Quoting: FireFitzgerald
That's were I see the problem, why are the Devils pushing their chips in now? They beat the Rangers 4-3, lost to Hurricanes 4-1 last year, and missed the playoffs by 12 pts this year. If they made it to the 2nd round or ECF before losing this year with Vanecek/Schmid/ Daws playing bad again; this trade makes sense.
I know this is pessimistic but I think this will be Hall/Subban/ Gusev 2.0. Ruff took the blame for this year (like Hynes also after signing an extension) and Fitzgerald overacting in the offseason (Shero with PK/Gusev). Hopefully I am wrong.
Be optimistic.
1. The 2019 Devils were still mostly Lou's team. Seven of the twelve top scorers on that team were leftovers from pre-Shero era.
2. Hall was actually quite good for us. If you didn't notice, he won a Hart trophy here. And his sale has led to Mercer, Siegenthaler and key pieces used in Meier and Markstrom trades.
3. Subban at time of acquisition was 11.3% of cap. Markstrom will be 4.7% of cap. (Subban, Hall, Goose were combined 25% of cap)
4. The rebuild that NJD is somewhat modeled after (the late 2000s Blackhawks) went through numerous goalies before they settled on Crawford (Lalime, Khabibulin, Huet, Niemi, Turco, Emery)...maybe Markstrom is ultimately the guy who leads us to promised land, he will make the team better.
5. Be thankful that Fitzy didn't make a rash decision at deadline when other GMs were trying to get him pony up more than what he was willing to pay.
6. We did not have to include a massive contract to acquire player.
7. Markstrom chose us as much as we chose him. Just like Timo. Its a sign that players want to be here. That is good for both quality of play...and what we pay for it. (Subban, Gusev, Hall...none of them wanted to come here at first. Gusev agreed only when we threw more money at him.)
8. We now have most of our core locked in at fixed rate for next 2-3 years...(and all of our core until team control for that period).
9. We have enough prospects coming through our system that we can continue to add each year without having 1st rounders (our core is set, we just need reinforcements or guys to fill holes).
10. We only had one home-grown late 1st round pick play for us last year (Mercer was #18 overall). We also had as regulars...two 7th rounders (Palat, Haula), two 6th rounders (Marino, Bratt)...and have seen a number of our own late picks turnout well (Sharangovich, Zetterlund, Gritsyuk, etc)
11. Among the two teams in cup finals today, neither has a 1st round pick this year (nor had one last year).
12. If we were "pushing all in" now, we would have seen 10th overall pick moved, Casey, Gritsyuk, Hameenaho, Holtz, Mercer...but they are still here (and we own 19 picks in next three drafts)
Be optimistic...good things are coming.