Pain

A couple wins but mostly losses here. Jersey has done a good job drafting and developing.

Yes, they've done a great job of winning the lottery 3 times in 7 years and finishing 4th when they had no business being that bad.

I agree, it's completely unfathomable that lineups like these didn't compete for playoff spots between the 2016 - 2021 period.

No team would be the least bit competitive if they had to suffer the goaltending the Devils had to experience in the 21-22 season (especially so when Jack Hughes is out injured half the season and Hamilton plays with a fractured jaw for 25 games or so)..

Every single piece of the Devils "lottery luck" in 2017, 2019 and 2022 has been fully earned by the miserable state Lamoriello left the team in.
As Red Wings fan I'm sure you can sympathize with that given how Holland handled Detroit from 2010 and onward...

Would you please clarify to me how winning the lottery 3 times allowed Fitzgerald to:
- completely reshape the D corps
- develop late round picks like Bratt, Zetterlund, Sharangovich, Bastian and Schmid into key contributors of varying degrees
- flipping picks, prospects and roster players for impact players like Meier, Toffoli, Vanecek, Marino, Graves and Siegenthaler
... and still maintain a top 5 prospect pool in the league.
How does that work exactly?

I mean, what's stopping Yzerman from doing exactly that (as opposed to commiting 26.5m of his cap dollars to elite names such as Vrana, Chiarot, Copp, Compher, Husso and Holl)?

4 times in 11 years...don't forget Adam Larsson too

That lineup is an absolute war crime

This was an absolutely hilarious waste of your time. None of your bullsh*t replaces the fact that you tanked deliberately for years and the league rewarded you for it. Someday you'll have to waste half a page describing why you " earned" all those lottery wins from the 6 spot over the teams and their fan bases that finished lower than you. What a self justifying pile of crap. Your management group didn't do anything extraordinary except tank to win the lottery. And its the absolute height of arrogance to pretend that somehow your team did something that no one else can do. There's nothing worse than someone whose been ridiculously lucky bragging about how good they are when they didn't earn it. Just be happy you got the players you did and enjoy your team. Don't act you did something special to get here.

>claims NJD is only in a good position cus of lottery luck
>calls me arrogant for pointing out a multitude of non-lottery moves
Thanks for the laugh champ.

Devils have had plenty of luck in lottery, but it’s not like it’s the only thing going on. We drafted guys like Bratt, Schmid, Sharangovich late…we acquired good players like Siegenthaler, Marino, Graves, Vanecek cheaply…we took big swings on guys like Hamilton, Meier…and drafted against consensus when we took guys like Hischier, Mukhamadullin….sold guys like Palmieri, Coleman, Severson at a premium compared to expectations…and have developed guys like Bahl, McLeod, Bastian into solid NHLers.

“Management didn't do anything but tank to win the lottery” is one of the most ill-informed takes I have seen on here in a while.

Wow so you want a pat on the back because you were able to surround the franchise altering talent you were handed in the draft lottery with a few good players? Well then kudos, you guys are the best.

Thanks

Isn't that what rebuilding teams do though? They tank deliberately at the beginning of the rebuild so they can stock up on elite talent. The devil's management also did a great job developing later round picks ( this is coming from a person who is not a devil's fan). So, the management didn't just win a couple lotteries, they developed numerous non lottery players into good NHL players and used assets wisely to improve the current state of the team to make them a playoff contender

Weep as yzerman continues to overpay mid UFAs