Todd Cordell: New Jersey Devils: On Clowe, McLeod & Zacha

Who would hire a Clown as an assistant coach?

I'm new to the site!! The Devils are my 2nd favourite team!! Hello!!

Todd Cordell: New Jersey Devils: On Clowe, McLeod & Zacha
- Todd.Cordell

Good for clowe, hopefully he can make a career of it.

As for the kids i would only want to see zacha make it if he can do something in the preseason.

I'm new to the site!! The Devils are my 2nd favourite team!! Hello!!
- RiellyAwesome

Greetings..

Good for clowe, hopefully he can make a career of it.

As for the kids i would only want to see zacha make it if he can do something in the preseason.
- shvingter88

I kinda think he might be the only one who does for forwards. On opening night at least. For D, I think Santini is on the opening day roster.

I can definitely see Q and especially Wood being mid season call ups. Q more for top 9, but Wood is already built like an NHL player and has speed and forecheck, could be a dark horse for a 4th line opening night roster spot.

Good for clowe, hopefully he can make a career of it.

As for the kids i would only want to see zacha make it if he can do something in the preseason.
- shvingter88

I really believe Zacha will make it on the roster

Why has Sam Gagner not signed with Jersey yet. Seems like such an obvious signing for us.

I'm new to the site!! The Devils are my 2nd favourite team!! Hello!!
- RiellyAwesome

Please, you're hurting my brain. Get off troll.

Taylor Hall will wear #9. Thank god, I can finally get my Parise jersey fixed.

Quotes not working - #9 it is

Does Zacha make sense in a bottom 6 role?

I don't think "bottom 6" will be the same, seems Devils are working on a system of 3 scoring lines. Of course we don't know exactly what DSP, Boucher and Bennett may be, but Zacha could have a decent line around him if lines we play in a way where we have at least one scorer on each line and build around that.

Hall-Henrique-DSP (DSP played well with Henrique last year with Stempniak gone)
Boucher-Zajac-Palmieri (our carry over line from last year)
Cammalleri-Zacha-Bennett (Camm could get a little less stress on him and possibly not break down so easy....a lot of thing line depends on health, but Devils will use the year to find the right fits moving forward)

I don't think "bottom 6" will be the same, seems Devils are working on a system of 3 scoring lines. Of course we don't know exactly what DSP, Boucher and Bennett may be, but Zacha could have a decent line around him if lines we play in a way where we have at least one scorer on each line and build around that.

Hall-Henrique-DSP (DSP played well with Henrique last year with Stempniak gone)
Boucher-Zajac-Palmieri (our carry over line from last year)
Cammalleri-Zacha-Bennett (Camm could get a little less stress on him and possibly not break down so easy....a lot of thing line depends on health, but Devils will use the year to find the right fits moving forward)
- Mewsik2myears

I like the idea of 3 scoring lines. I also like Cammalleri with Zacha as he is quick, creative, has excellent hockey IQ and has great hands - all things that would benefit Zacha to have exposure to. "Third line" doesn't have to mean third best, just a third grouping.

We need better depth at RW. We now have plenty at LW and C. I see Gagner is still available any thoughts on him? I know Shero said we were going to "sit tight" and then "but you never know" so I think thats all generic GM open ended talk bs.

Why has Sam Gagner not signed with Jersey yet. Seems like such an obvious signing for us

- Leniwm1

Because he's not a very good player. No need to sign a guy like him we can leave the spot open for the younger guys to compete for. He doesn't fit into our long term plans and even if he added a little offense, it wouldn't be enough to allow us to really compete. So it's best to just stick to the plan, get another decent draft pick, give our prospects another year to develop, and move on from there.

Because he's not a very good player. No need to sign a guy like him we can leave the spot open for the younger guys to compete for. He doesn't fit into our long term plans and even if he added a little offense, it wouldn't be enough to allow us to really compete. So it's best to just stick to the plan, get another decent draft pick, give our prospects another year to develop, and move on from there.
- ATLL765

Well his wife is smoking hot.
And if a high draft pick / youngsters play was the plan, Lovejoy and Fiddler are just wasting space. At least Gagner has age on his side.

It's nice to see Beau Bennett get a chance for a new start here in NJ. He looks like he could be a great player if he can put it together and stay healthy. Having said that, based on what I have seen and read, I see him as having about a 15-20% chance at best of him being succsessful with his new start and sustainably having an impact to this team. I really hope I am wrong, but it doesn't look very promising.

Because he's not a very good player. No need to sign a guy like him we can leave the spot open for the younger guys to compete for. He doesn't fit into our long term plans and even if he added a little offense, it wouldn't be enough to allow us to really compete. So it's best to just stick to the plan, get another decent draft pick, give our prospects another year to develop, and move on from there.
- ATLL765

A one year contract helping hand at RW would be ok with me.

Well his wife is smoking hot.
And if a high draft pick / youngsters play was the plan, Lovejoy and Fiddler are just wasting space. At least Gagner has age on his side.
- Leniwm1

Can't really go with all young guys on D...would be nice for them to learn from someone beyond Greene. Lovejoy might not be great, but at least he's dealt with pressure before. I don't want to see what happened to Larsson get dumped on Santini too early and too fast.

As far as Fiddler, I don't think we are looking to throw young guys with potential on the 4th line. I would rather a veteran there than Blandisi or Quenneville so those guys can play 1st line in Albany and deal with more situational play.

I don't think "bottom 6" will be the same, seems Devils are working on a system of 3 scoring lines. Of course we don't know exactly what DSP, Boucher and Bennett may be, but Zacha could have a decent line around him if lines we play in a way where we have at least one scorer on each line and build around that.

Hall-Henrique-DSP (DSP played well with Henrique last year with Stempniak gone)
Boucher-Zajac-Palmieri (our carry over line from last year)
Cammalleri-Zacha-Bennett (Camm could get a little less stress on him and possibly not break down so easy....a lot of thing line depends on health, but Devils will use the year to find the right fits moving forward)
- Mewsik2myears

Not too shabby at all

Well his wife is smoking hot.
And if a high draft pick / youngsters play was the plan, Lovejoy and Fiddler are just wasting space. At least Gagner has age on his side.
- Leniwm1

Gagner was ok as long as he's playing nowhere near the wall. Decent skill level and he picked up his backchecking game as the year went along. Just kind of a meh player all around but you could do a lot worse on your 3rd line

Gagner was ok as long as he's playing nowhere near the wall. Decent skill level and he picked up his backchecking game as the year went along. Just kind of a meh player all around but you could do a lot worse on your 3rd line
- Just5

He seems like a guaranteed 40 pts. Pretty good if done on the 3rd line. But I am getting the vibe that he is a, meh player. So maybe its for the best.

Also I've seen a lot of people on here putting that French guy in a projected line up. As if he's actually going to make the roster. Guaranteed ahl player.

Can't really go with all young guys on D...would be nice for them to learn from someone beyond Greene. Lovejoy might not be great, but at least he's dealt with pressure before. I don't want to see what happened to Larsson get dumped on Santini too early and too fast.

As far as Fiddler, I don't think we are looking to throw young guys with potential on the 4th line. I would rather a veteran there than Blandisi or Quenneville so those guys can play 1st line in Albany and deal with more situational play.

- Mewsik2myears

Exactly. Need someone to replace Gionta and Tootoo on the 4th line since we're not going to throw guys like Zacha, Blandisi, or Quenneville on the 4th line. Rather keep them in Albany to play bigger minutes there than get 8 mins a game with crap linemates.

As for the defense, we had to sign someone with the Larsson trade. We would have had too many open spots. The only young guys with a real chance to be ready for the NHL this season are Santini, Mozik, and maybe Scarlett. Santini is the only one of that group I have real hopes for. If the other two can even become our go to #7 defenseman, that would be a success for them in my mind.

Without the Lovejoy signing, our defense would have looked like this:

Greene-Severson
Moore-Merrill
Helgeson/Auvitu-Santini/Auvitu

That is a truly frightening group. So without signing Lovejoy, we'd be heading into camp with only 4 defenseman that have played any significant amount of time in the NHL and then an pairing of rookies. That's a disaster waiting to happen. Even with Lovejoy it still doesn't look very good, but it at least bumps Merill to the 3rd pairing and only leaves one spot open for a rookie to try to claim before we make a desperation signing from whatever garbage is left in FA at that point.

I could care less that this guy Auvitu was the voted best defenseman in the Finnish league last year, he's already 26 and outside of his last two seasons in the Finnish Liiga, his point totals weren't anything special. in 216GP in the Liiga, he only has 19 goals and 38 assists for a total of 57 points. 21 of those points came last season in the form of 6 goals and 15 assists. So prior to last season, his career totals were 168GP with 13 goals and 25 assists for 38 points. That's pretty underwhelming, even in a defensive league such as the Finnish Liiga.

I think this season would be considered a great success if he even becomes a regular in the lineup. If he could manage to put up 5 goals and 15 assists on the 3rd pairing with maybe some PP time with the 2nd unit then I think it'd be considered a home run of a signing.

More likely though, he has a year like Mozik did last year where he gets a few games in the NHL tops and plays the rest of the year in Albany to adjust to the NA game and ice.

I really think that in the next draft, the focus needs to be on restocking on defense prospects. We've gone forward heavy in the last couple drafts, so if there's a defenseman that seems like they could be BPA on the board for our 1st rd pick, I think we have to go with that before we're looking at the pipeline and see no prospect with a real chance to even be a 2nd pairing guy in the NHL.

Also I've seen a lot of people on here putting that French guy in a projected line up. As if he's actually going to make the roster. Guaranteed ahl player.
- shvingter88

yeah, that guy might be an NHLer one day but needs to adjust to NHL sized rink and not bullpoop competition.