Other teams showed that its possible. Upfront Hertl for Palat would have been a dream haha. As for defense, guys like Rasmus Anderson, Matt Roy, Montour or the Dillons and melons from WPG could be available next summer. Those teams that just loaded up for their playoff run cant sign all their guys, teams still in the rebuild might not be able to bring in all their young talent upfront. There should be plenty of talent out there, but this roster needs work in the offseason.

The last thing I want to hear is our GM stating publicly that he cant force players to sign, he did it twice at least smh. Its like to say, i cant get the job done. There is really something that has to be said about constantly putting yourself in a tough spot, be it for trades (looking very desparate which drives prices up) or just unnecessary statements that potentially come back to bite you. In poker they call it "fish" and everybody (other GMs) wants to play with him ...

From all the action or none-action therefore, i constantly get the feeling that they dont evaluate their players right, same with where the teams stands as of right now and what they truly need. Like whats the true identity of this team and the vision they have to turn this into a serious contender for upcoming years. Maybe after next season with the right pieces in place we have our first real shot, i dunno. I just cant get the feeling, that necessary pieces will be adressed and brought in this summer. The tradedeadline is another missed opportunity, i am just glad he stayed away bringing in Markstrom and resigning Toffoli. Either deal had the potential to get him fired in the end. Money spent on the wrong players and in one case you would even have to sent players/picks to calgary which would be again bad asset management. Sometimes i wonder, if this all is missinformation by our management to hide from their true priorities in players and to drive prices up for other teams, but it sure doesnt look like. In fact, all this looks more like someone desperately trying to save his job then making the right decisions. Speaking about accountability and holding yourself to high standards means also you have to look in the mirror first and be honest with yourself. This season is a complete miss by our GM and they still seem to hold onto their believes that it was just injuries and the team is mostly fine, its definitely not. Like Bizz said on the TNT-pregame show to the LA Game,: "Looking at the devils top 6 aside from Meier, where is the beef, maybe Toffoli nahh ... And Liam just followed up with: Yeah the devils are soft. For them to make such statements should tell you something. To go on a run, we would potentially have to go through the Rangers, Hurricans, Panthers and in the end get one of those heavy teams from the west. Anybody seriously think this team is somewhere close?!?Just look how the successful teams are build.

Its nothing personal, its just from all i have seen this season, i am not convinced that TF is the right guy to get this team back on the right path and i think i really could get worse this summer.

I always try to be positive and i think this season could be a positive in the long run for devils. As they say one step back, to make two ... If that may have helped to identify their true needs, so be it. New contracts for Mercer and other RFAs might come cheaper now, we saved a 1st by not making the playoffs and get to pick higher then expected. Our guys get a longer offseason to diggest this season and get a good rest, get back to work on individual stuff (Gym comes to mind). And finally i dont want to see them crushed by the Rangers or whoever they would play against. Nemec was brought up and got almost a full season under his belt. Not sure why Fitzy goes out and says that wasnt the plan this season. You want to accelerate his developement, the earlier he becomes a force from the backend the better, so we might a have true chance after next season. Good thing the young guns battled through the grind this season has been and all the adversity. They know now what to expect and will be prepaired for the upcoming campaigns and get better with experience. They look promising, no doubt.

I knew this was going to be a long post as the season has piled up some frustrating and more things could be said. its not the time for depthsingings anymore. Need to plant some major flags upfront and on the backend. I bet the guys in net will look a lot better too once they can play again as unit and get defensively sound like last season showed they can. Everything went perfect and nobody should have expected that this season will go just as smooth and that all the young players will take a big step forward simultaniously. So, groundcontrol to major tom ... Please get your head of the clouds and make some hockeytrades to get this team on the path to future success. LGD

 

Welcome, I don’t usually read the long posts but this was a good take, pointed out something I didn’t really have a concern of until I just read it. 

[Satans Hockey]

16 hours ago, woody footbreaker said:

After it was clear Graves, Tatar and Wood wouldnt be back, i waited for appropriate replacements. But none, just depthsignings. Watching the end of last regular season and the playoffs, it sure looked like they run out of gas. Just like this season. Boys really try, but there is just not enough left ... The injuries didnt help and are a fact, not an excuse.

So, very disappointed and a little worried going into te season. After the first games and when injuries started to hit the team, it became clear this team would need help. But no qualityplayers were brought in all season to fix certain holes in the lineup. I think they knew about a potential case coming up for McLeod, another player in this mold: big body, fast ... Anyway they had him on the 4th line to start the season. A guy that had all the tools and qualities you search in a player to play alongside Jack. This was the biggest blow to the devils season imo aside from douggie out and Jack not being at 100%  almost all season. So thats 3 guys missing upfront whit no replacement which led to changes in the system when they finally realized they couldnt play last years system because all of a sudden we simply dont have the personal to do it. This team needs a big body center to play on jacks line, someone that can win puckbattles and play solid defensively, so this line doesnt become a liability, a warrior that can take draws and shield him kinda. We need more warriors on this team and preferably another guy for our bottom 6. Jenner, Bennett, Pinto, Stephenson ... Just throwing names out there that either become UFA or might be available. Look at the Sabres, Yotes, Sens, Philly ... Someone would like to play on a line with Jack and Bratt/Meier i would think. You have to maximize the lines of your two Nr. 1 drafts and provide them with the right players. I dont think Toffoli or Palat should be in the Top 6 of a true contender.

Second priority would be a big physical defenseman that could play top pair minutes. You might have to ship someone like Siegenthaler out. Other teams showed that its possible. Upfront Hertl for Palat would have been a dream haha. As for defense, guys like Rasmus Anderson, Matt Roy, Montour or the Dillons and melons from WPG could be available next summer. Those teams that just loaded up for their playoff run cant sign all their guys, teams still in the rebuild might not be able to bring in all their young talent upfront. There should be plenty of talent out there, but this roster needs work in the offseason.

The last thing I want to hear is our GM stating publicly that he cant force players to sign, he did it twice at least smh. Its like to say, i cant get the job done. There is really something that has to be said about constantly putting yourself in a tough spot, be it for trades (looking very desparate which drives prices up) or just unnecessary statements that potentially come back to bite you. In poker they call it "fish" and everybody (other GMs) wants to play with him ...

From all the action or none-action therefore, i constantly get the feeling that they dont evaluate their players right, same with where the teams stands as of right now and what they truly need. Like whats the true identity of this team and the vision they have to turn this into a serious contender for upcoming years. Maybe after next season with the right pieces in place we have our first real shot, i dunno. I just cant get the feeling, that necessary pieces will be adressed and brought in this summer. The tradedeadline is another missed opportunity, i am just glad he stayed away bringing in Markstrom and resigning Toffoli. Either deal had the potential to get him fired in the end. Money spent on the wrong players and in one case you would even have to sent players/picks to calgary which would be again bad asset management. Sometimes i wonder, if this all is missinformation by our management to hide from their true priorities in players and to drive prices up for other teams, but it sure doesnt look like. In fact, all this looks more like someone desperately trying to save his job then making the right decisions. Speaking about accountability and holding yourself to high standards means also you have to look in the mirror first and be honest with yourself. This season is a complete miss by our GM and they still seem to hold onto their believes that it was just injuries and the team is mostly fine, its definitely not. Like Bizz said on the TNT-pregame show to the LA Game,: "Looking at the devils top 6 aside from Meier, where is the beef, maybe Toffoli nahh ... And Liam just followed up with: Yeah the devils are soft. For them to make such statements should tell you something. To go on a run, we would potentially have to go through the Rangers, Hurricans, Panthers and in the end get one of those heavy teams from the west. Anybody seriously think this team is somewhere close?!?Just look how the successful teams are build.

Its nothing personal, its just from all i have seen this season, i am not convinced that TF is the right guy to get this team back on the right path and i think i really could get worse this summer.

I always try to be positive and i think this season could be a positive in the long run for devils. As they say one step back, to make two ... If that may have helped to identify their true needs, so be it. New contracts for Mercer and other RFAs might come cheaper now, we saved a 1st by not making the playoffs and get to pick higher then expected. Our guys get a longer offseason to diggest this season and get a good rest, get back to work on individual stuff (Gym comes to mind). And finally i dont want to see them crushed by the Rangers or whoever they would play against. Nemec was brought up and got almost a full season under his belt. Not sure why Fitzy goes out and says that wasnt the plan this season. You want to accelerate his developement, the earlier he becomes a force from the backend the better, so we might a have true chance after next season. Good thing the young guns battled through the grind this season has been and all the adversity. They know now what to expect and will be prepaired for the upcoming campaigns and get better with experience. They look promising, no doubt.

I knew this was going to be a long post as the season has piled up some frustrating and more things could be said. its not the time for depthsingings anymore. Need to plant some major flags upfront and on the backend. I bet the guys in net will look a lot better too once they can play again as unit and get defensively sound like last season showed they can. Everything went perfect and nobody should have expected that this season will go just as smooth and that all the young players will take a big step forward simultaniously. So, groundcontrol to major tom ... Please get your head of the clouds and make some hockeytrades to get this team on the path to future success. LGD

 

I agree with a lot of this except for McLeod being that big of a loss. A loss? Sure but he still played in 45 games and they still played horrible the majority of they time too. 

[NJDevils1214]

1 hour ago, Satans Hockey said:

 

I agree with a lot of this except for McLeod being that big of a loss. A loss? Sure but he still played in 45 games and they still played horrible the majority of they time too. 

McLeod was finally helping push the ball forward outside the face off dot, which was nice to see. The team never should have been in a position for him to be such a major loss. Where was all the depth we heard about all summer?

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

8 minutes ago, NJDevils1214 said:

McLeod was finally helping push the ball forward outside the face off dot, which was nice to see. The team never should have been in a position for him to be such a major loss. Where was all the depth we heard about all summer?

24-18-3 when he was here, 7-12-1 since.  Not sure how much of the downturn is due to him being out of the lineup, but yeah, major difference.

One thing about Luke and Nemec...the attention focused on them helps to cover up that the Devils haven't been graduating many forward prospects lately, who've been making real impacts.  But considering that Utica is meant mostly for developing third and fourth-line types, kinda says something that Fitz had to go out and sign guys like Nosek and Tierney (and trade for Lazar).

[nmigliore]

Relative to the Devils' bottom-6, I do think McLeod was a notable loss. The Devils outscored teams 35-22 (61% goal share) with him on the ice at five-on-five this season and were above water by expected goals, too (55%). Compare that to some of these handful of forwards who are getting bottom-6 ice time:

Mercer: 41% goals share, 49% expected goals

Holtz: 49% goals, 47% expected goals

Bastian: 38% goals, 48% expected goals

Tierney: 48% goals, 48% expected goals

Nosek: 18% goals, 39% expected goals

That's to say nothing of his faceoff ability (best win rate on the team at 65%) or score points (only Holtz from the above group beats him on a per-60 minute basis). 

Edited March 13 by nmigliore

[Lateralous]

McLeod was a huge loss for our bottom 6 but unfortunately that ship has sailed. 

I never in a million years wanted Fitz to tie himself to Miles Wood on a new contract but we kind of missed his running around unpredictably in the Rangers games.   At this point, most of the bottom 6 needs a major overhaul other than Lazar having a spot on the 4th line.  Guys like Mercer, Bastian, Nosek, Haula & Tierney didn't bring nearly enough sandpaper this year to complement the core.   Obviously, Meier will need to step up his physical presence in the top 6.   

Same with the "defensive" defensemen.  Bahl's obviously the big wild card here but we need a lot more physicality out of the spots held by Siegnethaler/Marino/Bahl to offset the more offensive defensemen on the roster.     

[woody footbreaker]

Thanks for the welcome folks, just an avarage fan here that follows the NHL and my Swiss guys ever since Streit signed for the Isles.

Regarding McLeod, i just think its a big loss since we lost already Wood and Tatar plus he was outperforming his contract. We need more players that can push the play up the ice, make it hard on defenders, finish checks, win puck battles, creating choas with their speed etc. Its not just one player and then everything is fine. Same mistake they make with Timo, bringing him in and then think thats enough beef in our top6. He becomes the focal point for the opposition aside from Nico and Jack and if you take him out the Devils Top6 really become soft. Timo had guys like Thornton, Pavelski and Hertl centering his line in SJ. If you pair power forwards with another big guy, they usually become even more effective. Because of that, I think Palat is fine on that line and you probably get the most out of him with Nico and Timo. Its the 6M AAV i dont like and the length of the contract

[woody footbreaker]

sorry, i went a bit of topic ...

I just want to add, credit to Fitzy for getting the core guys signed longterm (Nico, Jack, Bratt and Timo all took discounts imo). If he was serious, Toffoli should have take a discount too after we heard how much he wanted to stay and win.

Like some said, he did a lot of good stuff until last offseason. The Lazar signing was good too. This season just everything what went wrong for Devils went wrong, much like everything went their way last season. Hard to judge individual performances and players potential with all the injuries we had and the depth not being there. The linecombos we saw this season were made mostly to not get scored on in first place. I hope Mercer will get his mojo back, he could use someone playmaking abilities next to him. That 3rd line is mostly hacking wacking right now lol

Back to Fitzy, turned it around last second at the deadline. He really scared me the days ahead of the deadline.

[ButlerBulldog]

Just now, woody footbreaker said:

sorry, i went a bit of topic ...

I just want to add, credit to Fitzy for getting the core guys signed longterm (Nico, Jack, Bratt and Timo all took discounts imo). If he was serious, Toffoli should have take a discount too after we heard how much he wanted to stay and win.

Like some said, he did a lot of good stuff until last offseason. The Lazar signing was good too. This season just everything what went wrong for Devils went wrong, much like everything went their way last season. Hard to judge individual performances and players potential with all the injuries we had and the depth not being there. The linecombos we saw this season were made mostly to not get scored on in first place. I hope Mercer will get his mojo back, he could use someone playmaking abilities next to him. That 3rd line is mostly hacking wacking right now lol

Back to Fitzy, turned it around last second at the deadline. He really scared me the days ahead of the deadline.

It’s for the best that Toffoli didn’t sign a long-term deal, as he didn’t fit with the Devils’ other forwards and actually seemed to bog down the offense when flanking Jack, with whom he didn’t have the speed to keep up.

[vincois]

I'm happy we have Fitz. He put together a talented team. I know other GM's are jealous having #86 & #13 signed to inexpensive contracts. Also glad he pursued Timo & signed him. Lindy wasn't responsible entirely for what transpired this. Many players took steps back, Luke & Jack were turnover machines trying to do too much. Goaltending. 

We're all disappointed he wasn't able to trade for a starting goalie.  Everyone here, thought (having the same team), we'd go further into the playoffs than last year. Fo schizzle happens.

So to summarize, I'm happy we have Fitz going forward. I could care less who he pursues as starting goalie.  Agree to disagree. 

[hystyk28]

2 hours ago, vincois said:

I'm happy we have Fitz. He put together a talented team. I know other GM's are jealous having #86 & #13 signed to inexpensive contracts. Also glad he pursued Timo & signed him. Lindy wasn't responsible entirely for what transpired this. Many players took steps back, Luke & Jack were turnover machines trying to do too much. Goaltending. 

We're all disappointed he wasn't able to trade for a starting goalie.  Everyone here, thought (having the same team), we'd go further into the playoffs than last year. Fo schizzle happens.

So to summarize, I'm happy we have Fitz going forward. I could care less who he pursues as starting goalie.  Agree to disagree. 

So we found Fitzy's burner account. Just kidding buddy...

[ButlerBulldog]

3 hours ago, vincois said:

I'm happy we have Fitz. He put together a talented team. I know other GM's are jealous having #86 & #13 signed to inexpensive contracts. Also glad he pursued Timo & signed him. Lindy wasn't responsible entirely for what transpired this. Many players took steps back, Luke & Jack were turnover machines trying to do too much. Goaltending. 

We're all disappointed he wasn't able to trade for a starting goalie.  Everyone here, thought (having the same team), we'd go further into the playoffs than last year. Fo schizzle happens.

So to summarize, I'm happy we have Fitz going forward. I could care less who he pursues as starting goalie.  Agree to disagree. 

That so many players took steps back this season somewhat reflects on Lindy’s coaching, as it suggests he didn’t put them in a position to succeed.  The group in place last season was successful, however, which raises the question of whether the Devils’ collective success was due to Brunette as opposed to Lindy.

I’m willing to give Fitz another chance to build a competitive roster, but he has to make it happen this time, and he can’t allow personal feelings or agendas to cloud his decisionmaking as he attempts to do so.

[slasher72]

5 hours ago, ButlerBulldog said:

That so many players took steps back this season somewhat reflects on Lindy’s coaching, as it suggests he didn’t put them in a position to succeed.  The group in place last season was successful, however, which raises the question of whether the Devils’ collective success was due to Brunette as opposed to Lindy.

I’m willing to give Fitz another chance to build a competitive roster, but he has to make it happen this time, and he can’t allow personal feelings or agendas to cloud his decisionmaking as he attempts to do so.

Seriously, him saying he didn't want to acquire a goalie mid-season because he didn't want to hurt Schmid/Daws' feelings was just a horsesh!t excuse to cover up for his failures. Going into this past year with VV/Schmid/Daws was inexcusable. And yes, Lindy was terrible at putting players into the best position to succeed, in addition to his other egregious errors. 

In hindsight, just think if Fitz had drafted Askarov. We wouldn't be worrying about possibly shipping out Mercer, Casey, our first-rounder to anyone. But here we are now, desperate to find a starting goalie for the future. Fitz has completely failed in addressing goaltending up to this point. And allowing Rogalski to hang around hasn't helped matters either. 

Fitz has a lot of work to do. Chief among them, hiring the right coach. I really hope gets it right this time. 

Edited March 14 by slasher72

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

3 hours ago, slasher72 said:

Seriously, him saying he didn't want to acquire a goalie mid-season because he didn't want to hurt Schmid/Daws' feelings was just a horsesh!t excuse to cover up for his failures. Going into this past year with VV/Schmid/Daws was inexcusable. And yes, Lindy was terrible at putting players into the best position to succeed, in addition to his other egregious errors. 

In hindsight, just think if Fitz had drafted Askarov. We wouldn't be worrying about possibly shipping out Mercer, Casey, our first-rounder to anyone. But here we are now, desperate to find a starting goalie for the future. Fitz has completely failed in addressing goaltending up to this point. And allowing Rogalski to hang around hasn't helped matters either. 

Fitz has a lot of work to do. Chief among them, hiring the right coach. I really hope gets it right this time. 

In fairness, the bolded involves a fair amount of second-guessing.

VV was fine in the regular season last year (slightly above average), and had been average the two seasons prior to that one; unfortunately, though there was clearly much more going on than just bad goaltending, VV was bad this year.  He flat-out didn't perform to expectations, but based on his prior track record, it wasn't outlandish not to see a bad year coming.  That being said, I'm glad that Fitz didn't bet on VV having a bounceback season.  He very well could wind up having one next year, but it was WAY too risky for Fitz to cross his fingers and hope for it.  I think he did the right thing by choosing to move on, given how this season went.  Schmid did enough to warrant a look (it's always great when you can build from within, and when a guy puts up .920+ save% in the regular season AND the playoffs AND shuts out the Rangers twice in helping to eliminate them, I get seeing if you have something), but I suspect Fitz feels burned enough by both VV and Schmid that it won't surprise me if Schmid is on his way out too, after this season.  Basically I understood sticking with them, and now I understand moving on from them after the way that this year went.  

Don't forget that in Askarov's draft, that Blackwood had just come off his second promising NHL season...in 70 NHL career games to that point (64 starts), Blackwood had put up a .916 save% and 12.5 GSAA...those were plenty promising numbers...the Devils had fair reason to believe that they might already have their goalie of the present and future.  Also, it's not like the Devils didn't have other needs...like finding wingers who could score for Jack and Nico.  I admit that the Holtz pick didn't thrill me at the time, but the pick absolutely made sense, especially since he was projected to be a guy who could put pucks in the net. 

 

Also, not saying that YOU'RE doing this, but the ones who didn't want to go into the season with VV and Schmid at the time couldn't really come up with any available or preferable alternatives.  Hellebuyck was thrown out there but not like anyone else swooped in and snagged him for a price that would have us saying "How come Fitz couldn't get him?"  Two of the names we've been bringing up (Saros and Ullmark) didn't appear to have been made available.  Markstrom was coming off a bad year last season and got off to a bad start this season (he had an .896 save% through 12/5), and if you look at his overall body of work this season, he's basically been...a less consistent version of 2022-23 VV.  

Edited March 14 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[nessus]

One silver lining about this lost season, which may require some mental gymnastics, is that now we have both Luke's and Nemec's rookie seasons out of the way for next season. The downside is we are down one year on Nemec's ELC, which could have been helpful for fitting all the contracts in later on. But, going into next season with the goaltending situation fixed, coaching fixed, hopefully an upgrade or two on offense, and no rookie defenseman to acclimate to the NHL all should make a major difference. 

The Devils definitely overachieved last season, as much as I hate to admit it. Things were really working, especially early on in the season with that crazy win streak. I think part of it was teams just were not expecting it from the Devils who had been a bad team as recently as the previous season. As the season went on, they weren't quite as dominant as they were early. 

Then this season, you have the opposite - things really not working. From goaltending to injuries to coaching to star players having down years,  many things not going their way. There's no reason not to expect a major bounce back as long as Fitz can address a few issues this offseason.

[slasher72]

1 hour ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

In fairness, the bolded involves a fair amount of second-guessing.

VV was fine in the regular season last year (slightly above average), and had been average the two seasons prior to that one; unfortunately, though there was clearly much more going on than just bad goaltending, VV was bad this year.  He flat-out didn't perform to expectations, but based on his prior track record, it wasn't outlandish not to see a bad year coming.  That being said, I'm glad that Fitz didn't bet on VV having a bounceback season.  He very well could wind up having one next year, but it was WAY too risky for Fitz to cross his fingers and hope for it.  I think he did the right thing by choosing to move on, given how this season went.  Schmid did enough to warrant a look (it's always great when you can build from within, and when a guy puts up .920+ save% in the regular season AND the playoffs AND shuts out the Rangers twice in helping to eliminate them, I get seeing if you have something), but I suspect Fitz feels burned enough by both VV and Schmid that it won't surprise me if Schmid is on his way out too, after this season.  Basically I understood sticking with them, and now I understand moving on from them after the way that this year went.  

Don't forget that in Askarov's draft, that Blackwood had just come off his second promising NHL season...in 70 NHL career games to that point (64 starts), Blackwood had put up a .916 save% and 12.5 GSAA...those were plenty promising numbers...the Devils had fair reason to believe that they might already have their goalie of the present and future.  Also, it's not like the Devils didn't have other needs...like finding wingers who could score for Jack and Nico.  I admit that the Holtz pick didn't thrill me at the time, but the pick absolutely made sense, especially since he was projected to be a guy who could put pucks in the net. 

 

Also, not saying that YOU'RE doing this, but the ones who didn't want to go into the season with VV and Schmid at the time couldn't really come up with any available or preferable alternatives.  Hellebuyck was thrown out there but not like anyone else swooped in and snagged him for a price that would have us saying "How come Fitz couldn't get him?"  Two of the names we've been bringing up (Saros and Ullmark) didn't appear to have been made available.  Markstrom was coming off a bad year last season and got off to a bad start this season (he had an .896 save% through 12/5), and if you look at his overall body of work this season, he's basically been...a less consistent version of 2022-23 VV.  

I myself wanted to take a flyer on Kakhonen heading into this season (because of his play in Minnesota), so I was pleased to see Fitz grab him. Especially for a 1:1 swap of VV. So I give Fitz a lot credit for that. Fitz has done a lot of good things but the question mark in goal is a glaring issue. I think Kakhonen could be a solid back up. I do think Allen will get shipped out along with Holtz/Mercer/draft pick if we go for Saros. 

Back to the draft, I remember when Holtz was taken I also did not want him. I wanted us to draft Askarov because he was seen as a highly talented, rising star coming out of Russia and I was envisioning him becoming our own version of Shesterkin. But that's ancient history now.  I don't think this team's current scouting group will ever draft Russian prospects in goal. Heading into next season, it looks like it's going to come down to Saros or Markstrom. Or if Fitz goes totally off the radar, maybe he takes a flyer on a player like Anthony Stolarz from Florida? He's from Edison, NJ, so local guy...

Edited March 14 by slasher72

[ButlerBulldog]

23 minutes ago, nessus said:

One silver lining about this lost season, which may require some mental gymnastics, is that now we have both Luke's and Nemec's rookie seasons out of the way for next season. The downside is we are down one year on Nemec's ELC, which could have been helpful for fitting all the contracts in later on. But, going into next season with the goaltending situation fixed, coaching fixed, hopefully an upgrade or two on offense, and no rookie defenseman to acclimate to the NHL all should make a major difference. 

The Devils definitely overachieved last season, as much as I hate to admit it. Things were really working, especially early on in the season with that crazy win streak. I think part of it was teams just were not expecting it from the Devils who had been a bad team as recently as the previous season. As the season went on, they weren't quite as dominant as they were early. 

Then this season, you have the opposite - things really not working. From goaltending to injuries to coaching to star players having down years,  many things not going their way. There's no reason not to expect a major bounce back as long as Fitz can address a few issues this offseason.

I expect Luke to be better and for Nemec to take a huge step forward next season.  While neither was drafted his defense, Nemec has been better than expected in his own zone, and Luke was solid prior to hitting the rookie wall.  Both should improve with experience and by playing in an actual system rather than whatever the old man had them doing, and each will also be better off not playing next to Brendan Smith.  Having solid role players like Hatakka around for a full season will also be beneficial.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

@slasher72 I think if Mac hadn’t been so promising over his first two seasons, then Fitz absolutely considers drafting Askarov.  It really blows that from that point on, Mac more or less became an injury-prone disappointment…especially for the Devils, who thought they had a box checked off.

Part of me would be interested in Spencer Knight as a possible reclamation project (probably in the AHL to start) but the cap hit is just too high to take any fliers on him right now.

[slasher72]

1 hour ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

@slasher72 I think if Mac hadn’t been so promising over his first two seasons, then Fitz absolutely considers drafting Askarov.  It really blows that from that point on, Mac more or less became an injury-prone disappointment…especially for the Devils, who thought they had a box checked off.

Part of me would be interested in Spencer Knight as a possible reclamation project (probably in the AHL to start) but the cap hit is just too high to take any fliers on him right now.

Yea, It's likely going to come down to the two names everyone's been mentioning for the past several weeks. Either team, Nashville or Calgary is going to get a haul. Good for them. 

 

[nessus]

Let's say Fitz had explored these goaltending options earlier in the season (and also fired Lindy earlier). Granted, the Kahkonen move was reportedly more about getting VV out than anything. But, so far we have gone 2 consecutive games with much improved goaltending. Let's see if this trend continues. Could this season have been saved with a tandem of Kahkonen and Allen? It makes you wonder how this could have changed Fitz's offseason plans. Now he is kind of forced to go after Markstrom/Ullmark/Saros, and one of those guys needs to be a clear #1 here.

Had the Devils coasted into the playoffs with Allen/Kahkonen, they go into the off-season less desperate for a goaltender, so they could potentially save on some assets, or use them to address another team need. There are a lot of hypotheticals here that don't take into account availability of players so far in advance of the trade deadline, but I think this is what frustrates me most about Fitz taking such a long time to make changes. Not only did he allow this season to get away from him when the signs were there early on, he dug himself a hole for the offseason.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Just now, nessus said:

Let's say Fitz had explored these goaltending options earlier in the season (and also fired Lindy earlier). Granted, the Kahkonen move was reportedly more about getting VV out than anything. But, so far we have gone 2 consecutive games with much improved goaltending. Let's see if this trend continues. Could this season have been saved with a tandem of Kahkonen and Allen? It makes you wonder how this could have changed Fitz's offseason plans. Now he is kind of forced to go after Markstrom/Ullmark/Saros, and one of those guys needs to be a clear #1 here.

Had the Devils coasted into the playoffs with Allen/Kahkonen, they go into the off-season less desperate for a goaltender, so they could potentially save on some assets, or use them to address another team need. There are a lot of hypotheticals here that don't take into account availability of players so far in advance of the trade deadline, but I think this is what frustrates me most about Fitz taking such a long time to make changes. Not only did he allow this season to get away from him when the signs were there early on, he dug himself a hole for the offseason.

Daws put together four strong games in a row not so long ago, and both VV AND Schmid had occasional brief runs of 2 or 3 good games this year (of course not nearly enough of them).  I can't even begin to assume that Allen and Kahkonen will continue to build off just one good game here each, or that such a tandem would've been the answer...we need to see a lot more of them, and it's not like their recent track records point to either one being close to a sure thing (though of course they were stuck on bad teams).  But for now I like that they represent new blood.

But yeah, the lack of in-season tinkering of any kind when the team desperately appeared to need it, there's just no defending that.  I'm pretty much done harping on it because none it of can be undone, but as we know, Fitz needs to both have a bang-up offseason, and then see those moves work out, to the tune of the 2024-25 Devils making the playoffs and looking like they should do some damage upon getting there.  Said it in a previous post, but he used up his mulligan...there can be NO repeat of this year anytime soon, or he'll likely be out of a job.  

[MadDog2020]

22 hours ago, slasher72 said:

I do think Allen will get shipped out along with Holtz/Mercer/draft pick if we go for Saros. 

Fitz already said Allen will be the backup next year. He was explicitly clear about that. 

[ButlerBulldog]

1 minute ago, MadDog2020 said:

Fitz already said Allen will be the backup next year. He was explicitly clear about that. 

Yeah, the Kahkonen deal was more about ridding the team of Vanecek than it was finding a long-term solution at goalie, as the former is unsigned beyond this season.  I’d be shocked if he were back.

[Lateralous]

2 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Said it in a previous post, but he used up his mulligan...there can be NO repeat of this year anytime soon, or he'll likely be out of a job. 

Absolutely.   I was extremely impressed with everything he had done during his tenure here up until this season started but then he let it get inexplicably far off the rails in '23-'24.   Add that to the manner in which he did absolutely nothing to stop the de-railing and I now have serious doubts about him.  He has one year from me to get this right.  It will be an interesting summer for sure.   

Edited March 15 by Lateralous

[MadDog2020]

1 hour ago, Lateralous said:

Absolutely.   I was extremely impressed with everything he had done during his tenure here up until this season started but then he let it get inexplicably far off the rails in '23-'24.   Add that to the manner in which he did absolutely nothing to stop the de-railing and I now have serious doubts about him.  He has one year from me to get this right.  It will be an interesting summer for sure.   

💯💯💯💯💯 on all of this.