Woo-hoo...devils Sneak In To The Playoffs

[jerseydevil]

...if they started today, my boys'd be the 8th seed. Wow I know I am gonna get a lotta crap re:this thread...but hell, I am happy...Marty's back,they are playing Devils hockey w/a twist(more offense), and only 9 points separate my boyzz from the top seed.LIFEISGOODLIFEISGOOD...

[VegasHockey]

I agree, it's good, but it's also November. Plenty of time for things to shift.

[FootKnight]

It's still November! I think the Devils will make the playoffs.

[Birdman]

IMO, Lou made a mistake by not "Reloading". By letting a lot of his core players leave via FA instead of dealing them for something (Gomez, Neids, Rafalski).

I understand the reasoning by locking up Elias long term, but he's not the guy I would have paired with Brodeur to build this team around. Yes, Neids and Rafalski may not have wanted to stay, but Lou had to have known that long before they hit FA.

[Dana]

Originally Posted by Birdman

IMO, Lou made a mistake by not "Reloading". By letting a lot of his core players leave via FA instead of dealing them for something (Gomez, Neids, Rafalski).

I understand the reasoning by locking up Elias long term, but he's not the guy I would have paired with Brodeur to build this team around. Yes, Neids and Rafalski may not have wanted to stay, but Lou had to have known that long before they hit FA.

It's easy to say that now, especially looking at it in hindsight, knowing they havn't been able to keep anyone but Elias once their players have become free agents.

The problem is, if you think your team has a chance to go deep in the playoffs or potentially win another Stanley Cup, what kind of message is Lou going to be sending to his team when they're locked into a playoff spot and have hopes of competing for the Cup by trading away guys like Niedermayer, Rafalski, Gomez before the playoffs start? As long as they have Brodeur playing at a top level, they're going to think they have a chance to go deep in the playoffs every year.

For example, should Buffalo have traded Briere and Drury at the deadline last year even though they were on their way to winning the President's Trophy? They had a legitimate shot at the Cup last year there's no way they would have made it as far as they did if they had moved them at the deadline because they were going to become UFAs. Sometimes you've got to bite the bullet and realize you might not get anything for the players in July, but they're too important to what the team is doing at the time to move them.

[USCKingsFan31]

Damn wish we could have ended the regular season when we had the 3rd seed in the West.

[Brodeur]

Originally Posted by Birdman

IMO, Lou made a mistake by not "Reloading". By letting a lot of his core players leave via FA instead of dealing them for something (Gomez, Neids, Rafalski).

I understand the reasoning by locking up Elias long term, but he's not the guy I would have paired with Brodeur to build this team around. Yes, Neids and Rafalski may not have wanted to stay, but Lou had to have known that long before they hit FA.

Not much could be done about Niedermayer. The Devils were defending the Cup in 03-04 and Niedermayer was on his way to the Norris. Lou tried to sign him long term prior to the lockout. Even then, I doubt there would have been a blockbuster trade for Niedermayer since the lockout seemed inevitable. Post-lockout, Niedermayer was UFA and signed with Anaheim. About the only thing Lou could have done differently was trade for Rob Niedermayer. But the supposed asking price was Scott Gomez (off the top of my head, Anaheim's GM was Al Coates at this point).

Dana beat me to the punch regarding Gomez/Rafalski. Devils were planning on going deep in the playoffs and teams weren't exactly giving up established players for impending UFAs.

Look at what Edmonton got for Ryan Smyth (Robert Nilsson, Ryan O'Marra, 1st rounder). Are they really any better off today? Or can the Edmonton fanboys flaunt that they have a bunch of former 1st round prospects in their system while their NHL team is floundering?

The Devils are more or less hurting right now because they drafted poorly between 1996-2003. They were drafting two (sometimes three) NHL caliber players per draft in the early 90s which created a great pipeline of talent. The Devils lost talent to free agency back then too (Gilmour/Andreychuk/Thomas/Holik) but there were guys (Elias/Sykora/Morrison/Gomez) ready to step in.