I bet the offers from New Jersey will be better this time around after Fitzgerald is canned.
What a damn baby! So many goalies around the league have recently retired, and there are few good goalies left. Basic supply and demand. There are 3 options available - Markstrom, Ullmark and Saros (MAYBE). Calgary is rebuilding. Boston has two goalies and not enough help up front. Nashville is.. doing what Nashville is doing, and Askarov needs to show that he is ready to be a starter if Nashville is still competing, so they don't have to trade Saros for a couple of seasons either.
You either pony up for a good goaltender and call it a day, or you fire your coach, trade for two crap goalies, and then run to the media and cry about how teams with good goalies want to extort the Devils.
From being comfortable way high in that pedestal, to swan-diving right on his face. I haven't seen a manager take a bigger fall than when Kekalainen hired Babcock. Kekalainen, BTW, is about the only (former) GM that he will be calling, and that's to request carpooling to the unemployment office.
You don't get to take a punt on a season because everything lined up. A year wasted on a core of a good young team - good cheap contracts. Next season will be different injuries, more bad goaltending, but hopefully not an idiot for a GM who goes crying to the media because nobody is bending over backwards to help him.
Conroy was offering some lube with Markstrom. After Fitzidiot's comments, there will be no lube being offered.
What is lost in all of this is a couple of things. Markstrom does have a lot of worth to the organization in staying. Imagine playing in front of goalies that are letting everything in (haha New Jersey!!). All the young players get scared to death that their mistake is going to end up in the back of the net. It is a tough situation in which to develop prospects. Plus, investing in Wolf's development should be a priority - Markstrom is recognized as a goalie that does a great job there, and apparently (according to Noodles) not every goalie does that. So either pony up enough assets that warrants the cost of not having a good goalie, or go and draft and develop your own starter as you are obviously not willing to pay the going rate for one.
I would love to have an Apollo IE. However, I can't afford the price it takes to buy one. What am I going to do, run to the media and complain about how Apollo is trying to extort the people by having something I want so bad but that I am not willing to pony up for? No. I will just shut up about it like a normal human.
I can't wait until that idiot gets fired. "Teams are trying to extort us". Damn moron. Lucky I hate the Devils as they almost ruined hockey by making it super boring. Love to see them flop this year. The one thing that was needed was a good goalie, and it was so laughably obvious to everyone, including Hughes. I look forward to the new Devils' GM entering into good-faith negotiations with Conroy instead of whatever that was through the media, with all the leaks and garbage going on. A desperate GM trying to save his own job.
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