New season, new thread

Nemec with a snipe

Holtz on the board too

Holtz looks much approved from last year

How should the lines look for next season?

Holtz in the top 6?
Mercer on the wing?
N Foote in?
Who's on Hughes/Hischier's wing?

Holtzy looks good

nemec looks good

Meier -- Hischier -- Holtz
Toffoli -- Jack Hughes -- Bratt
Palat -- Haula -- Mercer
Nolan Foote -- McLeod -- Bastian

Siegenthaler -- Hamilton
Luke Hughes -- Marino
Bahl -- Miller

Vaneschmid

Bench: Nosek, Lazar, Cal Foote
Notable Cuts: Smith, Tierney, Clarke, Thompson


Some notes
1. Nosek...has been playing center, could be 4LW...no obvious place to put him other than 13F
2. Nemec...looks ready, but do we want three kids back there? If we had stronger defensive partner than Bahl to cover for him, it would be more comforting.
3. Bahl...has not looked great. No risk of losing roster spot, but may end up in rotation for 5/6/7
4. Smith...could face waivers, especially if Nemec makes team. But also could lose 7th D spot to Cal Foote
5. Tierney...assume he gets cut...cannot even notice him out there.
6. Willman...not sure why he is here.
7. Clarke...toughest one of all for me. He has looked ready, but with waiver exemption, they'd probably rather see him play in Utica than sit in Newark.
8. Thompson...ticketed for Utica top-6
9. Kallgren, Kinkaid...Utica bound
10. Misyul...looked pretty good in his game. Better than Vilen.
11. Bowers...looked better than expected, but safe bet for Utica. Bet we see him in games this year if injuries arise.

He looked good in 2021 pre-season too....led team in scoring if recall correctly.

I think he makes team out of camp. Fingers crossed from there.

Good day for Devils prosoects…

Alex Holtz scored
Seamus Casey with 5-point night
Cam Squires scores in OT
Lenni Hämeenaho scored his 6th in 8 Liiga games

The future is bright

From The Athletic preview

Lines for tonight potential devils everyday lineup?

https://x.com/amandacstein/status/1709577937253445716?s=46&t=_p4Uw8cc0VxTB51nZfaBww

I assume (and greatly hope) one of Bahl/Nemec/Miller gets in over smith, and maybe one of the young guys (bastian/foote/tyce) gets in over nosek or lazar, but overall this looks like what it will probably be

I just posted the same in another thread. This is how it looks right now:

Toffoli - Hughes - Bratt
Meier - Hischier - Holtz
Palat - Haula - Mercer
Nosek (Foote) - McLeod - Bastian (Lazar)

Siegenthaler - Hamilton
Bahl - Marino
Hughes - Miller (Smtih)

Vanecek
Schmid

deadliest top 9 in the league.

and then once nemec and hughes are fully developed in 2 years, should have that whole top 9 still and then a 5 deep dcore+whoever is 3LD of Hughes, Nemec, Siegs, Hamilton, Marino. Ridiculous future

Remaining position/roster battles

4LW: Foote vs Nosek
4RW: Bastian vs Lazar
3RD: Miller, Smith, Nemec

Roster Bubble (F): if they top-9 and McLeod are all locks, here are the remaining guys right for final 3-4 spots. Ordered from most likely to least likely to make roster:

-- Bastian
-- Nosek
-- Foote
-- Lazar
-- Thompson
-- Tierney
-- Halonen
-- Bowers
-- Dowling

Roster Bubble (D): I think the Siegs, Hamilton, Marino, Hughes, and Bahl are locks. There are the probably two spots for the following guys (Nemec is a separate question)

-- Miller
-- Smith
-- Hatakka

(I think Nemec gets sent down for development/roster management reasons).

If we can get the goaltending…

2020-21…3.16….0.897
2021-22…3.52….0.886
2022-23…2.56….0.908
2023-24…2.18….0.920 (pre-season)

(Team figures)

Need Hischier, L Hughes, and Nemec, to be willing to take discounts on their next contracts to make this a true decade long dynasty

27 mill AAV between the 3 of them and I'll be a happy man

On the low end…. (~$22m)
- Hischier gets Bergeron’s 10.7% ($10.1m)
- Luke takes Dahlin’s 7.4% bridge ($6.8m)
- Nemec takes Dobson’s 4.8% bridge ($4.5m)

On the high end… (~$30m)
- Hischier gets Barkov 12.5% ($11.5m)
- Hughes gets Makar’s 11% ($9.6m)
- Nemec gets Sanderson’s 9.6% ($8.4m)

(And worst case, they are stink and end up on waivers)

Pre-season: 7 wins, 0 losses

How do we feel about this?

A) “it’s good….they are playing well, getting off on right foot, setting winning habits”
B) “it’s bad….it may give false confidence, it could be a curse, using up too much good hockey too early”
C) “it doesn’t matter…these are just exhibition games, none of it counts for anything”

Seamus Casey

Tweets won’t work so here is the link

Lessss goooo

Kind of a brutal opening period

Game 1 vs DET
Impressive: Jack, Luke, Marino, VV, Dougie
Dissapointing: Lazar, Smith, Mercer, Bratt

It seemed all our offense flowed up the left side. It was almost as if Lindy said “their RD are weaker on rush” and attacked it like they would a weak Cornerback in football.

We need to get puck work down a little better…a lot of sloppy passes, pucks skipping over sticks, etc.

Holtz decision making needs work. There was one play where he received the puck just outside their blueline and instead of dumping it in, he just threw it blinding into middle of the ice. Could have easily led to odd man rush the other way. He may be tough to play on road games.

Also…I guess Jack wanted to kiss the Lady Byng goodbye. Although Walman should have been called to account for his antics.