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The Official 2026 Off-Season Thread: Revenge of the Nerds

If you take points out of the equation, Raddysh is still a guy that plays top pair, not shutdown, minutes even strength with elite transition stats and possession stats.

If that guy isn’t a PP QB and only scores 35 points how much less than $8 mill is he worth?

Hes kind of the perfect matter for McCabe.
 
I mean how good is Nemec? How good is Mercer? How good are a pair of 1sts in the teens?

If they are dealing Knies, and they shouldn’t a better centrepiece needs to be in the deal, like 2 or 4 overall so they can get a Reid/Carels which IMO is more important than that grab bag

Mercer and Nemec definitely benefit from the overwhelming sense that the Devils have been a young stacked well-drafted team, when that seems to actually be based only on having two 1st overall picks and nabbing Bratt in the 6th round a decade ago, without much team success.

Luke Hughes (4th overall) is probably their 4th best drafted, but at 22 this year he was just a good 2nd pair guy, though has upside for more still.

Mercer (18th overall) is probably the 5th best player they've drafted in the last 10yrs and he's just been a solid middle sixer by both the counting stats and the nerdies, nothing more.

Nemec (2nd overall) maybe their 6th best and he's only 21 but so far actually hasn't been very good. ok by the counting stats but pretty bad on the nerdies.

And they've had a bunch of high picks already pretty much busted over that time - #7 Holtz, #12 McLeod, #17 Smith, #29 Stillman, #36 Boqvist, #41 Bastian
 
6 year NMC for a 4th line C cannot be team friendly.

tbf they used him as a heavy-duty usage 3C this year and seemed to have some success but the offensive nerdies are disastrous for him.

pretty much looks like a bigger version of Kampf, when we were using Kampf in that kind of role.
 
Mercer and Nemec definitely benefit from the overwhelming sense that the Devils have been a young stacked well-drafted team, when that seems to actually be based only on having two 1st overall picks and nabbing Bratt in the 6th round a decade ago, without much team success.

Luke Hughes (4th overall) is probably their 4th best drafted, but at 22 this year he was just a good 2nd pair guy, though has upside for more still.

Mercer (18th overall) is probably the 5th best player they've drafted in the last 10yrs and he's just been a solid middle sixer by both the counting stats and the nerdies, nothing more.

Nemec (2nd overall) maybe their 6th best and he's only 21 but so far actually hasn't been very good. ok by the counting stats but pretty bad on the nerdies.

And they've had a bunch of high picks already pretty much busted over that time - #7 Holtz, #12 McLeod, #17 Smith, #29 Stillman, #36 Boqvist, #41 Bastian
All the more reason to reject a "quantity" offer for Knies.
 
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