Eric Rasmussen Out ~ Chris Minard In?

I think for the next game, Minard should get the call up. He deserves it. Plus, he has played with Gomez before & they played very well together.

Lines "should" be:

Gomez--Minard--Clarkson
Parise--Zajac--Langenbrunner
Brylin--Pelley--Pandolfo
Rupp--Dowd--Janssen

Rafalski--White
Martin--Oduya
Lukowich--Greene

Clemmy (Not Brodeur)

I think for the next game, Minard should get the call up. He deserves it. Plus, he has played with Gomez before & they played very well together.

Lines "should" be:

Gomez--Minard--Clarkson
Parise--Zajac--Langenbrunner
Brylin--Pelley--Pandolfo
Rupp--Dowd--Janssen

Rafalski--White
Martin--Oduya
Lukowich--Greene

Clemmy (Not Brodeur)


Rasmussen is a prototypical Devil who has played very well tghis season in any roll he has been put in. He is a nice fit as a RW on the Checking Line, I like his reach in front of the net on the PP. I like his grit and he is a smart player. He can also score an occasional goal at important times. I am not so sure he is one of those dime a dozen type replaceable 4th liners that Lou will let go this offseason as he develops good chemistry with anybody he plays with. Why put Chris Minard who has no experience in over Rasmussen?

Rasmussen is a prototypical Devil who has played very well tghis season in any roll he has been put in. He is a nice fit as a RW on the Checking Line, I like his reach in front of the net on the PP. I like his grit and he is a smart player. He can also score an occasional goal at important times. I am not so sure he is one of those dime a dozen type replaceable 4th liners that Lou will let go this offseason as he develops good chemistry with anybody he plays with. Why put Chris Minard who has no experience in over Rasmussen?
Because Rassmussen was injured last night and might not be able to play on Thursday. According to the Star Ledger (http://www.nj.com/devils/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/117445506784980.xml&coll=1) today, he's going to Florida with them but his status for the game is uncertain.

Because Rassmussen was injured last night and might not be able to play on Thursday. According to the Star Ledger (http://www.nj.com/devils/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/117445506784980.xml&coll=1) today, he's going to Florida with them but his status for the game is uncertain.

Yes he missed the rest of the game last night and his status is unknown for the next game. If he cannot play then call up Tallackson (not Minard). But I send him back down once Rasmussen is back in game shape.

Yes he missed the rest of the game last night and his status is unknown for the next game. If he cannot play then call up Tallackson (not Minard). But I send him back down once Rasmussen is back in game shape.

I don't know much about minard, but whoever they call up i hope it is someone with offensive talents not another pelley etc.

we don't need any more defensive minded average skilled players they need a player who brings an edge to their game either physically or offensivly maybe it's minard but i dont know what his deal is

I don't know much about minard, but whoever they call up i hope it is someone with offensive talents not another pelley etc.

we don't need any more defensive minded average skilled players they need a player who brings an edge to their game either physically or offensivly maybe it's minard but i dont know what his deal is

Try Bergfors?

Try Bergfors this time

He's not ready...

Bringing Bergfors up for one game won't be the end of the world. Plus it will give him his first game experience, and who knows.....he might just do well.

If Rassmussen is out, I'd like to see Minard called up. He leads the Lowell Devils in goalscoring (with 26) and goals are what we need more of. And he and Gomez might have some chemistry from when they played together in the ECHL.

It's tough to ask unproven rookies to do wonders when they are first called up.
Lou needed to acquire a few veterens at the trading deadline.
Smolinski & Yanic Perreault would have been nice additions.
Instead, we have Pelley.:shakehead

and with what money/cap space would you have liked to use on those players?

It's tough to ask unproven rookies to do wonders when they are first called up.
Lou needed to acquire a few veterens at the trading deadline.
Smolinski & Yanic Perreault would have been nice additions.
Instead, we have Pelley.:shakehead

I suppose you had a brilliant plan for New Jersey to gain capspace then.

Bringing Bergfors up for one game won't be the end of the world. Plus it will give him his first game experience , and who knows.....he might just do well.experience


Agree. I think his self-confidence will be better. He need some experience. He might just do well.:)

Gomez at LW? No way.

Don't the Devils have only one call up remaining? How much cap space do the Devils have for another call up?

The second question is vital; it could be that Bergfors makes too much to be called up at this juncture.

Rasmussen is a prototypical Devil who has played very well tghis season in any roll he has been put in. He is a nice fit as a RW on the Checking Line, I like his reach in front of the net on the PP. I like his grit and he is a smart player. He can also score an occasional goal at important times. I am not so sure he is one of those dime a dozen type replaceable 4th liners that Lou will let go this offseason as he develops good chemistry with anybody he plays with. Why put Chris Minard who has no experience in over Rasmussen?

"develops good chemistry with anybody he plays with?"

I'll admit I'm not a huge Rasmussen fan at all...in fact I don't like him much at all....but c'mon...what chemistry has there been lately?? Rasmussen has been playing on a scoring line with Gomez and either Rupp/Clarkson for what I've seen and there hasn't been much chemistry at all...espeically between Gomez/Rasmussen.

I agree that having Rasmussen as a checking/4th line guy is suitable for him but asking him to be on a scoring line is way too much right now....I'd much rather see either Minard or Bergfors called up and try and fill that role on Gomez's line....

Why do we always have Dowd on the 4th line? He deserves way better than that. Because he is way better than a 4th line player. Put Pelley down on the 4th. He is worthless. Dowd can create way more chances for us in my opinion.

Why do we always have Dowd on the 4th line? He deserves way better than that. Because he is way better than a 4th line player. Put Pelley down on the 4th. He is worthless. Dowd can create way more chances for us in my opinion.


I've thought about that too...couple of possible reasons regarding Dowd...

1. Dowd is pretty old...could it be that his body is wearing down at this point and simply cannot handle the minutes?? Everytime I see him he looks tired or something...i could be wrong...

2. Agreed that Dowd can create a few chances...moreso than Rasmussen....

3. Dowd's a C right? If he is then I'd much rather have him handle the 3rd line duties instead of Pelley right now in the absence of Madden although point #1 might have something to do with this...

So does anybody know how much cap space we have at this moment?

Call up Minard now! If Gomez and Minard can produce half of what they did together in the ECHL it can only help us at this point even if he's (Minard) a little suspect defenisvely.Do we have the cap space?:help:

Don't the Devils have only one call up remaining? How much cap space do the Devils have for another call up?

The second question is vital; it could be that Bergfors makes too much to be called up at this juncture.
I don't know about the number of call ups, but I thought guys called up on an emergency injury basis don't count toward that number - with four forwards injured now, I would imagine that we could call someone up. But I don't know much about that.

As for cap space, with Gionta on LTIR we can replace his salary, and none of the guys we've called up even makes a million, so there should be plenty of space.

Why do we always have Dowd on the 4th line? He deserves way better than that. Because he is way better than a 4th line player. Put Pelley down on the 4th. He is worthless. Dowd can create way more chances for us in my opinion.

i am not sure what games youve been watching but Dowd stinks at this point in his career regarding any sort of offensive output. bringing up Bergfors or Vrana or Minard (as some have suggested) would be a much better idea if you actually want to try to inject some speed, offense, or skill in general to the line-up, god knows this team needs some at this point because there is absolutely no offensive spark right now and shuffling around one of the many grinders in the lineup is not going to cut it.

We have plenty of cap space.

We got rid of Gionta cap hit of 4m

we called up Clarkson and Pelley. They both make less than 2 million.

We have OVER 2 million, until Gionta comes back.



Maybe Vrana or Minard

I'd give Bergfors the chance to play his 1st NHL game instead of Vrana and Minard. Bergfors was are best player last year in the minors and seems to be our top prospect, so why would you want to bring up anybody else then him??? Giving him a taste of NHL hockey might light up a fire under his ass and give him the motivation he needs for next years training camp (wanting to be in the NHL is a source of motivation by itself... but still) and who knows, he and Clarkson might be in our starting lineup next september :dunno:.

what are the rules regarding young players like Bergfors and call-ups? aren't there technicalities over the number of call-ups a player has before he is required to clear waivers? this might be an issue with calling up a kid like Bergfors for 1 or 2 games.

"develops good chemistry with anybody he plays with?"

I'll admit I'm not a huge Rasmussen fan at all...in fact I don't like him much at all....but c'mon...what chemistry has there been lately?? Rasmussen has been playing on a scoring line with Gomez and either Rupp/Clarkson for what I've seen and there hasn't been much chemistry at all...espeically between Gomez/Rasmussen.

I agree that having Rasmussen as a checking/4th line guy is suitable for him but asking him to be on a scoring line is way too much right now....I'd much rather see either Minard or Bergfors called up and try and fill that role on Gomez's line....

I agree with you. He is a suitable temporary solution for the top line. But he is more of a 4th line player. I am just saying he has fit in well in all rolls. I really like him as a 3rd line RW.