Future

Nobody, unless you count Kreider. The issue is just limiting flexibility in pursuing any other pieces.

Well this is still an implication that the Devils were good lol. I'd say they were bad. Buffalo and Ottawa were super duper bad.

I don't think "his effort is shit" is self explanatory, considering that its the opposite of everything else that's been said about him.

I literally did that already when you brought up "mediocre." You are just arguing about the definition of bad. Pick whatever terms you want. Being playoff quality doesn't mean that you're a good team, in any sport, and standings don't determine quality. If they do, then this year's Lightning (128 pts) were no better than the 16-17 Caps (118 pts). The 16-17 Rangers (102 pts) were no better than the 17-18 Devils (97 points). Christ, just look at the 16-17 Atlantic. They had 4 playoff teams, but nobody would say they had 4 good teams.

I think the "never going to hit UFA" thing should probably die, since the biggest UFAs of the last two seasons....went UFA. Hall, Hoffman, B. Schenn, Dadonov. All strong top-6 players, none over 31. If Kreider goes, Hoffman or Dadonov would be a perfect fit on this team.

League average can be bad. League average can be good. In 2017, average in the West was way better than average in the East.

Last year's Ottawa team was bad. Two years ago, Philly and NJD made the playoffs and were bad. Last year, the Isles were bad in the same way. You don't want to get into degrees of bad because you think it is splitting hairs, fine. I just don't think that making the playoffs makes you not bad.

In the sense that they'll probably keep their job, sure. But good coaches judge play, not results. Standings aren't a measure of whether or not a team is good.

Fighting will never go away entirely because cheap shots are never going to go away. But yea, enforcers are dead.

Spittin Chiclets live

The Devils were bad. The Blue Jackets, Leafs, Pens, and Caps were mediocre.

Good one

$5m per, until he's 28. This is extremely team friendly.

They flat out said they didn't want to do that. Doesn't mean they won't, but they said as much.

Because when a team is 15th in goals for, 17th in goals against, 21st in SAT%, and has one player score on 38% of the team's goals (with a career-high SH%, btw), they are bad. Especially when a third of the league was sellers by Christmas. They're bad in the same way that Edmonton is bad. McDavid can get them to the playoffs by himself, but they still suck.

Not really. Cally's cap hit is 0 on LTIR. They've added cap with Condon.

The tl;dr version is that Ott is better able to get to the cap floor and will save money in actual cash payouts. I'm pretty confused as to why Tampa did it though, as well. I guess there might be a benefit to burying Condon in the minors instead of using LTIR?

Christ, the point is not where they finished in the standings or how other teams were shittier. The point is that, regardless of where they finished, they were bad. You can be in the playoffs and be a bad team.

You're missing the point. They were bad enough to finish 14th too. Finishing 8th in the East doesn't make you good. It means you're slightly less shitty than the really shitty teams you finished ahead of. There's a difference between that and being actually a good team.

You can probably dump his cap hit next offseason - half of it at least.

They were terrible. Making the playoffs isn't a measure of being good. NJD was just the product of the Metro being awful. So was Philly. They both collapsed last season because they weren't any good to begin with.

It also means your left side is Skjei and two rookies or you're keeping Smith. Shatty saves you the most money and he has no role. It's a no-brainer except for the fact that he still would have a huge cap hit next year.

The Devils sucked the year they made the playoffs. They could have finished 14th as easily as 8th.

That was my initial thought too, but the extension starts next year so they're kind of separate issues.

What exactly do you want them to do? The NFL shows replays all the time - every network station does. The league makes no effort for 2/12 months and there's no way they'd have viewership for things like global tourneys provide any value with how little viewership they'd have. There is no real hot stove info to cover in July that can't be covered in a day. Do you just want rampant speculation from Don Cherry for an extra 2 months?