Offseason Report Card: Atlantic Division

[Triumph]

fritsche is there, yes. it's hard to keep all these new 4th liners straight. i guess kick out voros for fristche.

[$$BigTime$$]

the flyers didn't acquire anyone, but they didn't lose anyone of note, and getting a healthy gagne + improvement by coburn, carter, richards, and their younger players gives them a B.

no idea how the rangers' off-season ranks well. they added 3 of the softest players in the NHL. they lost jagr, who despite his struggles last year, is a dominant performer. it was obvious the rangers were going to sign a top 5 free agent (hossa, campbell, redden, rolston, x), but they signed arguably the worst one. anyway, let's see how these lines compare:

naslund-gomez-zherdev

dawes-drury-callahan

sjostrom-dubinsky-prucha

voros-betts-rissmiller

redden-staal

roszival-girardi

mara-kalinin

is better than

avery-dubinsky-jagr

straka-drury-shanahan

dawes-gomez-callahan

sjostrom-betts-orr

rozsival-staal

girardi-tyutin

mara-backman

zherdev for jagr is a large dropoff. naslund is 'better' than straka, the man who he's supposed to replace - but it remains to be seen if he is washed up or not - he could be only a slight upgrade over straka. dawes is probably an upgrade over shanahan, but there's a dearth of legitimate 3rd line forwards. the rangers' backline is slightly better - that's if redden returns to form; hockey analytics rates him as worse than fedor tyutin last season. kalinin for backman is a wash - they are both soft euros with supposed offensive upsides. i sincerely thought the rangers would land either campbell or hossa and they did neither - they are gambling with wade redden when i'm not so sure they had to (new jersey had to, had they wanted to land in the big fish sweepstakes).

perhaps the collective improvement of girardi/lundqvist/staal/dubinsky/callahan/dawes/zherdev offsets all the losses - but i expect staal to take a bit of a dive from last season, and zherdev too. callahan's the only one i expect to significantly improve. throw in the fact that dubinsky and callahan are the only ones with any physical ability on that new rangers forward lineup outside the 4th line, and that no one is particularly physical on the rangers' backline - i feel like the devils have really improved relative to the rangers this off-season. the rangers improved relative to pittsburgh.

all i know is drop the puck already.

Very good post. Too much change is sometimes not the greatest thing. I really feel the Rangers had something with Avery and Jagr. Avery was a different player in NY and really too his game to the next level.

Sometimes the best moves are none at all. I really don't care about the Rags because I think they have gotten worse. Avery and Jagr played very well against us and now they are gone. I take this zherdev guy and Naslund anyday. YOUNGER doens't always mean better.

I hate it when people say Rolston is old. Yeah he is 35, but he is a proven leader and a 30+ goal scorer. - Nuff said.

[Devil Dan 56]

Did Mara Resign with the rangers?

How about Fritsche, where is he?

Mara re-signed for I think 1 year.

Fritsche is headed to arbitration, but I can't see them turning down his contract after they just traded for him. Thats an interesting way to join a new team, having to go through the whole arbitration thing.

[USC09]

Doesn't every paper give us a C, but the guy who hates us the most in Scott Burnside gives us an A- and didn't like the Rangers signing of Wade Redden. I mean the Rangers lost some of the hearts of their team in Straka, Jagr, Shanahan, Avery and Tyutin. Naslund was a good signing, but he is beginning to be injury prone and vulnerable. Zherdev, will depend on his attitude and the others over paying. The Flyers are still the Flyers, Conference Finals and then bust. The Pens are still good, but not as last year. I mean we did pretty good for the team we had last year and finished ahead of the Rags, but we failed to beat them. That will all change this year for sure. Rolston and Holik can give us those extra 30-40 goals that we missed last year in 11 shutouts.

[Devs4LIFE]

Mara re-signed for I think 1 year.

Fritsche is headed to arbitration, but I can't see them turning down his contract after they just traded for him. Thats an interesting way to join a new team, having to go through the whole arbitration thing.

Fritsche just resigned with the Rangers via NHL.com

[Triumph]

here's the rangers from the 05-06 team that shocked the world:

lundqvist, roszival, betts, prucha.

the rangers have entirely overhauled their team in 2 seasons. prucha might not even be there much longer.

here's the devils from the 05-06 team that also shocked the world:

brodeur, martin, parise, pandolfo, madden, langenbrunner, elias, gionta, white

i don't understand how the rangers can expect to have more success by blowing up all their continuity.

Edited July 15, 2008 by Triumph

[SatansDevils]

Wes Goldstein is a fvcking dumbass.

Agreed.

It sounds like he knows nothing about hockey. Then again ESPN is not much into hockey these days since the NHL left ESPN.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Agreed.

It sounds like he knows nothing about hockey. Then again ESPN is not much into hockey these days since the NHL left ESPN.

All you need to know about ESPN can be learned by watching their coverage of any baseball game. You'd think a friggin' SPORTS CHANNEL could get simple sh!t right.

Two shining examples from last Sunday night, Colorado Rockies @ New York Mets:

Carlos Delgado is leading his team in home runs with 16 (David Wright leads the team with 17. Delgado did later hit one out to tie for the team lead, but this was during Delgado's first at bat, and his stat read 16* under "HR"...the asterisk meaning "team leader".)

Joe Morgan went on and on about how great a hitter Jose Reyes is with runners in scoring position, and how he's constantly getting runners home. Anyone who's been watching the Mets can tell you that, at best, he's been extremely average at this...as his easily-looked-up .260 avg with RISP attests.

Extremely Shitty Pathetic Nonsense

Edited July 15, 2008 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[Rangerfans]

Well this article is moronic.

Personally, I think the Rangers had the best Offseason, then the Devils, but I can see how it's very easy to say the Devils had the best off-season since they lost absolutely no players and just added talent (they aren't done yet it appears as well). I think the Rangers were a team out of sync all of last year and I think by shedding a lot of the old players they can play more cohesively, but I guess I'm alone in that assessment (I do feel that losing Avery was a huge blow though.)

The Devils have some nice players but I can't see this team competing for a cup yet. I can see the Rangers doing it, and I think they are better positioned for it this year than last year. Of course, the Devils are clearly a better team than last year, and have a better shot than they did last year, but if I were forced to I'd say the Rangers are more likely at this point to win it all.

The Pens had an awful offseason, and the Flyers had a pretty solid one turning Umberger into some draft picks and figuring out how to keep Carter. Islanders did nothing.

Wow, I'm in 100% agreement with you.

Do I think the Devils off-season deserves a C+? No, the Rolston pick alone was a EXCELLENT pick-up and while I am a little surprised at the Salvador price, I can't say diddly-squat due to our idiotic Redden for 6 years.

However, I feel the major problem for the Devils was (and still is) your blue-line. That has yet to be changed and I personally feel that those who think you will see the Bobby Holik of old will be sadly mistaken. Rolston? Great, great, great pick-up. Thankfully, Holik was only for a year, and though it's too early to tell (obviously) I feel he will - for the most part - be invisible.

Philly scares me. And the Devils - as always - will still be a contender for the regular season.

[Rangerfans]

Very good post. Too much change is sometimes not the greatest thing. I really feel the Rangers had something with Avery and Jagr. Avery was a different player in NY and really too his game to the next level.

Sometimes the best moves are none at all. I really don't care about the Rags because I think they have gotten worse. Avery and Jagr played very well against us and now they are gone. I take this zherdev guy and Naslund anyday. YOUNGER doens't always mean better.

I hate it when people say Rolston is old. Yeah he is 35, but he is a proven leader and a 30+ goal scorer. - Nuff said.

There is no questioning Jagr's excellence. Toward the end of the year and in the playoffs he was a beast. The one great thing that I loved about Jagr (besides his strength with the puck) was his ability to create space.

However, for the most part he was unproductive in scoring, the PP unit (and the first PP unit which he was on) was a complete joke. It seemed that we had no chemistry last year because of the whole, "Give Jagr the puck." That seemed to occur. Straka could be on a breakaway and viola! a pass to Jagr (no, I'm not kidding).

Will losing Avery affect us in a negative way? In my opinion, definitely. Will Jagr? Honestly, as good as Jagr is, no. I felt that we had very little chemistry last year so "changing it up" can only benefit us.

As for Rolston's age? It doesn't matter. A 30+ goal scorer who plays a defensive-minded game and knows your system inside and out. He'll be fine.

[Prucenterrules]

Doesn't every paper give us a C, but the guy who hates us the most in Scott Burnside gives us an A- and didn't like the Rangers signing of Wade Redden. I mean the Rangers lost some of the hearts of their team in Straka, Jagr, Shanahan, Avery and Tyutin. Naslund was a good signing, but he is beginning to be injury prone and vulnerable. Zherdev, will depend on his attitude and the others over paying. The Flyers are still the Flyers, Conference Finals and then bust. The Pens are still good, but not as last year. I mean we did pretty good for the team we had last year and finished ahead of the Rags, but we failed to beat them. That will all change this year for sure. Rolston and Holik can give us those extra 30-40 goals that we missed last year in 11 shutouts.

Agreed.

And we're the Devils, no matter who we sign or what we do, we are always critizied.

[Triumph]

There is no questioning Jagr's excellence. Toward the end of the year and in the playoffs he was a beast. The one great thing that I loved about Jagr (besides his strength with the puck) was his ability to create space.

However, for the most part he was unproductive in scoring, the PP unit (and the first PP unit which he was on) was a complete joke. It seemed that we had no chemistry last year because of the whole, "Give Jagr the puck." That seemed to occur. Straka could be on a breakaway and viola! a pass to Jagr (no, I'm not kidding).

Will losing Avery affect us in a negative way? In my opinion, definitely. Will Jagr? Honestly, as good as Jagr is, no. I felt that we had very little chemistry last year so "changing it up" can only benefit us.

As for Rolston's age? It doesn't matter. A 30+ goal scorer who plays a defensive-minded game and knows your system inside and out. He'll be fine.

the rangers power play won't be that much better this year either, though.

i mean, what've you got? naslund-gomez-zherdev-redden-rosizval as a first unit. second unit of dawes-drury-callahan(prucha)-mara-staal

you can play around with that all you like but it's still going to be in the bottom half of the league. there's no elite finisher or particularly above-average PP QB. it's a series of complementary parts.

there's question about jagr, sure, in two seasons his goal totals dropped in half and he was exhibiting some of the prima donna attitude that got him booted from pittsburgh and booed in washington. But in 06-07 and 07-08, his playoff numbers were: 20 games, 10 goals, 16 assists, 26 points. That's not going to be easy to make up. are naslund's flagging numbers partly the result of no support in vancouver, aging, or both?

[DEVILS>Rangers]

looks like new jersey doesnt have any friends in the media business, eh?

[adavid]

The only time I worry is if the Devs are picked to win it all.

[Confusious]

looks like new jersey doesnt have any friends in the media business, eh?

Have we ever?

[Prucenterrules]

Have we ever?

So True

[Nature's Minister]

Barry Melrose in 2003