Sam Woo: PODCAST: Devils Vs Penguins (Pregame)

Lines today:

Palat-Nico-Bratt
Haula-Jack-Tatar
Boqvist-Sharangovich-Mercer
Wood-McLeod-Bastian

Siegs-Dougie
Graves-Sevo
Bahl-Smith

VV

Happy New Year, Sam.

Hoping for a win today.

Nico not on the bench.

Happy New Year, Sam.

Hoping for a win today.
- Pomegrant

Don’t go home with hope

Nico not on the bench.
- vlongo4419

He has returned for the 2nd.

Vitek stole these points. And the refs actually got a call right in OT.

Friedman in his newest pod said other teams in the East expect the Devils to do 'something major'. He singled out the Devils in regards to Meier and how much they really like him. Then him and Marek joked about how the Devils were going to corner the market on Swiss players.

He also mentioned/confirmed that the Devils have been around Bo Horvat, but Timo Meier is the more likely target.

Friedman in his newest pod said other teams in the East expect the Devils to do 'something major'. He singled out the Devils in regards to Meier and how much they really like him. Then him and Marek joked about how the Devils were going to corner the market on Swiss players.

He also mentioned/confirmed that the Devils have been around Bo Horvat, but Timo Meier is the more likely target.
- vlongo4419

I wonder how we would fit either in with the cap

Unless they let sevs and graves go along with whatever we trade and sign a cheap vet and nemec and Hughes

I am thinking a trade would include 1st, maybe Sharo and maybe holtz

I wonder how we would fit either in with the cap

Unless they let sevs and graves go along with whatever we trade and sign a cheap vet and nemec and Hughes

I am thinking a trade would include 1st, maybe Sharo and maybe holtz
- dmarsden2988

Yep, if we end up making a big deal like this salary needs to go the other way. Sharangovich is likely to be involved, and I assume Fitz will see if he can get them to take Johnsson as a cap dump.

I wonder how we would fit either in with the cap

Unless they let sevs and graves go along with whatever we trade and sign a cheap vet and nemec and Hughes

I am thinking a trade would include 1st, maybe Sharo and maybe holtz
- dmarsden2988

Palat LTIR until playoffs

Don’t go home with hope
- shvingter88

Yep, if we end up making a big deal like this salary needs to go the other way. Sharangovich is likely to be involved, and I assume Fitz will see if he can get them to take Johnsson as a cap dump.
- vlongo4419

Surely trades also include dumping Wood to any team that will accept a warm body. He's essentially useless.

Surely trades also include dumping Wood to any team that will accept a warm body. He's essentially useless.
- Pomegrant

One would think that, but unfortunately I it seems like Fitz likes him. He went on and on about how missed Wood was in the locker room last season or some bs.

I would be trying to dump Wood and McLeod literally anywhere lol. Moving them is pretty unlikely, so at this point im just hoping that Fitz doesn't re-sign them in the offseason.

One would think that, but unfortunately I it seems like Fitz likes him. He went on and on about how missed Wood was in the locker room last season or some bs.

I would be trying to dump Wood and McLeod literally anywhere lol. Moving them is pretty unlikely, so at this point im just hoping that Fitz doesn't re-sign them in the offseason.
- vlongo4419

Unfortunately we're going to be stuck with McLeod because he wins faceoffs and that's the only prerequisite to staying in the lineup for replacement level players.

Fitz saying Wood is a good locker room guy is just the stuff you use to trick bad GMs to trading for your horrible player. Look at Reaves getting traded to Minnesota because he's tough and good in the locker room. Somebody will take him for sure.

Unfortunately we're going to be stuck with McLeod because he wins faceoffs and that's the only prerequisite to staying in the lineup for replacement level players.

Fitz saying Wood is a good locker room guy is just the stuff you use to trick bad GMs to trading for your horrible player. Look at Reaves getting traded to Minnesota because he's tough and good in the locker room. Somebody will take him for sure.
- Pomegrant

Yeah, it's unfortunate. McLeod brings absolutely nothing to the table except being good at faceoffs. Both him and Wood have been worth negative wins so far this year, the only ones on the team.

If the analytics department has as big of a say in the moves we make as people say, then Fitz would definitely be trying to sell Woody. But Fitz' biggest flaw is that he has some of that "hockey man" in him and he'll keep Wood for his playstyle for the playoffs. Everybody sees that Wood is poop, but Fitz still likes him unfortunately. It's the same reason he claimed a plug like Geertsen and kept him around for so long.

It's annoying to me because we have the center depth to not have to play McLeod at all but Ruff refusing to play Haula at 3rd C just messes everything up. It also means that Sharangovich, a player who would be prime to trade to upgrade, is also not getting a lot of looks which devalues him in trades. He's competent defensively and needs a center to help drive play for him to produce but he isn't good at faceoffs so he's not allowed to play with Hughes, because Hughes is bad at faceoffs. It's this kind of nonsense that holds the team back.

Also hard to believe that either McLeod/Wood get a spot consistently over Zetterlund who has been strong in limited icetime but also has been effective playing up and down the lineup. Understandably if you scratch Wood, a player you're presumably trying to trade, then teams are going to see that as a red flag and lower his value so you run him out there every night and hope he strings together a few hot games and move him. But that line getting caved in every night is very concerning and needs to be fixed sooner than later.

Yep, if we end up making a big deal like this salary needs to go the other way. Sharangovich is likely to be involved, and I assume Fitz will see if he can get them to take Johnsson as a cap dump.
- vlongo4419

Just think it may be hard without some kind of overhaul

Even for this season we would need to move out salary and maybe have sharks retain

We still have to sign bratt too

Just think it may be hard without some kind of overhaul

Even for this season we would need to move out salary and maybe have sharks retain

We still have to sign bratt too
- dmarsden2988

We only have 10 players under contract for next season so I think we're pretty good to fit them. Meier is seemingly more contingent on negotiating his contract before a trade in the ~8mil range and same as Bratt. Graves needs a new contract too. It'll be tight but I think it can all work.

Just think it may be hard without some kind of overhaul

Even for this season we would need to move out salary and maybe have sharks retain

We still have to sign bratt too
- dmarsden2988

Its really not that hard to fit lol. You're way over-estimating how hard it is to get cap space in this league. Easily fit Meier with just one of Sharangovich or Johnsson being in the trade and we send our 3 healthy scratches that are wasting away in the pressbox down to the AHL. That's without any salary retention from the Sharks.

These trades are all over ACGM on Capfriendly. It doesn't take an overhaul either in the short term for this season or in the long term with extensions for both him and Bratt, not even close.

Its really not that hard to fit lol. You're way over-estimating how hard it is to get cap space in this league. Easily fit Meier with just one of Sharangovich or Johnsson being in the trade and we send our 3 healthy scratches that are wasting away in the pressbox down to the AHL. That's without any salary retention from the Sharks.

These trades are all over ACGM on Capfriendly. It doesn't take an overhaul either in the short term for this season or in the long term with extensions for both him and Bratt, not even close.
- vlongo4419

I haven't really looked into the cap situation but knew we just be close to the cap as we had johnsson being sent down to Binghamton due to the cap if I remember correctly

Not even sure who's under contract next season and have to make sure that it's not too too heavy where there is absolutely no depth

The players I know under contract
Nico
Hughes
Hamilton
Siegenthaler
Palat
Marino
Vanecek
Mercer
Holtz

Even after tatar, johnsson and others come off, need to replace those with hopefully relative production, and probably sign graves or severson and may be a raise there so it will be close when you add 16 in bratt and Meier for example

But a top 6 of the following would be pretty impressive

Mercer Hughes bratt
Palat Nico Meier

I haven't really looked into the cap situation but knew we just be close to the cap as we had johnsson being sent down to Binghamton due to the cap if I remember correctly

Not even sure who's under contract next season and have to make sure that it's not too too heavy where there is absolutely no depth

The players I know under contract
Nico
Hughes
Hamilton
Siegenthaler
Palat
Marino
Vanecek
Mercer
Holtz

Even after tatar, johnsson and others come off, need to replace those with hopefully relative production, and probably sign graves or severson and may be a raise there so it will be close when you add 16 in bratt and Meier for example

But a top 6 of the following would be pretty impressive

Mercer Hughes bratt
Palat Nico Meier
- dmarsden2988

Yeah, we have plenty of cap space. We'd have just under 39M in cap space in the offseason in this trade scenario. If we traded for Meier(assuming both Sharangovich and Holtz are gone in that deal):

-Him and Bratt are likely ~16-16.5M. That leaves ~22M.
-Graves ~4-4.5M. That leaves ~17.5-18M.
-Remaining RFAs: McLeod, Bastian, Boqvist, Zetterlund, and Bahl. None of which will get over 1M. Leaves ~12.5-13M.
-Luke and Nemec are another 1.95M. That leaves ~10.5-11M.

Once we clean up our own contracts on the inside we'd likely have around 10.5-11M to add a backup goalie(if Blackwood is gone, maybe its just Schmid?) and 2 forwards(I think Fitz looks for a bottom 6 player in FA. But maybe Tatar is re-signed? Maybe Gritsyuk/Clarke/some other prospect takes a spot in camp?). It's really not too tight, Fitz has some wiggle room.

Fitz could maybe look for a depth D in FA too but i dont think theres a spot to add someone there. We will already have a ton of D on the roster and competing for the 6th/7th D spot(Dougie, Marino, Siegs, Smith, Luke, Nemec, probably Graves, and Bahl/Ohkotiuk/Mukhamadullin in the mix)

Everyone is avoiding the topic of who we really need to trade for and that is Coleman. Man this team needs that guy back. Get some life back into the bottom 6.

@ryannovo62
#NJDevils forwards Alexander Holtz and Fabian Zetterlund haven't seen the lineup in weeks.

What's the plan moving forward?

Lindy Ruff said he'll "try to get them games" this week during a busy pre-ASG schedule.

It's nice to have an actual reporter ask tough questions to coaching staff. Zetterlund absolutely deserves to be in the lineup over Wood, for example. It's also interesting to see them skating with Shara centering the fourth line (another Haula can't play 3rd C for whatever reason moment).

Sharks have multiple scouts and their AGM Tim Burke at the game tonight.