Fitzy Gone Fishing (SOTFA EP307)

Are the rumors running dry? Or does the Palat thickens? We'll talk about Tom Fitzgerald.

By Sam Woo and Nick Villano

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Happy Devils Wednesday. This is the State of the Fan
Address presented by puckson Pitchforks dot com. I'm your host,
Sam will here with the editor in chief, Nick Volados,
streaming live on Facebook Live, YouTube Live, That's live, and
Twitch on the Let's Go Double Network. The title of

(01:02):
this podcast fits egon fishing could mean a lot of things,
a lot of things. Got a lot of hockey opinions
on puckson Fitchfords dot com. Some I'm saying that the
Devils will not make the playoffs yet. The Metropolitan Division

(01:26):
is a little weak, a little bit weak then previous years.
We'll talk all about that. Everyone's filing in right now.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Nick, we got a good show coming up.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, we're warming up right now.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
It's the awesome saying. I know there's not a lot
going on, but there's a lot to talk about. Because
here's the thing, Sam, is they if this is it,
it's July twenty third, I preachas on July fifth.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Now, I think you're not going to see him move
until training camp. I think it'll the gym's go on
vacation in August, and you know, the NHL Network put
out their their preview of what they think the Devil's
lineup is going to be. And you have, once again,

(02:22):
first line, Andre Polot. I'll say it again, first line,
Andre Polot du dum so the UH. A lot of
people thought that the Devil does have a much easier

(02:43):
time trading him. I was trying to clarify this, but
I believe that he has a no trade list that
blocks twenty one teams, so you can only really be
traded ten teams of those knowledge he doesn't want to
be traded even if he don't want you know, that
doesn't want to be here, he's he's negotiated that that right.

(03:08):
And and here's the thing. One of the biggest mistakes
of the Tom Fitzgerald tenure is he just gave these
no move clauses out like candy, Like, why are you
giving a no move clause to Brendanan Dylan, Like no
offense to the guy, But he's a four million dollar player,
Like that's not the type of player's supposed get no
move clause. So he, you know, and now he's it's

(03:31):
even with the you know one from a full now
move clause down to a ten team no trade clause,
and he still can't move these guys, you know, and
Dawson Mercer has been moved either, Dougie Hamilton has been moved,
which I don't think he will be at this point.
And Luke Hughes isn't signed yet. So it's it's it's

(03:54):
been a frustrating offseason. I will say this, Sam, Often,
when when there's a frustrating off season, sometimes you get
a really good season out of the devils. You remember,
like that twenty twenty two offseason, we weren't loving it, right,
it was kind of I'm trying to remember who exactly
they got. I remember people were mad because they kept

(04:18):
Lindy Rough. That was the big one, right that they
they didn't move Lindy Rough. I'm trying to remember who
they signed in the twenty twenty two offs. Do you
remember what was the big move of the twenty twenty
two off season?

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Names are escaping me. I hate when you put me
on the spot.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Sorry no, because I'm looking. I'm thinking about it like
the twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Think I'm thinking of the twenty twenty twenty seventeen eighteen season.
I remember when you when you signed Gibbons, you know
all these like you know what was the other the
other guy, Brian Boyle all that. I kind of liked
that season because it was you know, you knew you

(05:04):
were gonna get an Ekalah's your first overall in the
lineup as a rookie, but.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
That ended up just for lineup in the lineup. Was
that the year that the big one was they got
Will Butcher. Butcher was coming off the national championship with
Denver Ye. He was the I think it was a
Hobie Baker winner. It's like basically at the college MVP.
That was the biggest sign in that off season. But again,
you didn't think he was gonna be what he was.

(05:31):
He was really good that year, Butcher, and then you
got Jesper bradon lineup for the first time. Obviously Gibbons
was good for a hot minute and then he kind
of fell afterwards the end of the year. Yeah, I
mean the twenty twenty three season. The thing that stood
out at twenty twenty three is they had a pretty
disgusting right side. John Marino I think was one of

(05:54):
the big gets that year. They got John Marino in there.
Whose jersey's right on your head, So your right side
was John Marino. Dougie Hamilton and David Severerson had to
be probably the best right side in hockey. Maybe Colorado
is up there, but it was definitely one of the
best right sides in hockey. You had Ryan Graves on
the left side, you had I think Steagin Thaler was

(06:20):
on the left side. That was the first year he
was really good. I forget who the third guy is,
but you ended up putting Luke Cues in the lineup,
you know, later in the season, you know, at the
very end of the season. So that team, you know,
again the offseason, you're kind of like, well, you didn't
fire rough, You're you know, the moves you made are
kind of minimal. And I'm trying to remember who was

(06:43):
on Jack Cues's wing for most of that year. I
think that it was Halla. Was that the year they
did hollow for Zaka? Yeah, yep, that was that year.
And Halla had a terrible first half. He just couldn't
the in the net, just wanted his head.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
But I stuck with him and I doubled and tripled down.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
But listen, like all uh, the problem with holli isy
he kept getting hurt and tried to play through it.
And while it's commendable and hockey. That's just like, it
just hurts the team. You're taking down your entire line
if you if you're if you lost the step. But
when I look at this off season, I like the
Connor Brown signing. I like the the Donoff signing. I

(07:37):
like adding Gritzick to this lineup. I actually like Lamco.
I think he's he's an interesting player. And if he's
a thirteenth forwards, thirteenth far it's fine. You know. I
like that you brought back Alan. You know, you brought
back the tandem, so you got a lot of pretty detection

(08:00):
in net. I like that you're keeping Hamilton for one
more year. I thought, like, if you've got a really
good trade, like if somebody offered you something good, I'd
take go for it. Because that injury does still scare me.
But it might be easier to trade him in season,
or maybe it's easier to trade him next offseason. A
lot of people are talking about the the Simone Nemetz situation.

(08:23):
There's another reporter from Slovakia, I think it's from Slovakia,
came out with some stuff. I wouldn't pay no mind
to it. The timing is strange. There's a lot of
excuses for it, and a lot of not a lot
of them pointed Nemets. I think Nemets is gonna get
like I think. I don't have this confirmed knowledge, but

(08:44):
I would tell you I would be surprised if I
saw Covid Savage in twenty twenty five. I'm looking at
like the new year when he comes back again. I
don't have this like confirmed, I'm just kind of like
doing my own timetable and just listening. Like the Devils

(09:04):
wouldn't say he's not gonna be ready for the season
if he's only gonna be out for like three weeks,
because we've seen these guys, you know, work their way
to be ready for the season. When it's that close,
they're saying he's not gonna be ready for the season,
like we're talking about a couple of months. I think. So,
I think that Nemos is gonna be in the line
up either way for at least three months, unless something

(09:24):
crazy happened like Seamus Casey like completely outplays him. I
just don't see that happening. I think Shamus Casey is
a long way to go, But I think Demos doesn't.
I think Nemets is an NHL player, and you know,
you never know what's gonna happen between now in January,
Like there could be another injury. They could find the
Dougie Hamilton trade suitors. So you know, when when Covi

(09:45):
Seva's just about to be ready to come back, you
might have an injury on the left side, and Brett
Peschi is is well, you know, well to do to
play on the left side. You know, there's there's not
a ton when Covid Savage is out, there's not a
ton of defensive depth. You obviously uh Resan Schilawski, but

(10:11):
he was kind of mediocre the whole time, if not worse.
We mentioned Casey of Casey, but I can't think of
another depth guy they have on defense, can you?

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Oh, we we went through the entire roster.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, I don't think that there's anybody else that's that
you could like, you know, like I'm thinking of like
like a guy like Hataka would be good to have
right now, but they you know, they didn't offer sheet
him or they didn't give him a qualifying offer. Now
he's going overseas. We look at puck Pedia right now
just to see who's on the Devil Steve Angel.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Steve Angel wants us to know, you guys do know
that Grits and I'm in now whatever. Yeah, are going
to be in the NHL this coming season. I mean, look,
but in terms of defense, the youth depth, I mean

(11:18):
it's there. Uh and uh, you know, I don't know
why everybody wants to trade Dougie Hamilton. I'm I'm opposed
to it. M hm, I'm opposed to it. I like
the continuity keeping him there. I don't think the lineup
looks bad. I think really it boils down to and

(11:40):
it's kind of out of our control. Will there be
a healthy Luke Hues and will there be a healthy
Jack Cues?

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, I mean that's pretty much it. If you have
a healthy Luke and Jack Hughes and no unexpected major
injury like t Niak out to just for Brad's Timo Meyer.
I think if you have those five players, you know,
and you don't lose ball goalies, you have one of
Alan and Marks from healthy for the entire year. I
think there's a playoff team, easy easy playoff team.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
I'll tell you you know. They went into the playoffs.
I mean Luke Ces played one game barely a game
in the playoffs. I mean, you went with both without
both Hughes brothers against Carolina.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
After the first game out there, You're missing Segal for
most of the series.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Didn't they throw Kesey out there? They limited, they limited
I think they limited his time.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Like eight minutes or something, right, Yeah, I mean, here's
the thing, sim it's and that's good. That's good experience
for him. You know, if you're not going to get
a lot out of last year, give the young guys experience.
And I think that that playoff series is going to
be immense for Nemenz. It might be the reason why
his career is successful, is that one series. Like I'm

(13:05):
not trying to throw conjecture at you, but it could
be that important. I'll say this. The forwards aren't good enough.
I'll just be honest, But there's a path here for
them to be not as bad as they look on paper.
Right now, First and foremost, plot can't be in the

(13:29):
top six. It just can't happen. Find a different way
to do it. You just have to cut your losses there.
Put him on the third line of the fourth line.
He has to be in the bottom six. So what
I'm looking at you could do something fun where you
have maybe you do Jack Hughes with the Russians and

(13:51):
have grit Sick and the Donoff as his wingers and
kind of see if like you could do something really
fun there. I don't think it would be very good defensively,
which would be kind of an issue. But I think
it would be a matchup nightmare at all times. And
I think it would just be running gun and I
think it would be fast as heck, and you know
you're gonna really run guys off the ice. I think

(14:11):
you can do. I've said this last year. Cotter has
the skill set to play with Jack cues, he just
doesn't have the knowledge. Like he's just not a good
hockey IQ guy. Jack U sneaky, one of the best
hockey IQ's in the game. But if you want to

(14:32):
put a guy with him, he has to know what
he's supposed to do. If Codder spent his entire summer
watching tape like the the you know he's the guy
that you want on the line. He's gonna hit guys,
He's gonna get guys faces. Uh, he's gonna get dirty goals.
He's gonna be you know, you just gotta get him
in the right place at the right time. I think
Codter and Codder's pretty fast, so he can stick it.

(14:54):
So if you do Cotterer and Bratt with with with Hughes,
I think there's something there if you did, there's one
other guy. I was looking at that. I thought there's
like an outside chance that this could work if you
if everything just kind of works out. I don't want

(15:16):
to put Meyer with him. I don't think Meyer works
with Hughes. It's just we've tried it a couple of times.
It's just not it's not the right combination. Oh you
can try to, you know, if you get a much
better Mercer. There's something there with Mercer and something just
didn't click. And I'm telling you people, the Sheldon Keif

(15:39):
system is hard. And if you start off on the
wrong foot, which he did because he best part of
training camp for his contract negotiations, it's you're playing catch
up the whole season, and I think that's what he did.
I think Dustin Mars play catch up the whole season
and a ruined as season. I think he's gonna go
one of two ways. He's either gonna stay here and

(16:00):
just kind of be a less confident version of himself,
or he's gonna learn from those mistakes. He's going to
come into training camp ready to learn, and he's going
to rebuild the confidence of Sheldon Kief And then you'll
you'll have a really quality top line with Mercer, Hughes

(16:21):
and Bratt. I think your second line is kind of well, okay,
I guess you. You know a lot of people are
putting Nason there. Again, so Nico, Nason and Meyer. There's
something there. Nason's so slow, but it's it's something. And
then you're looking at something like like say you have

(16:43):
if you have Mercer on the top line, then you'll
have something like Cotter. Shoot, uh what I would do? Then? Yeah?
See that's the other thing, is you really need a

(17:04):
third line center? Because I'm looking at it, I'm like,
you know, I'm going in there. You don't think the party,
I don't think it's the third liner, but I think
you might. So you know, the guy we're not talking
about Sam Thomas Bordilow. Interesting guy that they traded for

(17:27):
Thomas Bordilow. What's a really high quality prospect. I'm trying
to see, like what you know, he played twenty seven
games for the Sharks in twenty three twenty four, only
one game last year. Heats six goals in twenty three
twenty four. There's there could be something there. I don't

(17:53):
know why it doesn't have a contract yet. I feel
like he's just like an eight hundred and fifty thousand
dollars player called a day. But here's what I'm thinking.
That you're gonna do Cotter glass Brown on the third line,
and then you do actually, this is what will be

(18:16):
the third line. The third line will end up being
the down off grit Sick and either La Mico or Bordelow,
and then your fourth line will be Glass Brown and
Cotter and you play the fourth line like you used

(18:39):
to play the McLoud line where they get all the matchups.
They really their their number one goal is to shut
people down and create chances going the other way by
shutting them down. I think that one would really work
with the with the the Sheldon Keith mantra, and like

(19:01):
how how what he demands from his players. Again, I'm
not like in love with it. I'm trying to I'm
trying to make something.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
I'm telling you right now, and I hate to harp
on this and go back to that draft. Man would
have been nice if Logan Cooley was that third line center.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Oh for sure, Yeah, for sure. We've had this conversation.
But again, either would be so much better. Either would
be worlds better.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
Because, like Nemes, what's holding what's propping him up was
that playoff series. He had everyone's banking like, hey, that
was his breakthrough. Maybe he'll mature and realize, hey, you know,
I should pay attention to the coach and go to
practice on time, you know that kind of thing. I
hope it works out with Nemas. But you know, from

(19:50):
I mean, we knew that little technical difficulties here. We
knew that Jack Hughes was injury prone for that draft,
and you know I would have I don't know. I
I just think I think the devils that would have
solved a lot of the devil's problems that you know

(20:13):
down the middle for the first time.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
So I don't care where you're picking. Sam, take the
best player available he was, and I think, and right,
we're both better than Nemots.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
At the time, I thought Cooley was the best one
in the draft, and you're you're probably right when you
look at the totality of everything, Cooley is probably the
best player in the draft because I'm loving the Utah
Mammots right now. Yeah, their team they're putting together. I mean, uh,
it might be oh yes, still a little off. I

(20:45):
don't think they're a playoff team just yet. But they're
putting some nice things together.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
I am. Yeah, here's where I'm at with it. I
I do regret that pick. I think that pick was
I actually just wrote yesterday. I wrote an article about
the five worst draft decisions Fitzgerald made. There's the obvious one.
Stillman Holtz is on there. The one will probably shock

(21:12):
people is so I didn't put Nemetz on there. But
I did put Sillyev on there because I think Nemetz
has a moment to figure it out. Sillyev I think
could be really good. But if you took Cooley, I'll

(21:37):
just we'll just go with yours. We'll say, go Cooley.
If you took Cooley in twenty twenty two and you
took Zeve Boyam, I think I say you say his name.
He took zee Boyam last year. You now have both worlds.
You have that second line superstar defenseman that you thought
you were getting Nemets, and you now have a guy

(22:01):
who can either be paired on the first line with
Jack Hughes because I think he has the skill set
to do it, or your third line center to be
to have a dominant three lines just to crush the
other teams. You know, I think there's a lot here.
There's a lot here. This needs to be Do you

(22:22):
know what this needs to be?

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Same? What's that?

Speaker 2 (22:25):
It needs to be a Sheldon Keif masterclass. If this
is the lineup because there's something here, something is here,
you have the pieces to do something really good, like like,
for example, Sam, if this was the twenty sixteen seventeen Penguins,
this is a team that could go to the Stanley

(22:45):
Cup because they knew what to do with their superstars.
They knew how to build around those superstars with the
pieces that they had in place. If Sheldon Keif does
his best coaching job that he's done, this team will
be a contender, could win the Metropolitan Division, could you know,

(23:10):
even compete for the President's Trophy.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Those are pretty lofty expectations, especially when there's people around
the league that think the Devils aren't making the playoffs. True.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, sure, yeah, I again they could that could happen,
and they could miss the playoffs with this lineup. Because
here's the problem is, it's kind of a house of cards.
You're missing forward depth. And every time you've got into
the season where there's a position where where there's a
question mark, it's it's burned the devils. They went in

(23:42):
the in twenty thirteen to fourteen, they went in without
goalie depth. It burned them because we take vanta check
for out how to play hockey and they had injuries
up the lawsuit. They went in last year with with
no center depth and Jack Hughes got hurt, and then
you had Dawston Mercer play in the second line because

(24:03):
you had no other choice. And then Dawston Mercer comes
out at the end of season says they don't like
to play center. You're like, okay, well, so it's.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Like sorry, Michael Shane says, we have too many finesse players.
We need more size and grip Florida didn't win to go.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
That's just not true. It's not true. It's not true.
It's not true. It's just not true.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
How's that not true?

Speaker 2 (24:25):
One of her players broke the franchise record for hits
this year, just for Bratt was the only player in
the NHL that had eighty points and eighty hits.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah, just his hits, weren't that Like it's like if
you compare see that's the analytics part that it's not
if you just pair, if you compare Ku Chuck's hits,
it isn't an analytic.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
It's a statistic it is. It is analytics you're using.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
That to It's kind of like it it's kind of
like boxing. Okay, they score these points, like.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
These little jabs, little jabs.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
Count his points, right, but then there's the knockout punch.
What the devil's need is that knockout punch?

Speaker 2 (25:06):
They had Brenon Dillon. Well, where was he during the playoffs?
He broke his neck or something didn't that didn't actually happen.
He didn't get hurt pretty bad, but he didn't break
this yeh, but he get hurt.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
You need more? You need more than that, yes, need?

Speaker 2 (25:24):
You lost your speed?

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Well they get burnt out, the devils with this speed.
They performed well first two thirds of the year, then
they drop off by the time the playoffs happened. Look
out Gas. They were against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
They were gassed because they had like seven or nine seven,
eight or nine injuries, because hey, it's a valid one.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Yeah, but ahllers don't get gas. They should they shouldn't
get gas.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Or young players. It's just incorrect. It's just it's just
that's not what they need. They they I will, I
will hear you that you could take the players they
have and have them play more of a Florida style.
But I don't think that's how they win. I think
they win like Flake Vegas. I think they went like
Vegas did.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
What go over the cap?

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Sure? But everybody like ir hasn't every Stanley Cup winner
in the past like six years gone over the cap?

Speaker 1 (26:24):
Pretty much?

Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, I think Colorado did I know Tampa did? I
covered that team that that was the thing. And I
think the last two Florida teams went over the cap.
I I the grit thing is overplayed. It was a
thing last year and then Fitzgerald got all grit players.
Paul Cotter is a grit player. Stephen Nason's a gritty player.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, and he got him in the playoffs compared to
the team that had no grit.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Well that was but that was the goalie gotten them
in the playoffs. The different in mark Strom and Allen
and van de Schek and Schmid is what got them
in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
Even Vanachek can win a Stanley Cup with grit.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
Come on, you could have had that position and one
of the same amount of games with the FIDA Panthers
as v Ta Vanacheck.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
But I'm a gritty guy.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
So you know that. Yeah, I I I'm so against
this argument just because it's it's bad faith. First of all,
do you want more Curtis McDermott's Is that what we
need in the lineup.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
That's not what I said.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
That's a gritty player. So you wanted to McDermott in
the lineup? No, I want good players in the lineup.
That's what I want. I do like Sam, I do
want to Shawn Sure, yeah, but Brad Marshaunt is a
great offensive player that happens to hit people. So that's
team Geez. But I like I I do. I would

(27:51):
love another Tiamo Meyer, a guy who's incredible offensively, who
plays that style, who does get He's getting.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
Better at it, but he's not at that elite.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Elite right he's doing one or the other. He needs
to be better at.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
That's what the Devils need.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
I don't agree. I think he's the reason. He's what.
There's like four reasons why the Devils beat the Rangers,
and I think Meyer was one of them. He got
so far under struck in skin. And again I'm not
I'm not saying that the Devil's like that great is unimportant.

(28:30):
I'm just saying they already have it in the players
that you have. I think a lot of people are
confused because they don't have big players. But Marshaan's not big,
you know what I mean. So, like I think you
have a lot of the hitting on defense. You know,
Paschi's hits, Dylan hits if he's healthy, well.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
Hit in the beginning of the season, and then boom
he disappeared and then he reappeared again.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah, Pattly had a weird season. Perbasly had a weird
season because if you remember, like he was the number
one proponent of can't get the puck out of our
defensive zone. If you remember like that being that big
problem and it led to so many goes against. He
was a big proponent of that. He had a lot
of trouble clearing the zone. I think Luke Hughes in

(29:24):
year two of Sheldon Keief is gonna be huge as
long as they look at this contract situation taken care
of with quickness, he's gonna He took so well to
the defensive side of this, and he figured out the
offense in the last months of the season. I think
he's gonna explode. I think it's gonna be a sixty
point guy with great defense, you know or like or

(29:46):
like game changing defense. He's gonna get a ton of turnover,
a ton of takeaways. He's gonna get in front of
the pocket, he's gonna be in position, he's gonna stop
to on ones. He's gonna do everything he's supposed to
do or that you can expect. He's not gonna be
like great in his own zone. It's just not his game.
But I think he's gonna do a lot to stop
big chances with the speed I think this team has.

(30:09):
This team, it's it's it's truly missing two pieces. It's
just those two pieces are expensive. A third line center
is hard to come by. There's just not a lot
of good centers in the league. You know, I I
would I wouldn't be if you can trade a lot
wouldn't be surprised that they really went hard after Roslovic

(30:30):
is a free agent right now as we're poorly looking
for like two years six million total. Roslovic would definitely
solve one of those problems for relatively cheap and no
assets given away. You just need the cop space. And
the other one is like you need you need a

(30:50):
game changing forward for sure, you just have to like
you have to lose one to get it. So like
I'm thinking, like the bottom tier of what I one
is like Jared McCann. The top tier what I want
is like Jordan Cairou. I don't know how available Kyro is,
which is why, but like if he's available, like I

(31:15):
would probably trade Nemots for him. Well that's the thing.
If you're gonna trade nemts, it has to be like
super dup or duper star caliber, you know. So I
was like, there's so many what ifs of the twenty
twenty two draft. Do you remember? It was like it
was almost a fact that that pick was getting traded.

(31:35):
That was gonna trade that pick. They need to, they
need to compete. They're gonna trade the pick, trade the
pick of twenty twenty two. They're gonna get Alex to
brink it or I forget who else is available that also,
I remember to brink it was one of the most
prominent numbers before he got traded to Detroit, and they
never traded it. They took nemts. I I'm not passive,

(32:00):
mystick to the point that I don't think that I
think they're gonna miss the playff. I don't thinky're going
to miss the playoffs. The Metro is bad, what you said,
and I think they're good enough to make the playoffs
for sure. I just I look at that October schedule.
That October schedule is brutal. They're worse than ninety percent
of the teams they play in October.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
Hopefully catch some teams napping, right, That's how that's what
you have to hope for.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
You have to hope for, like Florida's not at their best,
or Tampa's kind of just like figure themselves out, or
you know, like those are the like Colorado is not Colorado.
Like that's what you need to hope for. Sam, I
think this is going to be a really good season
if they come out of October five hundred, well yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
I mean, you see that lack of confidence that you're displaying,
because that tells me that this team is not not
as good as it should be.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
No, it's not. It's a playoff team, but the sixteen
teams half the league's playoff team.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Yeah, but you're right if they if they finish above
NHL five hundred, I consider that a win.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
It's just a really hard schedule. It's a really hard start.
There's a lot that you need to integrate into this lineup.
Luke he is coming over an injury or missing Covi Savage.
You know. It's but they have marks Truman Allen, and
they could steal wins, especially early in the season.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
When they're fresh.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
Yeah, you know. And again I've made this argument before.
I feel like I have to say it every week.
Hold three goalies. People think I'm crazy. I've been like
I've had people like there are certain people who say

(33:58):
this with consternation and judgment, like, well, have you seen
this guy? Or it didn't work for that guy? Have
you seen Yeah, but it worked at Scott Wedgwood until
they put him on waivers in November with one of
the biggest mistakes they've ever made, and Wedgwood turned out
to be a really good goalie. He was a backup
for a long time, but you could have just had
him as the thirty. He was happy to be the third,

(34:20):
happy to be back in New Jersey. You put him
on waivers because you got you're trying to simply bring
Mackenzie Blackwood back instead of sending you forward down. So
he lostaws goods.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
But what if you need to send him down. You
don't think anyone's gonna claim them.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
They will. You don't send him down. You hold thirty goalies.
You never send him down. You get three extra roster spots.
Uh on a night tonight basis Sorry, look go ahead,
it's gonna be like dogs Lemko and probably Tulawski.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Anyway, what I was gonna say is you know who retired.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
Recently, right hall Lock?

Speaker 1 (35:17):
Yeah, a Locke And let's talk to myself a couple
of years ago when we were having all of our
goaltending problems. Why not ha Lock?

Speaker 2 (35:30):
Well, he was he was on teams. He was on
the islanders.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
Wasn't I thought he was riding the pine or not
riding the pine? He was at home.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
Last year? He was at home. What about the well
hear did he go to the Rangers.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
I'm looking it up right now, or you could have
traded for him or do something.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
I mean, so he was he so yeah, so he's
been out for two years because he was the backup
when we beat the Rangers in the playoffs. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
The year after he was doing nothing.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
Yeah, that was the year the Devil's you know again,
had their goalie issues where you had to I mean
they called up shorts guy to be an ebug.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
That's how bad it.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
God, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
That never happened. That would be funny. Yeah, I mean, listen, because.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
I was surprised when I when I read it was retired.
He had played in two years. I'm like, he had
it in two years?

Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, I would think I would think that's weird about hockey.
Why did they like Zach PARIZI knew he was going
to retire. Why isn't he retired yet? What do they
wait for that call? Case? Like the Colorado Avalanche of
the Dallas Stars called that call?

Speaker 1 (37:05):
I mean, has lak wanted the Stanley Cup? I don't
think so.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
Was he on that Blues team? No?

Speaker 1 (37:16):
It was uh? Was that Allen and Yeah?

Speaker 2 (37:21):
Allen and Bankington. Yeah, let's see who tells you if
they went Stanley Cup.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
I don't think you wanted to say, you know, sometimes
I mean I hold out.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yeah, I mean he had a PTO with.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
The Carolina Hurricanes in twenty twenty three. Mm hmm, released
November twenty is, twenty twenty three, and the Doubles were
having there. What's up?

Speaker 2 (37:51):
The cap was on like twenty eighteen, right, yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
But you never know it's a yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
I mean, listen, like you're looking at a guy who you know,
was he I'm looking at it and only one time
in his whole career did you have an under nine hundred,
say percentage? Well, seventeen, you know what.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
The NHL's you know again, I don't know the details
of the collective bargaining agreement, but there was a statement
made about ebugs and all that that should be that
third goaltender, that third goaltender that I don't know, just
for fun should not you know, it should uh not

(38:40):
really effective salary cap because you kind of need an
ee bug, you know. I don't know, maybe maybe we're
talking about two different things, but.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
Yeah, I think the e bug is going to be
like an EHL type goalie. Yeah, the guy in the books,
But I mean, you never know again. I just think
that was a third goalie. I've I've talked about this
one hundred times. I'll probably write about it again, but uh,
I'm ready for plugs, Sam, are you? Yeah, let's plug
okay pucksinpatchworks dot Com. It is best and worst week.

(39:16):
So I got the worst draft picks of the tum
Fitzgerild area. Jenny Streeter has one of my inbox five
best coaches five or three. I can't remember the best
coaches of all time in New Jersey Devil's history. We
got articles on Daniel Sprong. Daniel Sprong went to the
kh We didn't talk about that much, but John Bailey
wrote about that. I got articles on Mercer. I got

(39:40):
articles on Douge Hamilton up. I got one on Shelton
Keith and why he's not going to be coaching for
Team Canada at the Olympics. Yeah, I think you know,
there's there's a lot going on. I'm gonna have one
coming up on my if the Devil should just retain

(40:02):
a little bit of salary and Andrew Pillott, maybe a
million bucks just to get him moving. So we'll we'll
talk about that. Pucks and pitchforks dot com.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
One person, did we talk about Dananoff.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Tonight briefly?

Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yeah? I want to see what what what role he
would happen anyway, Uh plugs. I had nothing to plug,
really nothing, nothing at all.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
Well, Dan, I think dad, it's gonna be your third
line right wing. I think he's going to be paired
with Gritzick to help Gritzick's transition with the with the
language barrier and all that. Yeah, I don't know who
the sender is going to be, but I think that
they're gonna be the Blingers.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
But I can tell you we're starting to plan some
stuff for this upcoming season.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
We love a plan. Yeah, we love when a plant
comes together as well. I heard we're gonna be at
a wedding too. Maybe i'll talk.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
Yeah, I gotta I gotta figure out stuff as well already.
So I want to thank all those tuning in dropping
the podcast at midnight. Go to pucksopitchforks dot com. We'll
see you next week Wednesday at eight thirty pm. S.
Until next time, let's go Devils