Cardiff Devils Confirmed Signings & Departures 2022/23

moggy#9

Well-Known Member
I'm no pessimist, but do consider myself a realist. 4 of those signings were fantastic, I just have concerns about the 5th, along with a few others too on here by the looks of it. It does annoy me though when posters here complain about the Inferno, quite possibly the ones that slate it on Twitter too. We're all allowed different opinions, that’s the beauty of the forum. So lay off criticising people with different opinions to yourself or the Inferno itself.
The thing about the inferno is that people tend to back up their comments with reasons and examples. Many of the posts on Twitter, perhaps because of the format, offer very little in terms of discussion.

Many off the people on here have extensive knowledge of the game, as fans, coaches, players, refs and officials. As a result such opinions, even if they're in dissent to the mainstream, deserve due consideration, rather than to be dismissed in a tirade of groupthink.

If after considering the arguments people still don't agree, that's fine. But the debate is the point.
 

Kevlar68

Well-Known Member
At this point in time everyone is allowed their opinion. No one is right and no one is wrong, they're just opinions.
Just because some fans think a signing is the wrong move doesn't give the people with an opposite opinion the right to say the others are wrong or not allowed to say that, at the end of the season yes you can if proved wrong either way but not at this point in time.
No one knows how a signing will pan out we could think a great signing and end up shite and vica versa. Perfect example, Register, after the own goal in CHL some were in meltdown about him but look how he turned out.
If Bowns is in tandem with another nettie and both get equal share of games then i'd be ok with that but if Bowns is being used like in the good old days playing every game then i'm worried.

So i will now give you my thoughts on both sides for and against Bowns:-
For:- He won games on his own for us, he's not the No.1 GB nettie for nothing, he knows the Devils ethos, he knows what the fans expect, on his day when with us no one could touch him.
Against:- He had a very bad injury so mobility will not be the same as when with us, will the hunger be there as no real challenge as he's won everything with us, is he here for the right reasons, he's not at the level of Carruth, his last season with us was his worst in a Devils jersey.

So there i've been honest and given 5 examples of for and against, for me the against weigh heavier in my mind than the for.
That's my reasoning on the matter.
 
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Diablo3

Well-Known Member
At this point in time everyone is allowed their opinion. No one is right and no one is wrong.
Just because some fans think a signing is the wrong move doesn't give the people with an opposite opinion the right to say the others are wrong, at the end of the season yes you can if proved wrong either way but not at this point in time.
No one knows how a signing will pan out we could think a great signing and end up shite and vica versa.
If Bowns is in tandem with another nettie and both get equal share of games then i'd be ok with that but if Bowns is being used like in the good old days playing every game then i'm worried.

So i will now give you my thoughts on both sides for and against Bowns:-
For:- He won games on his own for us, he's not the No.1 GB nettie for nothing, he knows the Devils ethos, he knows what the fans expect, on his day when with us no one could touch him.
Against:- He had a very bad injury so mobility will not be the same as when with us, will the hunger be there as no real challenge as he's won everything with us, is he here for the right reasons, he's not at the level of Carruth, his last season with us was his worst in a Devils jersey.

So there i've been honest and given 5 examples of for and against, for me the against weigh heavier in my mind than the for.
That's my reasoning on the matter.
I don't think his head was in the right place on his last season for us. He had been expecting to move to a club in Europe but that all fell through and I think that weighed on him so we didn't see the best.
 

Kevlar68

Well-Known Member
So there is another reason you can add, will his head be in the right place knowing he didn't make the grade in Europe which is where he wanted to be. that's why he left the Devils after all. No one knows until the season starts.
 

Wannabe2

Well-Known Member
Spot on at the end of the day the proof of the pudding will be in the eating, obviously we all want Bownsy to be successful, the club has seen it as a good move and that’s good enough for me. The one other point is that performances in sport depend big time on confidence, maybe Ben,s will be higher in this league than having to prove himself in a higher league, and also feeling at home can be a factor. Anyway the team seems to be coming together pretty neat at the moment, and it I think will still get getter, would love to see us sign a up to date version of Ian McIntyre, or Scott Allison to add that extra edge. Getting pretty excited now Todd appeared very upbeat last night, so we live in hope, just a pity we have to wait months before it all starts again, being in the rink last night having a beer, and talking hockey with friends was what it’s all about. Got a sneaky feeling come season time, we will be just fine. Happy Hockey Days.
 

Rempel16

Well-Known Member
So there is another reason you can add, will his head be in the right place knowing he didn't make the grade in Europe which is where he wanted to be. that's why he left the Devils after all. No one knows until the season starts.
Whilst I agree to an extent, you could also look at it from the other perspective...

He had a couple of years in Europe, enjoyed the experience, and now wants to finish his career in a location that's comfortable.... No burning desires in his head about 'what ifs', he's been there and got the t-shirt so to speak. His hunger could now be aimed at turning this franchise into a dynasty for his era.... Unfinished business.

Apologies for the Americanism!
 

august04 2.0

Well-Known Member
Hopefully the European thing is done. He gave it a go, didn’t quite work out as he would have hoped I’m sure and now it’s time to try and regain his best form in a league which he knows well. And let’s not forget, Bowns has always been a popular member of the team inside the dressing room, which may be just what was needed after the rumoured dramas last year. That works in his favour as the club know exactly what they are getting. As I’ve said before, I’m OK with a Bowns/Kozun partnership but not if Bowns dominates ice time and you never know, he may benefit from a reduced workload too at this stage in his career.
 

Rempel16

Well-Known Member
Hopefully the European thing is done. He gave it a go, didn’t quite work out as he would have hoped I’m sure and now it’s time to try and regain his best form in a league which he knows well. And let’s not forget, Bowns has always been a popular member of the team inside the dressing room, which may be just what was needed after the rumoured dramas last year. That works in his favour as the club know exactly what they are getting. As I’ve said before, I’m OK with a Bowns/Kozun partnership but not if Bowns dominates ice time and you never know, he may benefit from a reduced workload too at this stage in his career.
Would it need to be 50/50 for you, or would you be happy if Bowns takes 45 games and Kozun 25?

I personally can't see Bowns starting less than 45-50 games.
 

august04 2.0

Well-Known Member
Would it need to be 50/50 for you, or would you be happy if Bowns takes 45 games and Kozun 25?

I personally can't see Bowns starting less than 45-50 games.
I suppose that depends on the form of both netminders. That's the beauty of having two that are capable of starting, hopefully it drives both of them on. And if one is struggling, get them out of the game - something Lord was always reluctant to do with Bowns, in his last season in particular, when his form definitely dropped and he was letting in soft goals every game. DuPont is a young ambitious coach - I think he'll try to be fair with both netties in the first half of the season but when push comes to shove, he'll go with with whoever he thinks can win us the most games. I don’t think sentiment will come into that decision (and he has no history with Bowns anyway).
 

Finny

Well-Known Member
Very surprised at some of the apathy towards Bowns returning on here. I guessed we’d get comments from the two trolls on here pretending to be Devils fans (and I wasn’t disappointed) but thought overall most posts would be positive.

Maybe my memory has got fuzzy but I don’t remember him being poor in his last season with us? If he was as poor as some seem to be suggesting we wouldn’t have been top of the league with games in hand and about to win his 3rd league trophy.

When Bowns joined Nottingham as coach in April and was rumoured to be signing for them I was gutted, and a little bit annoyed. If Bowns wanted to come back to the UK it should have been with us.
So now that he’s confirmed as returning to us I’m absolutely delighted.

Will he be the best netminder in the league next season? Possibly not. But on any given night he has the potential to be the best netminder in the league. And will win us more games than he loses.

But we also need to look at the bigger picture here. The bench size is returning to 20 but the import limit is staying at 14. So even if we re-sign all our current brits we still needed one more. There aren’t many premium brits but Bowns is definitely one of them.

Bowns + import forward should be better overall than Import NM + brit forward.

Bowns. Richardson. Waller. Duggan.
That‘s a great start to our Brit core. If we re-sign Batch and Davies I can’t see any team having a better Brit pack than us.
 

kingmo19.1

Well-Known Member
Very surprised at some of the apathy towards Bowns returning on here. I guessed we’d get comments from the two trolls on here pretending to be Devils fans (and I wasn’t disappointed) but thought overall most posts would be positive.

Maybe my memory has got fuzzy but I don’t remember him being poor in his last season with us? If he was as poor as some seem to be suggesting we wouldn’t have been top of the league with games in hand and about to win his 3rd league trophy.

When Bowns joined Nottingham as coach in April and was rumoured to be signing for them I was gutted, and a little bit annoyed. If Bowns wanted to come back to the UK it should have been with us.
So now that he’s confirmed as returning to us I’m absolutely delighted.

Will he be the best netminder in the league next season? Possibly not. But on any given night he has the potential to be the best netminder in the league. And will win us more games than he loses.

But we also need to look at the bigger picture here. The bench size is returning to 20 but the import limit is staying at 14. So even if we re-sign all our current brits we still needed one more. There aren’t many premium brits but Bowns is definitely one of them.

Bowns + import forward should be better overall than Import NM + brit forward.

Bowns. Richardson. Waller. Duggan.
That‘s a great start to our Brit core. If we re-sign Batch and Davies I can’t see any team having a better Brit pack than us.
A common sense post at last, thank you Finny.
 

Mazzoak

Well-Known Member
As one of the Trolls, if people want to continue being childish, just remember l was one of many defending Bowns on here when he was a Devil, so……..My comments at the time were critical of how many games Bowns was made to play and critical of those who should’ve known better, the coach & management. If Koz is back, the load should be better managed now we’ve got a new coach, hopefully allowing Franny & Dupont to run the team without inference, after all we regularly get informed of their skill set. Koz doesn’t deserve to be benched in the same way Murdy was. In fact I’d actually put Bowns on 2nd option and make him work for his spot, preseason should be the deciding games for both to prove their positions.
 

jenks33

Well-Known Member
I'm probably more intrigued to see what the plan is at the other end of the ice. Is something like this a possibility?

Big/physical left winger- Martin - Reid

Cox - Coughler - Sanford

Waller - Big/physical Centre - Crandall

Brandt - Davies - Duggan

I'm not sure how realistic it is to have Crandall on the 3rd line but i think there's a better balance with those lines if we want to play a heavier game than last season. I know a few people have suggested Martin on the third line but i can't see that happening personally. If we want to juggle the lines a bit i can only see Crandall or Reid on the 3rd line, with Crandall probably being the more realistic option.
 

moggy#9

Well-Known Member
Very surprised at some of the apathy towards Bowns returning on here. I guessed we’d get comments from the two trolls on here pretending to be Devils fans (and I wasn’t disappointed) but thought overall most posts would be positive.

Maybe my memory has got fuzzy but I don’t remember him being poor in his last season with us? If he was as poor as some seem to be suggesting we wouldn’t have been top of the league with games in hand and about to win his 3rd league trophy.

When Bowns joined Nottingham as coach in April and was rumoured to be signing for them I was gutted, and a little bit annoyed. If Bowns wanted to come back to the UK it should have been with us.
So now that he’s confirmed as returning to us I’m absolutely delighted.

Will he be the best netminder in the league next season? Possibly not. But on any given night he has the potential to be the best netminder in the league. And will win us more games than he loses.

But we also need to look at the bigger picture here. The bench size is returning to 20 but the import limit is staying at 14. So even if we re-sign all our current brits we still needed one more. There aren’t many premium brits but Bowns is definitely one of them.

Bowns + import forward should be better overall than Import NM + brit forward.

Bowns. Richardson. Waller. Duggan.
That‘s a great start to our Brit core. If we re-sign Batch and Davies I can’t see any team having a better Brit pack than us.
Out of curiosity, assuming mazzoak is your one troll, who is the other? I've seen a lot of well reasoned arguments on here of late - even from mazzoak. ;-)
 

MA18

Well-Known Member
Just seen it, some decent saves but he doesn’t half flop around in net (overcommitting) so to speak to try and make the simple saves seem like desperation saves.
Have to agree with that. The saves look great on a highlight reel. Almost like he’s a few inches out of position and has to flop or throw himself around to make the save.

For what it’s worth I’d prefer Carruth, I though he offered a lot more. Shame the organisation didn’t want him to stay. That being said I’ll obviously get behind Bowns and hope he plays as well as we know he can behind a better D than Mac had to play with for a long part of the season.
 
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