Great post.

Goaltending is still biggest question mark for me.
Am a little surprised you've got Boqvist > McLeod.
That 3RW still seems like a ?? (Stillman, Thompson, Zetterlund, Clarke, Moynihan...could see any of them there)
Probably end up trading one young LD (Bahl, Okhotiuk or maybe Edwards)

(And I think we re-sign Severson)

I'd have McLeod over Boqvist at the 4C. Don't think Mac would cost that much considering his 4 year regression. But we definitely have one of the deepest prospect pools in the league.

But for the love of God, if we are gonna ever compete, we need to give Nico help on the wings man big time.

I love Boqvist's play as of late so maybe a 4th line of Bo-Mikey-Bastian would be better. Wood is still a huge question mark after his hip injury. We've seen how severe hip injuries could be to players
I also think we need another winger instead of a man.

Thank u.
This is totally valid.
The way I thought about is that at least three of the following guys should be middle six NHLers by 2023:
Gritsyuk, Foote, Stillman, Thompson, Zetterlund, Clarke, Moynihan.

Now it might be the case that one or two (or god forbid, none) of Gritsyuk, Foote and Stillman just aren't cut out for the NHL.
If such, odds are that one or two of the other guys should be able to slot into the middle six.




I think this is also a toss up, whether Mac develops into a goalie worthy of that AAV or not. I'm quite bullish on him though, I'd give him 60% chance of being worth that in 2023.
That's his QO so I didn't want to go any lower.
And I think there's at least room for one rental winger to pair with Hischier here, though that's not really sustainable in the long-term I'll admit.



Well, I don't really know of any wingers who aren't men (and eligible for the NHL, so I guess that excludes women, soz).
JK, did you mean that in regards to the draft or just that Fitz should go out and get one in general?

And Wood, he could just as likely have been bunched into the Kuokkanen and Zacha category.
My hunch is that we'll soon get to see in what kinda state Wood's in.
There's been rumblings he's not too far away from playing again, we'll see.







I know that I'm a quite a bit lower on Mikey than most Devils fans.
So I think that what McLeod is today is more or less what he's gonna be for the remainder of his career, he's probably hit his ceiling by now.
Though perhaps he could develop a higher level of defensive IQ but I'm honestly not too sure.
But that's ok, he's no worse than an average 4C and I think it's unlikely he'll drop off from that.

Boqvist on the other hand, I see much more upside with him.
He has all the offensive and transition tools that McLeod so severely lacks imo.
He understands how to cut through traffic in the o-zone, good stickhandler, can protect the puck under pressure, fast (though not quite the same top speed as Mikey) with good edges, an ok shot and decent passing.
The only thing McLeod really has on Boqvist is more experience, and some size. But given Boqvist's recent run, and especially at C, I think he at least deserves an extend look here.
My bet is that Boqvist will turn out not only the better NHLer but also the better centerman over McLeod.