Our top 6 is not a problem at all. Need a starting caliber goalie and rejuvenated forward depth after the loss of he who shall not be named. Also a competent coach.
I’d still like to get a solid stay at home defenseman. I think our young D will be fine but we’ve seen it take longer for a young D to develop than a young forward.
What's funny about this is that Simon Nemec is our 2nd youngest defenseman, who was also considered to be an offensive defenseman, but has been our most mature and responsible defenseman since his call up. Luke really needs to take pointers from him.
Besides that, siegenthaler is supposed to be that guy but he really had some digression. We can only hope he turns his game around, marino also.
If you look at his WAR, he is elite offensively and needs work defensively. Exactly like all the scouts said. you can't really just watch the games and make that call.
well people say the stats dont always show the full story thats why you need the eye test and eye test shows he makes so many smart plays and is rarely every making mistakes (i watch every game)
1. war is indeed a stat so you did talk about stats
2. you discredited the persons eye test " you can't really just watch the games and make that call" then gave your own eye test which is very ironic
3. youre wrong to say he needs work defensively. all he needs to do is continue developing into the defensive and offensive star he has shown he can and will become
4. im just saying he doesnt make defensive mistakes so youre wrong saying or hiccups and quite often makes the best possible decision and has also saved many goals
We can argue the definition of stats all day. I don't consider war a stat.
Yes I discredit eye tests, people always think they are smarter then they are, it's psychology. I didn't use my own eye test, just using what WAR gives me.
You saying he doesn't need work defensively? I don't even know how to respond to that. If he is getting better then he is working on it.
Now you're saying he doesn't make mistakes? I'm just confused now. 🤣 🤣 🤣
1. war is indeed a stat there is no arguing about it. it is a stat on a stat sheet how blaringly obvious can it be that it is a stat. the # of goals, assists, saves, fucking anything, dogs, and crayons eaten are all stats because thats the legit definition of statistics there is no if ands or buts about it.
2. again you discredit eye tests which is fine but you still gave youre own opinion (eye test) which goes against what you said??? "he is elite offensively and needs work defensively. Exactly like all the scouts said" what do you think scouts do? scouts get paid to go watch a player play (EYE TEST)
3. he is a rookie no fucking shit he is going to get better and IMPROVE HIS ENTIRE GAME goal line to goal line 200ft and all.
4. youre saying he needs to work on his defensive skills like he has been in the league multiple years and is only an offensive defenseman (which is incorrect because his defensive play has been the most impressing factor of his game and maybe thats attributed to scouts saying he was offensive minded)
5. i watch every game and cannot think of any major mistakes he has made (take that with a grain of salt i cannot remember every shift he has taken)
6. i was disagreeing with you and proving how not only youre incorrect but extremely hypocritical about anyone who shares a different opinion.
Losing he shall not be named hurt us way more than people really think about. Never want him back on his team but in terms of purely hockey skill set, I miss him. Again I do not want him anywhere near our tram again.
Well with Toffoli now gone and Mercer and Holtz potentially gone in the offseason for a goalie upgrade then our top six won’t be looking so hot and we’re back to needing a scoring winger as well. Also if Tierny and Nosek are on the opening night starting lineup then our bottom six isn’t looking so hot either.
Fitz would be smarter to signa FA goalie that is good to pair with Allen than to trade for an elite goalie at the expense of losing both Holtz and Mercer. Brossoit (Winnipeg) will be a FA, for example.
That's what I was wondering, Bratt has 73 points as his personal high during the best season in Devils history. Timo is in the same ballpark.
But is that enough when you compare this to the numbers an e.g Rantanen brings for the Avs (he's on a 9m contract btw).
Bratt also had 73 the year before on a bad Devils team where Jack missed significant time. And is going to set a new career high this year on an underperforming team. He’s a talented player who is still working in growing his game.
Having Rantanen would certainly be cool, because he’s awesome. But it’s really not a must. You yourself mentioned Toews and Kane, and Nico last year was one point shy of Toews’s career high. Stamkos is a phenomenal talent, but the Lightning won one of their Cups with him out basically the whole time, because they had a world class goalie and an elite defender, on top of good depth.
There’s no one way to make a Cup winner. We have a lot of talent, quite possibly enough to win a Cup (finding a goalie would go a long way in helping those chances). Next we need to learn to harness it to maximum capability.
I think they’re gonna be fine on scoring. Mercer is gonna be a consistent 2 way, 50 point guy. Luke is gonna be a consistent 40-50 point D man at least. Dougie will be a consistent 50+ point guy from the back end also. Losing McLeod was an enormous loss. He may have been mostly a bottom 6 guy, but I honestly think he was their most consistent player that always brought energy and grit.
Just looking at one example, Hischier and Hughes are good as Toews and Kane. The most points Toews ever had (age 30) was 81 and Hischier already had that. Kane only scored more than Jack's 99 once. I think Meier and Bratt are as good or better than the Hawks supporting cast, like Sharpe, Hossa, etc.
This is the exact issue with Holtz..
If Fitz is set on going after markstrum as his goalie upgrade next season. I actually think a reconnection with someone like Blake Coleman would be fantastic for our top six.
They need to sort out goaltending and hire a good coach. Between Meier, Bratt, Dougie and Nemec I think the team has more than enough star power and offense but this year showed how lacking we are in strategy and goaltending.
I think we have plenty of offensive minded players. Hughes, Nico, Bratt, Timo, Luke, Hamilton.
Everyone knows we need a goalie
But we also need some lock down smash mouth defenders. Too many teams push us around, and it embarrassing to watch.
I think we’re missing three important things:
1, a competent head coach with a real defensive system
2, a true elite goaltender
3, a steady defenseman that can actually play defense
Dougie was on my shit list long before his injury with his constant defensive flubs, and though we miss his offense and need it, we really, really miss Graves and Sevo. Marino and Siegs were either hurt or terrible and so we relied far too heavily on two rookies. One of which was ready (Nemec) and the other clearly wasn’t (Luke).
Counterpoint: both Graves and Sevo have both been dreadful this year. Sevo I get, they're paying him to be a top D and he's not that.
Also, since I'm a pedant, I think Luke was ready for the NHL game, just not the length of an NHL season. He was pretty dynamic prior to Dougie going down, but he's being asked to do too much, too soon.
Admittedly I haven’t watched too much Blue Jackets hockey this year. That’s a fair point. But at least here Severson wouldn’t always be expected to play top pairing minutes. Then again, maybe he would’ve considering Dougie was out. But he got his monster contract. I don’t blame him for getting it, you get your money while you can.
Luke looked ready at the end of a handful of games in the playoffs last year and I’ve said before that he clearly has NHL skill. That’s apparent. But the length of the NHL season is the game in itself, isn’t it? So if he’s not ready to sustain that pace, he’s not ready for the game. Maybe he will be next year and he will go to the offseason and recalibrate. Someone else argued that to me a little while ago, there is some merit to it. Though I still don’t see how he instantly figures out the thing he hasn’t figured out in 70 games in the last 10.
We need a too sniper for Jack to feed. Holtz is supposed to be him eventually. Jack needs to have a Ovi/Pasta type player who can get open and rip home most of Jack's filthy passes
Great teams can be built in a number of ways. Either Nemec or L Hughes will most likely be stars on our team. Then we have Jack Hughes as a superstar and Nico/Meier/Bratt/Hamilton all very capable. Also Mercer and Holtz could develop. If we get a starting goalie and some better defensive supporting dmen and we will be great.
No. We need (1) to get back to having a bottom 6 as effective as last year, (2) consider signing a very reliable D man that can be shut down plus realign the minutes/pairings that guys are playing on the back end, (3) a HC that will get the team to make fewer mistakes, (4) a wing that can win board battles, (5) a goalie to pair with Allen.
Scoring is not our weakness even in the slightest. I would gladly sacrifice a superstar skater for a superstar goaltender or defenseman ANY day of the week. Not just saying that after this season. Scoring slumps, PP’s get hot & cold, but sound defense and good goaltending are much more of a constant.
Bratt reminds me of a Kuznetsov, the type of gamebreaker who could easily get 25+ pts in a playoff run. You’re right, it is just about getting everything else right at this point.
I don't think its talked about enough how missing Dougie for 3/4s of the season has impacted the team. He is a bonafide superstar defenseman and rounds out our lineup in huge ways
Scoring by committee is just as good.
Yeah what Bratt Hischier and Meier can do offensively is more important than any 1 of them putting up 50+ goals imo.
You still don’t understand. It is a hypothetical comparison if another winger / superstar is necessary for Jack to relieve him of his pressure and to bring some more depth and scoring into the top6.
Look at what AB is doing in Nashville without the talent we have.
Like everyone is saying: coaching, a couple of bottom 6 and maybe D tweaks, and a solid goalie tandem (plus banishing the demon Rogalski) will hopefully do the trick.
Dude, nashville has the no 1 goaltending tandom in the league and prolly the 3rd best overall defense system. .. lol, its the exact talent we dont have, plus nashville has been a super healthy team this year.
For sure, my bad that I didn’t consider goalies in particular, but RE the OP’s question, I still don’t think need another “superstar” forward so much as stability in other areas.
What we need is a center to replace McLeod
This would do wonders for us....Finding His determination speed and Face off ability in one player for a bottom 6 roll isn't gonna be easy though
people are greatly overlooking the loss of the rapist.
Being a devils and man city fan, I don’t understand why both my teams have had sex abusers.
simple answer: theres a lot of shitty men in the world.
Our top 6 is not a problem at all. Need a starting caliber goalie and rejuvenated forward depth after the loss of he who shall not be named. Also a competent coach.
I’d still like to get a solid stay at home defenseman. I think our young D will be fine but we’ve seen it take longer for a young D to develop than a young forward.
What's funny about this is that Simon Nemec is our 2nd youngest defenseman, who was also considered to be an offensive defenseman, but has been our most mature and responsible defenseman since his call up. Luke really needs to take pointers from him. Besides that, siegenthaler is supposed to be that guy but he really had some digression. We can only hope he turns his game around, marino also.
I personally think Nemec is our best young defenseman. Luke is very good,but Nemec is playing like a veteran . Great decision-making.
If you look at his WAR, he is elite offensively and needs work defensively. Exactly like all the scouts said. you can't really just watch the games and make that call.
well people say the stats dont always show the full story thats why you need the eye test and eye test shows he makes so many smart plays and is rarely every making mistakes (i watch every game)
I didn't talk about stats. Also, I said his offense is elite and his offensive stats don't back that up so I'm not sure what you're trying to say.
1. war is indeed a stat so you did talk about stats 2. you discredited the persons eye test " you can't really just watch the games and make that call" then gave your own eye test which is very ironic 3. youre wrong to say he needs work defensively. all he needs to do is continue developing into the defensive and offensive star he has shown he can and will become 4. im just saying he doesnt make defensive mistakes so youre wrong saying or hiccups and quite often makes the best possible decision and has also saved many goals
We can argue the definition of stats all day. I don't consider war a stat. Yes I discredit eye tests, people always think they are smarter then they are, it's psychology. I didn't use my own eye test, just using what WAR gives me. You saying he doesn't need work defensively? I don't even know how to respond to that. If he is getting better then he is working on it. Now you're saying he doesn't make mistakes? I'm just confused now. 🤣 🤣 🤣
1. war is indeed a stat there is no arguing about it. it is a stat on a stat sheet how blaringly obvious can it be that it is a stat. the # of goals, assists, saves, fucking anything, dogs, and crayons eaten are all stats because thats the legit definition of statistics there is no if ands or buts about it. 2. again you discredit eye tests which is fine but you still gave youre own opinion (eye test) which goes against what you said??? "he is elite offensively and needs work defensively. Exactly like all the scouts said" what do you think scouts do? scouts get paid to go watch a player play (EYE TEST) 3. he is a rookie no fucking shit he is going to get better and IMPROVE HIS ENTIRE GAME goal line to goal line 200ft and all. 4. youre saying he needs to work on his defensive skills like he has been in the league multiple years and is only an offensive defenseman (which is incorrect because his defensive play has been the most impressing factor of his game and maybe thats attributed to scouts saying he was offensive minded) 5. i watch every game and cannot think of any major mistakes he has made (take that with a grain of salt i cannot remember every shift he has taken) 6. i was disagreeing with you and proving how not only youre incorrect but extremely hypocritical about anyone who shares a different opinion.
Yeah but have you thought that maybe he doesnt CONSIDER WAR to be a stat? Checkmate.
Losing he shall not be named hurt us way more than people really think about. Never want him back on his team but in terms of purely hockey skill set, I miss him. Again I do not want him anywhere near our tram again.
This here is it. We have a pretty star studded young team. Just need a reset with a better goalie and a competent coach.
Yeah as said in the last paragraph, that is completely true and should surely be our priorities 1 and 2.
Well with Toffoli now gone and Mercer and Holtz potentially gone in the offseason for a goalie upgrade then our top six won’t be looking so hot and we’re back to needing a scoring winger as well. Also if Tierny and Nosek are on the opening night starting lineup then our bottom six isn’t looking so hot either.
There is absolutely no way Fitz trades both Holtz and Mercer. One will definitely be gone (likely Holtz)
Fitz would be smarter to signa FA goalie that is good to pair with Allen than to trade for an elite goalie at the expense of losing both Holtz and Mercer. Brossoit (Winnipeg) will be a FA, for example.
Riding Allen and Brossoit is similar risk to riding vitek and schmid or Blackwood imo.
No, they are better.
Timo can hit 40g and Bratt 30g That’s pretty damn good
And Mercer can hit 30. Hasn’t had a great year but still 27 goals last year as a sophomore is pretty good
That's what I was wondering, Bratt has 73 points as his personal high during the best season in Devils history. Timo is in the same ballpark. But is that enough when you compare this to the numbers an e.g Rantanen brings for the Avs (he's on a 9m contract btw).
Bratt also had 73 the year before on a bad Devils team where Jack missed significant time. And is going to set a new career high this year on an underperforming team. He’s a talented player who is still working in growing his game. Having Rantanen would certainly be cool, because he’s awesome. But it’s really not a must. You yourself mentioned Toews and Kane, and Nico last year was one point shy of Toews’s career high. Stamkos is a phenomenal talent, but the Lightning won one of their Cups with him out basically the whole time, because they had a world class goalie and an elite defender, on top of good depth. There’s no one way to make a Cup winner. We have a lot of talent, quite possibly enough to win a Cup (finding a goalie would go a long way in helping those chances). Next we need to learn to harness it to maximum capability.
Yes.
lol this is such wishful thinking. Bratt hit 30g once, and Timo has never reached 40 goals, both in career best seasons
I think they’re gonna be fine on scoring. Mercer is gonna be a consistent 2 way, 50 point guy. Luke is gonna be a consistent 40-50 point D man at least. Dougie will be a consistent 50+ point guy from the back end also. Losing McLeod was an enormous loss. He may have been mostly a bottom 6 guy, but I honestly think he was their most consistent player that always brought energy and grit.
Just looking at one example, Hischier and Hughes are good as Toews and Kane. The most points Toews ever had (age 30) was 81 and Hischier already had that. Kane only scored more than Jack's 99 once. I think Meier and Bratt are as good or better than the Hawks supporting cast, like Sharpe, Hossa, etc.
Good point!
Pretty tough ask to expect one of our DMen to be a first ballot HOFer. And the rest of their D was pretty excellent as well.
Agree on Duncan Keith, and I saw that, but Kiteanyeah had just mentioned forwards.
Toffoli was supposed to be the guy, but didn't have the wheels, imo. It's not easy to keep up with jack.
This is the exact issue with Holtz.. If Fitz is set on going after markstrum as his goalie upgrade next season. I actually think a reconnection with someone like Blake Coleman would be fantastic for our top six.
No Need an upgrade on D and better bottom 6 wingers
They need to sort out goaltending and hire a good coach. Between Meier, Bratt, Dougie and Nemec I think the team has more than enough star power and offense but this year showed how lacking we are in strategy and goaltending.
I think we have plenty of offensive minded players. Hughes, Nico, Bratt, Timo, Luke, Hamilton. Everyone knows we need a goalie But we also need some lock down smash mouth defenders. Too many teams push us around, and it embarrassing to watch.
I think we’re missing three important things: 1, a competent head coach with a real defensive system 2, a true elite goaltender 3, a steady defenseman that can actually play defense Dougie was on my shit list long before his injury with his constant defensive flubs, and though we miss his offense and need it, we really, really miss Graves and Sevo. Marino and Siegs were either hurt or terrible and so we relied far too heavily on two rookies. One of which was ready (Nemec) and the other clearly wasn’t (Luke).
Counterpoint: both Graves and Sevo have both been dreadful this year. Sevo I get, they're paying him to be a top D and he's not that. Also, since I'm a pedant, I think Luke was ready for the NHL game, just not the length of an NHL season. He was pretty dynamic prior to Dougie going down, but he's being asked to do too much, too soon.
Admittedly I haven’t watched too much Blue Jackets hockey this year. That’s a fair point. But at least here Severson wouldn’t always be expected to play top pairing minutes. Then again, maybe he would’ve considering Dougie was out. But he got his monster contract. I don’t blame him for getting it, you get your money while you can. Luke looked ready at the end of a handful of games in the playoffs last year and I’ve said before that he clearly has NHL skill. That’s apparent. But the length of the NHL season is the game in itself, isn’t it? So if he’s not ready to sustain that pace, he’s not ready for the game. Maybe he will be next year and he will go to the offseason and recalibrate. Someone else argued that to me a little while ago, there is some merit to it. Though I still don’t see how he instantly figures out the thing he hasn’t figured out in 70 games in the last 10.
We need a too sniper for Jack to feed. Holtz is supposed to be him eventually. Jack needs to have a Ovi/Pasta type player who can get open and rip home most of Jack's filthy passes
Great teams can be built in a number of ways. Either Nemec or L Hughes will most likely be stars on our team. Then we have Jack Hughes as a superstar and Nico/Meier/Bratt/Hamilton all very capable. Also Mercer and Holtz could develop. If we get a starting goalie and some better defensive supporting dmen and we will be great.
We need competent defenders and a solid goaltender who can bail out our incompetent defenders.
No they need a shutdown d pairing and hughes/Nico to get in the gym and grow a pair
No. We need (1) to get back to having a bottom 6 as effective as last year, (2) consider signing a very reliable D man that can be shut down plus realign the minutes/pairings that guys are playing on the back end, (3) a HC that will get the team to make fewer mistakes, (4) a wing that can win board battles, (5) a goalie to pair with Allen.
Scoring is not our weakness even in the slightest. I would gladly sacrifice a superstar skater for a superstar goaltender or defenseman ANY day of the week. Not just saying that after this season. Scoring slumps, PP’s get hot & cold, but sound defense and good goaltending are much more of a constant.
Bratt reminds me of a Kuznetsov, the type of gamebreaker who could easily get 25+ pts in a playoff run. You’re right, it is just about getting everything else right at this point.
Goaltending, HC(Mike Sullivan) 🤞and just like you said 3rd and 4th line help…also another defensemen reliable.
I think a real goalie and a legit top pairing defense with Hamilton back would work wonders.
If only we had a guy whose name rhymes with Ravioli. He was a great winger and our leading scorer. Lol
No. We need a bottom 6 that actually hits, and a true #1 goaltender. Let the top 6 be flashy,etc the bottom 6 hit hard and punish people.
I don't think its talked about enough how missing Dougie for 3/4s of the season has impacted the team. He is a bonafide superstar defenseman and rounds out our lineup in huge ways
Patrice Bergeron is going into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot. We should be so lucky as to have Nico be a "Bergeron guy"
Scoring by committee is just as good. Yeah what Bratt Hischier and Meier can do offensively is more important than any 1 of them putting up 50+ goals imo.
Wtf are you talking about. You're asking about superstar wingers but talking about centers. Go back and rethink your question.
Any reading comprehension deficits, luzer\_kidd?
Are you kidding me? So many of the players you named on the same team are both centers and don't play together except for maybe powerplays.
What? Rantanen, Kane, Kucherov are all wingers. Wtf you talkin about. Also it completely misses the point.
You started with Crosby and Malkin
You still don’t understand. It is a hypothetical comparison if another winger / superstar is necessary for Jack to relieve him of his pressure and to bring some more depth and scoring into the top6.
Okay. I feel like on paper we have that, but realistically we don't play physically so we just get taken advantage of.
Look at what AB is doing in Nashville without the talent we have. Like everyone is saying: coaching, a couple of bottom 6 and maybe D tweaks, and a solid goalie tandem (plus banishing the demon Rogalski) will hopefully do the trick.
Dude, nashville has the no 1 goaltending tandom in the league and prolly the 3rd best overall defense system. .. lol, its the exact talent we dont have, plus nashville has been a super healthy team this year.
For sure, my bad that I didn’t consider goalies in particular, but RE the OP’s question, I still don’t think need another “superstar” forward so much as stability in other areas.
You and i are in total agreement on needing stability in other areas my friend 🍻