Is It A New Day in Newark?

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

 

The New Jersey Devils have a somewhat new look to them here in July...but come October, will they really show the NHL that they are ready to play some serious hockey and contend for a playoff spot?

 

Since the dismantling of the former successful core, this franchise has had trouble making the transition to the next generation of good players, despite their roster having some pretty good players here and there...particularly starting netminder Cory Schneider.

 

This off season, however, NJ picked up some pretty good players in Marcus Johansen and Brian Boyle, in addition to getting the number one overall pick in the draft, Nico Hischier....all while jettisoning some players who apparently weren't doing much for the team in Mike Cammalleri and Devante Smith-Pelley.

 

Sure, NJ still has to get some players to ice a complete roster, but they still have almost $20M in cap space to work with.

And yea, the defense still may need some seasoning and/or tweaking, but I gotta believe that Cory Schneider, chief among the current players, has to be tickled devil red at the prospect of this team finally being able to score goals consistently enough to where he doesn't HAVE to stand on his head every night just to get a sniff at a win.

 

Couple the pretty good offseason so far by NJ with some wonky moves by the Rangers and Capitals....and the Penguins maybe being too 'wore out' from winning too many Cups....and the Devils just may be looking at a playoff berth this coming season.

 

What say you, @MadDevil ?

Has your team done enough so far to warrant you going from a mad devil to a smiling smug one yet? 

[Buffalo Rick]

2 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

The New Jersey Devils have a somewhat new look to them here in July...but come October, will they really show the NHL that they are ready to play some serious hockey and contend for a playoff spot?

 

Since the dismantling of the former successful core, this franchise has had trouble making the transition to the next generation of good players, despite their roster having some pretty good players here and there...particularly starting netminder Cory Schneider.

 

This off season, however, NJ picked up some pretty good players in Marcus Johansen and Brian Boyle, in addition to getting the number one overall pick in the draft, Nico Hischier....all while jettisoning some players who apparently weren't doing much for the team in Mike Cammalleri and Devante Smith-Pelley.

 

Sure, NJ still has to get some players to ice a complete roster, but they still have almost $20M in cap space to work with.

And yea, the defense still may need some seasoning and/or tweaking, but I gotta believe that Cory Schneider, chief among the current players, has to be tickled devil red at the prospect of this team finally being able to score goals consistently enough to where he doesn't HAVE to stand on his head every night just to get a sniff at a win.

 

Couple the pretty good offseason so far by NJ with some wonky moves by the Rangers and Capitals....and the Penguins maybe being too 'wore out' from winning too many Cups....and the Devils just may be looking at a playoff berth this coming season.

 

What say you, @MadDevil ?

Has your team done enough so far to warrant you going from a mad devil to a smiling smug one yet? 

I will respond first.  The Devils are always a handful.  Always.   I know the last 2-3 years have been very bad for them but you wont keep them down long.  I believe these moves might put them back in the hunt.  Might.  But they will be competitive.  No doubt.  I do not think they have Broduer or Stevens caliber guys or a Claude Lemeaux, but they will be better.  So will Buffalo and Philly and the Leafs.  I am not sure about the Panthers and Rangers.  i think the Devils are better.  The Red Wings?  I cannot get used to them being in the East.  The New Jersey Devils are the busiest team in free agency in the last few days.  Must commend them for effort at the very least.

[MadDevil]

I like what Shero has done with the forwards. The Devils finally have some forward depth, although they're still pretty weak on the right side. I am concerned about the defense though. As it stands now they've basically just swapped Mueller in for Merrill, and still only have one consistent puck mover in Severson. All the moves at forward actually make me wonder if somebody like Henrique might get dangled to bring in a defenseman since they missed out on Shattenkirk.

 

I think they're definitely a better team now than they were at the end of 2016-17. But considering how terribly they finished (only 3 wins in their last 20 games) there really wasn't anywhere to go but up. Unless the defense is upgraded I still don't think they're a playoff team this year though.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

@MadDevil

 

Regarding NJ's defense, I'd do a Adam Henrique (C) for Jonas Brodin (D) if I am Minnesota.

 

Wild will have Suter, Spurgeon, and Dumba as their top 3 on D, just signed Kyle Quincy as another veteran defenseman, have a few interesting guys in the minors they could bring up, and could re-sign Nate Prosser for a bottom pair.

Brodin is a smooth skating 23 yr old defenseman who projects to a nice two way 2nd pair guy.

 

Right now, the cap hit is about the same as Henrique (4.1M for Brodin, 4M for Henrique).

Including this coming season, he as 4 years left on his contract.

 

Minnesota could always use an in-his-prime centerman...and Henrique could slot nicely as the 2C, bumping Koivu down to 3C while leaving Eric Staal as the 1C.

The Wild do seem to like Brodin, but they need some more size on defense and maybe a bit more aggressiveness...Brodin isn't that.

 

Good puck  handling skills, and transition offense is his forte. Basically he does the same thing as Spurgeon, with less offense, and the same as Dumba, but with less aggressiveness.

[MadDevil]

I wouldn't mind that trade. As it stands the Devils left side is 34 year old Greene, fast but not very smart Moore, and 22 year old Mueller. A Brodin/Santini second pairing wouldn't be too bad (assuming they can get over the Lovejoy affair and drop him to the third pairing where he belongs).

[yave1964]

I like the offseason of the Devils, in fact I like it a lot. With the drafting of hirschier, the trade for Johansson, the signing of Poulliot and Boyle they have literally upgraded all four lines. The addition of Mueller who IMHO never got a fair shot in San Jose is a nice puck mover on the back end although I think they need havent done enough on the back end, the rest of the offseason has been a win.

[MadDevil]

I think they were hoping they could somehow snag a better defenseman out of all the expansion draft stuff, but all the protection deals kind of killed that possibility. And the UFA market for defensemen was pretty much nonexistent after Shattenkirk, so there wasn't much help there either. They might just have to bite the bullet and trade a player like Henrique or Zacha to address their needs on defense. Or hope that Mueller puts it together and becomes a top 4 defenseman.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

@MadDevil

 

This is from the hockeywriters:

http://thehockeywriters.com/projecting-devils-line-combinations/?utm_content=buffera55a7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

 

Article and projection of NJ's lines.

What do you think? How accurate do you think they are?

 

Also, why Henrique on the wing? As far as I knew, he was first and foremost a centerman.

Has he played significant time at wing? I wasn't aware if he did.

Also, do you think he makes a better C or W?

[MadDevil]

Those lines are pretty decent, although it really shows how weak they still are at RW. I don't know if they view Zacha as a center or a winger yet, so I could see him swapping between the two. As for Henrique, I think he's probably more suited to the wing, but he did score 30 goals in 2015-16, and 20 last year at center, so what do I know.

 

My preferred lines based on the current roster...

 

Hall - Zajac - Palmieri

Henrique - Hischier - Johansson

Zacha - McLeod - Blandisi

Quenneville/Wood - Boyle - Noesen/Speers

 

I threw Speers in there because I think the organization is pretty high on him, and he's versatile enough where I think he could earn himself a roster spot with a strong camp/preseason.

[J0e Th0rnton]

23 hours ago, yave1964 said:

I like the offseason of the Devils, in fact I like it a lot. With the drafting of hirschier, the trade for Johansson, the signing of Poulliot and Boyle they have literally upgraded all four lines. The addition of Mueller who IMHO never got a fair shot in San Jose is a nice puck mover on the back end although I think they need havent done enough on the back end, the rest of the offseason has been a win.

 

 

Mueller is a defensive defenseman with very little offensive upside. At one point he did have a nice transition game potential to ve Vlasic lite, but as time went on, I got annoyed with him not having the IQ.

 

Hopefully he can turn it around. But While Wilson has success drafting mid round defensemen that get developed fairly well into bottom 4 guys(Matt Carle, Justin Braun, Jason Demers and Vlasic being the exception since he is a top 2 guy)he usually seems drastically off the mark when evaluating first Round Dmen (Ty Wishart, Nick Patrecki)

 

 

 

[yave1964]

8 hours ago, J0e Th0rnton said:

 

 

Mueller is a defensive defenseman with very little offensive upside. At one point he did have a nice transition game potential to ve Vlasic lite, but as time went on, I got annoyed with him not having the IQ.

 

Hopefully he can turn it around. But While Wilson has success drafting mid round defensemen that get developed fairly well into bottom 4 guys(Matt Carle, Justin Braun, Jason Demers and Vlasic being the exception since he is a top 2 guy)he usually seems drastically off the mark when evaluating first Round Dmen (Ty Wishart, Nick Patrecki)

 

 

 

Well he is just 22 and did appear in only four games last year at the NHL level. The thing is take a look at the Devils collection of miscreants and castoffs on defense even if all that he ends up being is 80 percent of Vlasic on this bunch it makes him Bobby Orr. The Devils have the only collection of blueliners who make the fans envious of my Red wings right now, lol. Taking a chance on a big body who was a mid first rounder a few years ago with a rep for solid D and puck moving potential is a smart pickup for them. I was surprised he was moved, not as surprised as when the Ducks moved Theodore but surprised, and I was actually annoyed at Holland for not going after him.

[yave1964]

@MadDevil

 

There is no more maddening player on your team than Henrique. For short bursts he looks like he has turned a corner and is going to be, if not a star than certainly in the next echelon and then he dissapears picking up bad habits for a month. I play a ton of fantasy Hockey and his occasional short handed goal will win a category for you, his faceoffs help a lot as well. 

  But even in the dot, there are weeks on end where he wins more than he loses for weeks at a time, then he loses interest or falls asleep or something, I dont know, when some folks arent scoring they make up for it elsewhere, but when Henrique is not scoring his overall game goes to Hell in a hand basket.

  You are probably right, moving him to the wing may be the best thing for him at this point, I still see Hirschier being best served starting on the outside as well but even if both play the wing McLeod looks like a natural center, Zajac is steady and Zacha as a 3c should be fine. Lots of options.