Thursday, February 21, 2008
Deadline Devils?
The sum of the Devils' parts is always greater than the talents of the parts themselves. Witness how much John Madden's play has improved with the return of "Super" Jay Pandolfo.
The one piece that is missing its supporting parts most is Brian Gionta. Brian Refalski's perfectly tipable blue line floaters are in Detroit and Meathead Gomez's rushes are being spent in Manhattan.
Gionta isn't scoring like he did the past two years (he was well on his way to potting 30+ last year before he got injured for 20 games), but he is clearly still skating hard, creating chances, and finishing his checks. He brings a champion's pedigree and trading him would create additional cap space. I would like to see some sort of Gionta-Havlat deal. Havlat is a classic Devils project: exponential talent and underachieving. There is a good chance he could lift Elias out of his Richerian Melencholy Sniper role and back to the almost superstar days of 1999-2004.
That said, for a defensive team like the Devils to win they need a superstar defensemen. Oduya has risen above the level of play that drew my early criticism, Mottua is a pleasant surprise and White is a warrior, but the Devils do not have the sort of shut down pair necessary to contain the Alfreddson line throughout a series.
Broduer gives the Devils a punchers chance in any series, but he would need to be the run away Smythe winner for the Devils to be champs this year.
The one piece that is missing its supporting parts most is Brian Gionta. Brian Refalski's perfectly tipable blue line floaters are in Detroit and Meathead Gomez's rushes are being spent in Manhattan.
Gionta isn't scoring like he did the past two years (he was well on his way to potting 30+ last year before he got injured for 20 games), but he is clearly still skating hard, creating chances, and finishing his checks. He brings a champion's pedigree and trading him would create additional cap space. I would like to see some sort of Gionta-Havlat deal. Havlat is a classic Devils project: exponential talent and underachieving. There is a good chance he could lift Elias out of his Richerian Melencholy Sniper role and back to the almost superstar days of 1999-2004.
That said, for a defensive team like the Devils to win they need a superstar defensemen. Oduya has risen above the level of play that drew my early criticism, Mottua is a pleasant surprise and White is a warrior, but the Devils do not have the sort of shut down pair necessary to contain the Alfreddson line throughout a series.
Broduer gives the Devils a punchers chance in any series, but he would need to be the run away Smythe winner for the Devils to be champs this year.
// posted by Grinder McCarver @ 6:37 PM 
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