Patrik Elias, Damien Brunner and Jacob Josefson (TSN.ca)

New Jersey’s crowded forward corps got yet another addition with barely a week left before the season starts, as GM Lou Lamoriello officially signed free-agent Damien Brunner for two years at $2.5 million per season.  Brunner had been in camp for the last week on a PTO (professional tryout contract) but it didn’t take Lou or coach Pete DeBoer long to know Brunner would be an asset to the Devils.  During his rookie season in the NHL, Brunner tallied 12 goals and 14 assists in 44 regular season games for Detroit, and added four goals and three assists in fourteen playoff games.  However, Brunner surprisingly remained unsigned through the summer and came to camp looking for a job. A two-assist game last Thursday against the Isles all but sealed the deal, especially given the chemistry between he, Patrik Elias and roster hopeful Jacob Josefson.

Ironically, Josefson could be one of the main casualties of Brunner’s addition, as the Devils now have sixteen forwards under contract – fifteen on one-way deals. Without rehashing my post from a week and a half ago – which looked at the Devils’ forwards before the Brunner signing, odds are barring further injury the Devils’ final four roster spots (two starters) will be decided from a group of six players – centers Josefson, Andrei Loiktionov and Stephen Gionta along with wingers Rostislav Olesz, Krys Barch and Mattias Tedenby.  Olesz has had a good camp, is one of PDB’s guys and will probably get the final wing spot in the starting lineup with Barch a healthy scratch available for ‘pugilistic’ purposes in certain games. Tedenby’s currently hurt and it wouldn’t shock me at all if he started the season on IR considering Lou would rather not lose him on waivers and keep our depth at wing if (when?) one of our geriatrics up front gets hurt.

If someone like Ryan Carter or Danius Zubrus get moved to center because of our depth on the wing, it means only Josefson or Loiktionov will make the roster as a third/fourth-line center, with the other a healthy scratch or possibly traded. Baby Gio unfortunately seems to be an odd man out at this point, especially given his two-way deal which means the Devils would have to pay him less money if he cleared waivers and went back to Albany (where he did spend much of his professional career before being plucked from obscurity on the eve of the ’12 playoffs).

With only two preseason games left – at Philly tonight and here against the Flyers on Thursday, it’ll be interesting to see how the forward puzzle shakes out by next Monday at 3 PM (the deadline for final cuts).  Not to mention the unsolved riddle of whether anything changes on defense because of the kids’ performance in camp.