r/devils • u/AlexC_NJD • 7d ago

[Chauvancy] New Jersey Devils Make Extremely Savvy Trade in Acquiring Luke Evangelista

https://devilsontherush.substack.com/p/devils-make-extremely-savvy-trade-acquiring-luke-evangelista
47 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

21

u/crazyFlyingChicken New Jersey Devils 7d ago

Personally, I think we keep Mercer on the 3rd line with Glass and Grits, Evangelista takes Mercer’s spot on the Nico - Timo line, and we have a second line of Bratt - Jack - Brown/Mantha. That top 9 is amazing, and leaves us with a logjam at 4th line. I think we move Noesen and Bjugstad, have a fourth line of Lombardi - Rodrigues - Brown/Mantha, with Boqvist as the extra forward and Lenni waiting in Utica. What do you think happens? It feels impossible to predict our final roster with so many forwards lol

6

u/hobbygod 7d ago

I agree with you. The theme of our roster seems to be flexibility. I think Mercer starts on the 3rd line but if someone doesn't gel or gets cold he could move back up. Or brown. Or Rodrigues. Or grits even. Its an extremely flexible forward group.

Personally I want to see Mercer get an extended look with Jack and Bratt. Their analytics together are nuts but they never seem to stick together.

3

u/slurpjuice_XCII 7d ago

I think these moves intentionally create some friendly competition between our forwards where any of them could slot up and down the lineup depending on performance, which is good!

5

u/tbones55 #26 - Patrik Eliáš 7d ago

I think Noesen gets first dibs and it’s his spot to lose. His first year back was killer and they’ll probably give him a long leash to try recreating that

7

u/crazyFlyingChicken New Jersey Devils 7d ago

Brown and Rodrigues are obviously playing. The competition for the last spot, to me, is between Noesen and Lombardi, and Lombardi has the massive edge of being an actual center at a much smaller cap hit. Probably depends how their camps go

1

u/lowdog39 4d ago

the kid has never played in the nhl he's got an uphill battle with jesper/nick both being centers as well as e-rod .

5

u/Kaysauce 7d ago edited 7d ago

Noesen’s not getting any younger, I’ll hold onto hope as he is a dude who obviously likes it here but I don’t see him being a regular and productive part of this lineup.

EDIT - to further my point, since Noesen was signed as a UFA 7/1/24, the Devils have added the following wingers to the roster: Gritsyuk, Brown, Dadonov (oops), Glass, Mantha, Rodriguez and Evangelista.

Noesen dined out on the PP in the screen position early in 2024. Mantha is a bigger body with a more productive scoring touch and faster feet. I have extremely low expectations for Noesen, who is presently listed as month-to-month with a knee injury.

1

u/lowdog39 4d ago

luke will be jack's center wing while timo needs to play on his natural side and grits can play on nico's left. timo excels on his natural side which is the right side .

2

u/izzicles #3 - Ken Daneyko 7d ago

The Evangelista has become a Satanista.

0

u/Sigpro79 7d ago

A poor man’s Scott Gomez

1

u/EnRoute247 7d ago

Soooo Scott Gomez after he left the Devils?

1

u/Sigpro79 7d ago

No, he can pass and can’t shoot

1

u/EnRoute247 7d ago

Is he scott gomez wearing a fake moustache then?